De alienerade : berättelser om mellancheferna och strategin
Nordell, Martin (2016-10-05)
Nordell, Martin
Åbo Akademis förlag - Åbo Akademi University Press
05.10.2016
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-765-833-1
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-765-833-1
Tiivistelmä
How do middle managers perceive the strategy of the organization? This I study from the viewpoint of alienation theory, something that previously has not been connected with strategy research. By doing so, I intend to broaden our understanding of strategic theory as well as of how middle managers see their own role in the organisation. My research question contains three larger parts, strategy, alienation theory and a mixed method that has been influenced by narratives. I formulated my research question as follows: How does middle managers perceive the official strategy of the organisation they work in and how do they see their own relationship towards it?
My empirical material contains both a qualitative and a quantitative part, and by combining these two I try to compensate for the weaknesses in either method by building on the strengths of the other method. This approach also gives me a broader and more diverse material to work with, which in the long run adds value to my study and in the end highlights many of the interesting findings that I make.
The results show that these middle managers feel motivated and engaged when it comes to the operative work that they do, which on the other hand is not the case with the strategy. Their relationship towards it seems to be mostly indifferent and the strategy is in some cases even regarded as irrelevant. The operative work is not related to the strategy, nor is there hardly any discussion about the implementation of it. Strategy is actually something that the managers in the very top of the organisation should deal with, and the middle managers even seems happy to keep it this way. But if the middle managers feel distanced from the strategy, the strategy cannot work as the tool that binds the organisation together, a task that is often assigned to the strategy. Other paradoxes that I see in the material is how the middle managers, regardless of that they are aware of the strategy, do not follow it in their work. They do not really care about it, but it can still be of importance – just not for them. Interesting is however how strong reactions that the strategy still awakes in the middle managers, especially with regards to the fact that they see it to be irrelevant.
As long as the strategy is regarded as distant, irrelevant, and far from the daily operations, regardless of why this is the case, it will remain as something odd that has little or no place in the daily lives of the middle managers. To better understand why the strategy is regarded as irrelevant and strange, is therefore a future question that rises from this study.
My purpose here was to show how middle managers may perceive the strategy and via alienation theory I show how the strategy in different ways becomes a kind of negative and something that the middle managers actively work against. Knowledge, awareness and clarity are of great importance, both for the organisations in the strategy work and for the individual middle manager, but without a foundation in the daily operations, the strategy will still remain distant and of little importance to the middle managers.
I don´t believe there to be one sole truth, but rather I see the truth to be a complex and multidimensional one. Therefore, I am not able to provide only one conclusion here, but rather a few different ones with regards to how middle managers see strategy and their own role in relation to it.
My contributions here are therefore widening of our perspective on strategy and also on the fact how middle managers see their own role with regards to the strategy of the organisation. By constantly being open to interpretation and new possible angels, and by showing these also to the reader, my aim is to provide a transparent and thorough process that is exposed also to alternative interpretations by the reader.
My empirical material contains both a qualitative and a quantitative part, and by combining these two I try to compensate for the weaknesses in either method by building on the strengths of the other method. This approach also gives me a broader and more diverse material to work with, which in the long run adds value to my study and in the end highlights many of the interesting findings that I make.
The results show that these middle managers feel motivated and engaged when it comes to the operative work that they do, which on the other hand is not the case with the strategy. Their relationship towards it seems to be mostly indifferent and the strategy is in some cases even regarded as irrelevant. The operative work is not related to the strategy, nor is there hardly any discussion about the implementation of it. Strategy is actually something that the managers in the very top of the organisation should deal with, and the middle managers even seems happy to keep it this way. But if the middle managers feel distanced from the strategy, the strategy cannot work as the tool that binds the organisation together, a task that is often assigned to the strategy. Other paradoxes that I see in the material is how the middle managers, regardless of that they are aware of the strategy, do not follow it in their work. They do not really care about it, but it can still be of importance – just not for them. Interesting is however how strong reactions that the strategy still awakes in the middle managers, especially with regards to the fact that they see it to be irrelevant.
As long as the strategy is regarded as distant, irrelevant, and far from the daily operations, regardless of why this is the case, it will remain as something odd that has little or no place in the daily lives of the middle managers. To better understand why the strategy is regarded as irrelevant and strange, is therefore a future question that rises from this study.
My purpose here was to show how middle managers may perceive the strategy and via alienation theory I show how the strategy in different ways becomes a kind of negative and something that the middle managers actively work against. Knowledge, awareness and clarity are of great importance, both for the organisations in the strategy work and for the individual middle manager, but without a foundation in the daily operations, the strategy will still remain distant and of little importance to the middle managers.
I don´t believe there to be one sole truth, but rather I see the truth to be a complex and multidimensional one. Therefore, I am not able to provide only one conclusion here, but rather a few different ones with regards to how middle managers see strategy and their own role in relation to it.
My contributions here are therefore widening of our perspective on strategy and also on the fact how middle managers see their own role with regards to the strategy of the organisation. By constantly being open to interpretation and new possible angels, and by showing these also to the reader, my aim is to provide a transparent and thorough process that is exposed also to alternative interpretations by the reader.
Kokoelmat
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