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Conventional wisdom says stakeholders matter to managers as they develop strategy – but do they? If so, what type of stakeholders matter and what can managers do?

An in-depth exploration of five deep case studies where senior executives embarked upon strategy development. Analysis revealed five significant factors for managing stakeholders effectively.

These findings include: determining the nature of a stakeholder, separating those who care about the strategy and its implementation from those who do not but still could impact it; addressing stakeholders at an appropriate level; considering internal as well as external stakeholders and attending to the stakeholders’ responses to proposed strategies and the consequent dynamics created.

(1) The research was conducted with senior managers, and the authors detail the difficulties involved in doing so within the introduction and (2) The research was specific to the healthcare sector, but has relevance to all strategy makers.

This paper explores five factors and their implications and suggests techniques to address them that are well established and available to promote the effective strategic management of stakeholders.

Empirical research in strategy formation with elites is rare because it is difficult to gain access and trust. Empirical research in stakeholder studies is even rarer. By combining the two elements, the authors gather and interpret a unique dataset.

Part I of this issue begins with a paper by Colin Eden and Fran Ackermann on “Competences, distinctive competences, and core competences.” Eden and Ackermann draw on their extensive work with top management teams in workshops focused on identifying the competences of an organization. They describe an interactive process of engagement with managers through which an organization's competences are identified, some of which are further judged to be “distinctive competences” of the organization. Analysis of the interrelationships among a firm's identified competences then leads to the discovery of a pattern of competence interactions in which some competences appear to be at the “core” of the organizations distinctive competences. The paper presents an interesting perspective on how the capabilities and competences of a firm are often interrelated in ways that invite special attention and development by managers. Further, the paper explains the systems methodology that the authors have developed for use with managers to help identify and assess an organization's competences.

The last two years have seen a plethora of articles discussing the impact of microcomputers on our lives. This article discusses a strange and unique use for some of the facilities now available as a consequence of recent developments in computers. For the last few years the authors have been developing both a method and computer software which is intended to help people think about and make use of their ideas. This is in contrast to the more common use for computers, where they are seen as number‐crunchers able to deal at one extreme with the payroll and, at the other, complicated mathematical programming problems. It has been our intention to exploit the potential computers have for enabling groups of people to explore their ideas in a more careful and systematic way than has hitherto been possible.

The manager of a small group of professional valuers within a Local Authority expressed concern about the inconsistent, and often conflicting, ways in which his officers described situations. In particular he was worried about the varying emphases and content of reports he received from different officers where they had been addressing issues he believed to be similar. While it is clear there are a large number of possible explanations for the phenomenon, the manager concerned, and ourselves, became interested in the extent to which the officers might be attributing significantly different meanings to the situations they experienced. Our own interest was excited by the opportunity to experiment with a field application of grid techniques where the deliberate intention was to provide a vehicle for team development set within the context of the problem the manager has defined. Discussion with the eleven members of the department both reinforced our belief that it might be valuable to conduct an analysis of meanings and also provide an opportunity to negotiate our intervention and the prospect of team involvement after the elicitation and analysis of the grids.

Considers definitions of issues, stating that they derive from the schemata of beliefs, values and attitudes with which an individual construes events, providing subjective knowledge and experience. Looks at the problems which subjective knowledge presents for the management science consultant in providing a correct “model” for his/her client. Suggests that, if such a model where developed correctly, the individual who benefit in being able to learn more about their organizational world.

Recent UK government policies have had a number of effects on public sector organisations. Among the more obvious is the pressure — created from both direct and indirect policy changes — towards privatisation. Thus, for example, local authorities have been required to shift away from being service providers towards enabling others to provide. In the health service, many of the support services have been privatised and an “internal market” has been introduced, in which the purchasing authority is now formally separated from a variety of competing service providers.

In order to elaborate the concept of resources (a key component of the well-established resource-based theory of the firm) this paper concentrates on exploring and elaborating the associated concept of competences, in particular distinctive and core competences. This exploration includes an examination of the extant literature, alongside and in parallel with, an extensive body of action research undertaken over 15 years and with 44 top management teams engaged in strategy making. As such the concepts are scrutinized both in terms of their theoretical underpinnings as well as their impact on practice. The research reinforces the view that distinctiveness emerges most powerfully from the identification (or creation) of unique bundles or combinations of competences and that effective and meaningful core competences can be identified from understanding and refining the links between competences and organizational goals. The resultant conceptualization of the systemic competence/goals structure emerges from the interaction of theory and practice.

Many different techniques are available for use in developing managerial skills. These range from large, complex exercises which focus on organisational or group activities, to events based more upon individual behaviour. An example of this latter form of training is role play. Typically role play can involve an interaction between a “manager” and a “subordinate” acting out their roles according to pre‐arranged scripts (which may be based upon actual or fictitious managerial situations). After the role play the participants will usually discuss their experiences, aided by feedback from an observer. It is hoped that this process can lead to more permanent changes in the leader's attitudes and/or behaviour.

A crisis looms, problem rolls in on top of problem, “if I do this then this, then that, then … but what if?”. At this point we often cast around for outside help, if only there was someone to “bounce ideas off” and talk through the problem. There seems to be too much to think of, all at the same time. Yet in reaching for the phone to call a friend, advisor, operational researcher, systems analyst or whoever, have we overlooked someone?

The present account results from twelve months of the authors' involvement with a probation service undergoing change. The change was initiated by an external body to the service and was based upon an apparently plausible rationale. Nevertheless considerable difficulties arose in the implementation of the change and these have provided some specific insights into the functioning of the organisation, and the values, attitudes and beliefs of some of its key decision‐makers. The data have also formed the basis of an action research programme (which is currently underway) and have generated substantive material from which to draw conclusions concerning the salient factors affecting the change. We believe that these conclusions, which form the core of this article, have particular implications for the management of change in professional settings, such as research and development, schools and further education establishments. These settings, like a probation service, are characteristically client centred, where the professionals ‘… are trained on the outside, usually at the public expense, and a large number of rules are inculcated into them. They bring these into the organization and are expected to act upon them without further reference to their skills’. Furthermore we consider that the essence of our findings has important implications for any organisation where internal or external change agents are attempting to bring about change.