Intended or unintended strategy? The activities of middle managers in strategy implementation

Abstract

When top managers task middle managers with implementing strategies, those strategies are often executed in a deviated form, which leads to the creation of unintended strategies. Despite much research on middle managers and their role and behaviors in strategy implementation, there is still only a limited understanding of the implementation activities that result in intended and unintended strategies. Using a strategy-as-practice perspective and interviews with 40 middle managers about 122 strategy implementations, we investigate strategy implementation activities and develop a model of middle manager activities in strategy implementation. We find that seven of the ten activities differ in frequency between intended and unintended strategies. This study extends the strategy implementation literature by conceptualizing a critical link in how different strategy implementation outcomes come about. We also broaden the middle management perspective in strategy by extending the range of activities that explain middle managers’ engagement with strategy and differentiating them across two strategy implementation outcomes.