How to win the attention of top executives: The interaction of an issue’s characteristics and environmental threats

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how subsidiary managers gain attention from top executives at headquarters for their desired issue in order to initiate a bottom-up change. Specifically, it focuses on relationships among a change issue’s characteristics, environmental threats and top executives’ attention.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical test of hypotheses by a hierarchical regression approach has been applied to analyse the data collected through a survey of 81 headquarters-subsidiary dyads in China.

Findings

There are three main findings, including first, the headquarters’ attention is positively related to the organizational benefits of an issue; second, there exist inverted U-shaped curves between an issue’s legitimacy or novelty and the headquarters’ attention; and third, the headquarters’ attention to an issue is also moderated by environmental threats.

Originality/value

The present study has noted that the headquarters’ attention to the issue varies not only according to the issue’s distinctive characteristics but also to their perception of environmental threats. It contributes to the advancement of organizational change theory by focusing on the empirical examination of an issue-selling process which is a key component part in a bottom-up change.

Citation

Luo, B., Wang, Q., Lu, Y. and Liang, L. (2015), "How to win the attention of top executives: The interaction of an issue’s characteristics and environmental threats", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 970-992. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-01-2014-0002