How middle managers' group‐focus emotions and social identities influence strategy implementation
通过对一家大型科技公司的三年实地研究，发现高层管理者偏好的情感中立任务方式会无意中激活中层管理者与组织相关的社会身份（如资历、语言），引发群体聚焦情绪，进而影响他们对战略举措的支持或暗中抵制。
Abstract The literature on top‐down strategy implementation has overlooked social‐emotional factors. The results of a three‐year field study of a large technology firm show how top executives who favor an affect neutral task approach can inadvertently activate middle managers' organization‐related social identities, such as length of time working for the company (newcomers versus veterans) and language spoken by senior executives (English versus French), generating group‐focus emotions. These emotions prompt middle managers—even those elevated to powerful positions by top executives—to support or covertly dismiss a particular strategic initiative even when their immediate personal interests are not directly under threat. This study contributes to the strategy implementation literature by linking senior executives' actions and middle managers' social identities, group‐focus emotions, and resulting behaviors to strategy implementation outcomes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.