IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v29y2011i6p491-503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond addiction: Hierarchy and other ways of getting strategy done

Author

Listed:
  • Cunha, Miguel Pina e
  • Rego, Arménio
  • Clegg, Stewart

Abstract

Hierarchy is habitually presented as the right organizational infrastructure through which to deploy and achieve strategy. We analyze the strategy process, specifically the strategy/execution debate, from the perspective of hierarchy, and contrast the hierarchical mode – where top management dominates by separating strategy/formulation and execution – with three alternative modes where the power circuits of strategy extend beyond the managerial elite and are shared by several strategic agents. These three possibilities are: (1) the porous hierarchical mode, in which the hierarchs/higher-ups transfer part of the power for shaping and informing the strategy to the base of the organization; (2) the distributed mode, in which the hierarchs have no direct influence but rather indirect moral authority over execution, and (3) the strategy as simple rules mode, in which strategy/execution is taken as a single iterative process where strategy evolves on the basis of a minimal structure that facilitates strategic interaction and prevents hierarchical control from stifling adaptation.

Suggested Citation

  • Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Rego, Arménio & Clegg, Stewart, 2011. "Beyond addiction: Hierarchy and other ways of getting strategy done," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 491-503.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:29:y:2011:i:6:p:491-503
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2011.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237311000405
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2011.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric L. Chen & Riitta Katila & Rory McDonald & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 2010. "Life in the fast lane: Origins of competitive interaction in new vs. established markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(13), pages 1527-1547, December.
    2. Deborah Dougherty, 1992. "Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 179-202, May.
    3. Raghuram G. Rajan & Julie Wulf, 2006. "The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 759-773, November.
    4. Leslie Gadman & Cary Cooper, 2009. "Open Source Leadership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-23680-6, October.
    5. Leslie Gadman & Cary Cooper, 2009. "Open Source Leadership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Open Source Leadership, chapter 0, pages 40-58, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1911. "The Principles of Scientific Management," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number taylor1911.
    7. Miguel Pina, e Cunha & Rego, Arménio, 2010. "Complexity, simplicity, simplexity," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 85-94, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luigi Mosca & Martina Gianecchini & Diego Campagnolo, 2021. "Organizational life cycle models: a design perspective," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 10(1), pages 3-18, March.
    2. Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Azizsafaei, Farzaneh & Keegan, Anne, 2021. "HRM operational models and practices to enable strategic agility in PBOs: Managing paradoxical tensions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 170-182.
    3. A. Georges L. Romme, 2019. "Climbing up and down the hierarchy of accountability: implications for organization design," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Accard, Philippe, 2015. "Complex hierarchy: The strategic advantages of a trade-off between hierarchical supervision and self-organizing," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 89-103.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jody Hoffer Gittell, 2001. "Supervisory Span, Relational Coordination and Flight Departure Performance: A Reassessment of Postbureaucracy Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 468-483, August.
    2. Nicholas Bloom & Benn Eifert & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2013. "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 1-51.
    3. Kelman, Steven, 2006. "Organization Design and Frontline Service Improvement in Government: The Case of Performance Targets in the United Kingdom," Working Paper Series rwp06-016, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Clement Bert-Erboul & Nicholas S. Vonortas, 2018. "Personal And Social Proximity: Shaping Leadership In A Free Software Project," HSE Working papers WP BRP 84/STI/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Laura B. Cardinal, 2001. "Technological Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Use of Organizational Control in Managing Research and Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 19-36, February.
    6. Wei, Yu & Nan, Haoxi & Wei, Guiwu, 2020. "The impact of employee welfare on innovation performance: Evidence from China's manufacturing corporations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    7. Saerom (Ronnie) Lee, 2022. "The myth of the flat start‐up: Reconsidering the organizational structure of start‐ups," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 58-92, January.
    8. Yue Maggie Zhou, 2013. "Designing for Complexity: Using Divisions and Hierarchy to Manage Complex Tasks," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 339-355, April.
    9. Anja Schöttner & Veikko Thiele, 2010. "Promotion Tournaments and Individual Performance Pay," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 699-731, September.
    10. Alina Mirela Teacu (Parincu), 2019. "Neuromanagement – the Impact of Neuroscience on the Organizational Performance," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 487-493.
    11. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2007. "Technology, Information, and the Decentralization of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1759-1799.
    12. Ashish Arora & Michelle Gittelman & Sarah Kaplan & John Lynch & Will Mitchell & Nicolaj Siggelkow & Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael Findley & Nathan M. Jensen & Stephan Meier & Daniel Nielson, 2016. "Field experiments in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 116-132, January.
    13. Giada Baldessarelli & Nathalie Lazaric & Michele Pezzoni, 2022. "Organizational routines: Evolution in the research landscape of two core communities," Post-Print halshs-03718851, HAL.
    14. Michel Anteby & Curtis K. Chan, 2018. "A Self-Fulfilling Cycle of Coercive Surveillance: Workers’ Invisibility Practices and Managerial Justification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 247-263, April.
    15. David Vallat, 2015. "Une alternative au dualisme État-Marché : l’économie collaborative, questions pratiques et épistémologiques," Working Papers halshs-01249308, HAL.
    16. Jeremy Atack & Robert A. Margo & Paul Rhode, 2020. "‘Mechanization Takes Command’: Inanimate Power and Labor Productivity in Late Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 27436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Bénédicte Gendron, 2004. "Why emotional capital matters in education and in labour? toward an Optimal exploitation of human capital and knowledge management," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques r04113, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    18. Anil K. Gupta & Paul E. Tesluk & M. Susan Taylor, 2007. "Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 885-897, December.
    19. Nicholas Bloom & Luis Garicano & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2014. "The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 2859-2885, December.
    20. Ethan Ilzetzki & Saverio Simonelli, 2017. "Measuring Productivity Dispersion: Lessons From Counting One-Hundred Million Ballots," CSEF Working Papers 483, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:29:y:2011:i:6:p:491-503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.