How Collective Emotions and Social Identities Influence Strategy Execution

Strategic Management Journal, Forthcoming

INSEAD Working Paper No. 2011/56/ST

53 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2010 Last revised: 3 May 2011

Date Written: May 2, 2011

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.

Keywords: Group-focus Emotion, Strategy Implementation, Middle Managers, Social Identity, Qualitative Research

Suggested Citation

Huy, Quy Nguyen, How Collective Emotions and Social Identities Influence Strategy Execution (May 2, 2011). Strategic Management Journal, Forthcoming, INSEAD Working Paper No. 2011/56/ST, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1716862 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1716862

Quy Nguyen Huy (Contact Author)

INSEAD ( email )

Boulevard de Constance
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
France

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