The Nature of Managerial Commitment to Strategic Change

Mutual trust is very important in successfully implementing any change.

Change is in the nature of any business environment. The free market makes it necessary that companies constantly adjust to new circumstances and formulate new strategies to overcome new obstacles. The nature of managerial commitment to strategic change is very important, as it will determine how likely it is that a business will be able to continue to implement new policies. Leadership starts from the top, and if a company's managers are not behind a change it is unlikely to win the support necessary for it to succeed from the rest of the organization.

Middle Management

Most companies have various layers of management, with executives at the top and entry level employees somewhere near the bottom. Middle managers play a key role in the implementation of strategic change, as it is their job to communicate the reasons for any changes and to help make sense of a new work environment for the employees under their command. If a business wants to succeed it must help its middle managers perform their task by providing them with good explanations and a coherent story-line explaining new policies. If managers are able to be consistent in their explanations and commit to one story it will make their task much simpler.

Trust

For a company to be successful at implementing new policies, its managers must first have faith in the company itself. An atmosphere of trust will make managers more likely to believe that any change will be successful. Companies can improve their level of trust by establishing effective communication channels and by implementing a strong code of ethics. A company that has been successful in the past will also be more likely to have strong levels of trust as employees and managers will look to that past success as evidence for the future.

Desperation

Often the more dramatic forms of organizational change occur out of desperation after a company has been failing for a very long time. Managers will be more likely to commit to strategic change in this kind of environment as they'll see it as the only solution to repeated failure. The difficulty of getting commitment for dramatic change in more normal times is why it often takes a crisis for a company to radically change its course.

Leadership

The most successful business leaders are often those who have shown an ability to get their employees to commit to strategic change. Managers will look to the head of their business to get a read on where they're headed. If the person in the leadership of a company is able to show strong command and inspire trust, it will be more likely that managers will be committed to any change leadership proposes. This human factor is often overlooked in the planning of a business.

References

• "Academy of Management Journal"; Organizational Change and Managerial Sensemaking; Loote Luscher and Marianne Lewis; 2008
• "Telegraph"; Entrepreneurs Rely on "Gut Instinct"; James Hurley; May 2011
• "Guardian"; Firms of the Future- Business Inspired By Nature; Giles Hutchins; August 2011
• CNN Money: What Most Admired Firms Don't Have In Common; Mina Kimes; March 6, 2009
• Motley Fool: Blockbuster Is Read to Change; Anders Bylund; July 2007
• CNN Money: Ellen Kullman's Quest to Make DuPont Great Again; Carol Loomis; April 15, 2010
• "Strategic Management Journal"; Mergers and Acquisitions and Managerial Commitment to Innovation in M-Form Firms; Michael Hitt, et al.; 1990
• "MIS Quarterly"; Business Process Change- A Study of Methodologies, Techniques, and Tools; William Kettinger, et al.; March 1997
• "Industrial Marketing Management"; The Impact of Management Commitment Alignment on Salespersons' Adoption of Sales Force Automation Technologies; Robert Cascio, et al.; July 2009