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Executive leadership plays a crucial role in initiating, shaping and directing strategic reorientations. But it must somehow mediate between forces of inertia and fundamental changes. This paper aims to address the unresolved paradox: how do executives address these conflicting demands?

This paper aims to interweave two streams of seminal research in organizational evolution and organizational culture to develop a typology of strategic reorientations. The four types of strategic reorientations are illustrated with the help of published cases and biographies of CEOs, mostly of high visibility international companies such as Heineken, Burger King and Starbucks.

Combinations of high and low levels of executive team consensus on its external adaptation tasks and on its internal integration tasks provoke four different types of strategic reorientations: chaotic, negotiated, muted and promising.

Until appropriate methods of empirical research can be found to test this framework, one has to rely on some anecdotal support as preliminary and cursory evidence. This study can inform a wide body of research which incorrectly suggested that consensus among executives during strategic reorientation has a unidirectional, positive impact on organizational performance. Directions to explore how top executives may develop ambidextrous leadership are suggested.

Seeking high growth, executive teams must have a good mix of managerial and entrepreneurial cognitions. Therefore, executives having dissimilar skills and backgrounds should be inducted in the team periodically, instead of hiring hurriedly at the eleventh hour. Otherwise, the new executives may contribute too high or too low levels of consensus of each type needed for optimal strategic reorientation.

The paper has not attempted this aspect.

This paper contributes a novel framework that combines two streams of seminal research, which, each by itself, would not sufficiently address the unresolved executive paradox.

In this study, the authors explore how sensing and seizing of market opportunities, asset reconfiguration and top management team (TMT) consensus on these elements jointly relate to a firm's international expansion. By doing this, the authors contribute to the existing literature by addressing dynamic managerial capabilities at the TMT level instead of considering them as individual executives' traits. The authors use the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method to analyze our data from 261 TMT executives in 63 firms. The findings indicate that sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities are highly relevant for internationalization but in different configurations for specific stages and elements of international business. Presence of sensing as a part of configurations is observable, especially in connection to a firm having foreign customers and explicit internationalization strategies, while configurations where seizing and reconfiguration emerge are connected to firms showing continuity in the international markets. The authors’ results also indicate that a lack of TMT consensus in connection to dynamic managerial capabilities is a driving force that allows the firm not to stagnate with regards to internationalization. Yet, lack of TMT consensus combined with low reconfiguration capabilities seems to generate negative results, which suggests that different views are not helpful if the firm is incapable of changing its approaches.

This study uses data gathered with a questionnaire where the executives select either “yes” or “no” in response to statements describing the firm situation with regard different managerial aspects and progress of international growth. The authors analyze these data from 261 TMT executives from 63 firms using the QCA method.

The findings indicate that sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities are highly relevant for internationalization but to different extents for specific elements of international business; generally, while sensing is needed, in particular, for having foreign customers and internationalization strategies in the first place, seizing and reconfiguration became relevant for continuity in the international markets. Consensus or rather lack of it on these elements also plays a role. It seems that some disagreement is a driving force that allows the firm not to stagnate with regards to internationalization. However, TMT disagreement combined with low reconfiguration capabilities seems to generate negative results, which suggests that different views are not helpful if the firm is incapable of changing its approaches.

The findings contribute to existing knowledge by exploring how managerial capabilities influence firm-level dynamic capabilities from the point of view of the TMT. The authors also add to existing research that has often focused on the relationships between TMT executives' demographic traits and TMT consensus and, further, the (subsequent) firm performance by looking at different configuration rather than linear linkages. Together, these notions further mean that the authors change the point of view on diversity. The authors consider the consensus on existing managerial dynamic capabilities rather than evaluate the functional diversity or the TMT executives' agreement on strategic moves.

All capabilities are important. TMT does not need to agree on everything, as long as they acknowledge where their problem areas are, and they can capture at least some of the relevant trends and opportunities. In fact, having some lack of consensus seems to be a driving force that allows capabilities to be questioned and potentially keeps (false) under-appreciation of existing capabilities from becoming a barrier to international expansion.

Unlike previous studies that have focused on the relationship between the TMT executives' demographic characteristics and firm performance or the relationship of the demographics and TMT strategic consensus at a general level – or studies that have explained international performance with TMT consensus (or with dynamic managerial capabilities), this study brings forth how the dynamic managerial capabilities and the TMT executives' strategic consensus with regard to these capabilities influence the firm's international expansion. Here, the authors consider internationalization widely, looking at whether the firm has foreign customers or international expansion strategy in place, and whether there this activity is sustained and continuous (with repeated trading and long-term international contracts, in particular). To our knowledge, there is no research on TMT strategic consensus that explains how the unanimity among executives on dynamic managerial capabilities connects to the firm's international expansion.

This monograph seeks to summarise the key influences of a role‐based perspective on leadership when making decisions as to how organisational resources can best be deployed.

Application of new frameworks provides insight into the leadership roles executives can adopt when part of formal, informal and temporary groups within the organisation's senior management team and those parts of the organisation for which they are responsible. The methodology adopted is qualitative, focusing on application of previously developed frameworks.

Adoption of an appropriate leadership role, and the timely switch from one role to another as circumstances change, are found to facilitate improvement in the ability of executives to mobilise organisational resources, and in so doing effectively address those challenges with which the organisation is faced.

A one‐organisation intensive case study of a multinational engineering company engaged in the design, development and manufacture of rotating turbomachinery provides the platform for the research. The research intent is to validate two frameworks in a different organisation of a similar demographic profile to those in which the frameworks were developed. The frameworks will require validating in organisations of different demographic profiles.

The concepts advanced, and implications discussed, provide an insight into the role‐based nature of leadership. The practical steps individual executives can take to develop their ability to adopt different leadership roles are highlighted.

This monograph is an investigation into, and study of the contribution of theory that provides insight into, the process by which executives effectively mobilise organisational resources. This differs from the original contributions to theory, which focused on methodology, data gathering and validation in contrast with the current study that is focused on practical application.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

This study attempts to move beyond the “congruence assumption” surrounding top management team (TMT) demography by exploring the intervening processes that link TMT diversity and organizational performance.

Using Fiol's concept of unified diversity and employing an information processing perspective of strategic decision‐making, this article proposes a model that incorporates both moderating and mediating influences; and then tests the hypotheses using data from specific strategic decisions faced by 85 top‐level decision‐making teams within the health care industry.

Evidence was found to support the expectation that goal consensus moderates the relationship between informational diversity and decision quality within the management teams. In addition, team member collaboration was found to partially mediate this effect. Research limitations/implications – The retrospective nature of the data collection captured the essence of the decision‐making process over time, but future research using longitudinal designs that include different types of industries is needed to confirm the validity of the findings.

The practical implications of this study point towards a need for managers to set in motion both divergent and convergent thinking during the strategic decision‐making process. The findings indicate that if managers want to reap the benefits of teams with members from different functional and educational backgrounds, they must instigate some aspect of shared framing among team members, such as consensus on broad organizational goals.

This research identified relevant contingency and mediating variables that help to explain the equivocal results of previous studies attempting to link top management team demography to organizational performance.

The aim of this research is two‐fold: to examine the effects of certain characteristics of top management teams (TMTs) on innovative performance in their companies; and to determine if this influence is direct or if it is influenced by other factors, such as the existence of strategic consensus in the team.

The research is developed using Upper Echelon Theory. This study was conducted with a sample of 100 companies from innovative sectors. Different regression analysis were undertaken in order to test the established hypotheses.

Three main conclusions can be drawn from this research. First, it cannot be stated that all types of diversity related to TMT activity or work have a positive effect on innovation in companies. In this way, diversity in TMT tenure appears to have a negative influence. Second, the incidence of diversity on innovation cannot be direct in all cases. Therefore, functional diversity has a positive effect on innovation, but always when there is a context of strategic consensus in the management team. Finally, TMT educational level exerts a positive effect on organizational innovation degree, independently on processes, which may occur within the team.

The paper has tried to improve and clarify the contributions about the direct relationship model proposed by Upper Echelon Theory between TMT demographic characteristics and innovation. The results have confirmed, in support of the critics of the theory that it is necessary to introduce and analyze, along with demographic variables, other factors and processes which affect TMT decision making.

A striking feature of Jaques' work is his “no nonsense” attitude to the “manager‐subordinate” relationship. His blunt account of the origins of this relationship seems at first sight to place him in the legalistic “principles of management” camp rather than in the ranks of the subtler “people centred” schools. We shall see before long how misleading such first impressions can be, for Jaques is not making simplistic assumptions about the human psyche. But he certainly sees no point in agonising over the mechanism of association which brings organisations and work‐groups into being when the facts of life are perfectly straightforward and there is no need to be squeamish about them.

Decision-making in human resources management is done at both the micro and macro level of organizations. Unfortunately, the decisions at each level are often executed without consideration of the other, and current theory reflects this issue. In response to a call for integration of micro- and macro-level processes by Huselid and Becker (2011), we review the extant literature on strategic human resources and high-performance work systems to provide recommendations for both research and practice. We aimed to contribute to the literature by proposing the incorporation of the situation awareness literature into the high-performance work systems framework to encourage the alignment of human resources efforts. In addition, we provide practical recommendations for integrating situation awareness and strategic decision-making. We discuss a process for the employment of situation awareness in organizations that might not only streamline human resources management but also result in more effective decisions. Additional considerations include implications for teams, boundary conditions (e.g., individual differences), and measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and tests a model that plant managers can use to develop cross-functional strategic consensus between purchasing, production, and logistics. The mechanisms studied are grounded in Organizational Information Processing Theory.

The model is tested using a cross-sectional survey of 120 manufacturing facilities. Path Analysis is used to determine the strength of the relationships and the model fit.

The mechanisms studied have a positive effect on the level of cross-functional strategic consensus. Some mechanisms have an effect on consensus on goals, while others have an effect on consensus on priorities. The results suggest that a plant manager must implement these mechanisms in combination to achieve the best result.

The survey respondents are all from US manufacturing facilities. Although reasonably representative of the US population of manufacturing firms, results of a similar study in other countries would further refine the knowledge concerning the effects of the mechanisms on developing strategic consensus at the operating level.

The results of this paper provide plant managers with guidance regarding the mechanisms that can enhance cross-functional strategic consensus. In a hypercompetitive and dynamic environment, these mechanisms can help the Plant Manager create a streamlined and efficient operation.

This paper presents practitioners with mechanisms that can promote consensus between key supply chain departments. The results highlight the need to implement combinations of mechanisms in order to address both dimensions of strategic consensus. For academics, it provides an empirical test of antecedents to strategic consensus at the operational level.

Reports a review of the Irish economic and political scene as background to a survey of best practice in Irish top management. Addresses issues of the competences required to induce added value performance from total organization. Four long‐term consultancy assignments in different sectors led to the drafting of a questionnaire distributed by the Irish Management Institute; 96 companies took part. Key competences emerged as: vision; team building; practising appropriate personal skills; communication; and generating a success‐oriented culture. Recommendations are given for top level management development.