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The role of middle management in strategy execution at the Roads Authority (RA)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of strategy execution in an organisation cannot be downplayed because without it
the sustainability of the organisation is at stake. Merely having great strategies is not sufficient as
the implementation is the key to direct the activities of the organisation. Middle management plays
a central role in strategy execution and any disconnect between them and the top management is
bound to lead to organisational failure of effective strategy execution.
This research study was based on the role that middle management play in the execution of
strategy at the Roads Authority (RA). Semi-structured interviews were used to interview ten middle
managers of the organisation, who were randomly selected through purposive sampling.
The findings reveal that middle management is failing to play the requisite role of interpreting and
translating strategy into actions. The findings further indicate that there is a leadership disconnect
between them and their supervisors. They are also facing challenges of questionable strategy
alignment within the operations which is causing ineffective resource allocation.
In addition, the results indicate that the enabling tools such as the performance management,
business systems and allocation of resources are falling short of assisting middle managers in
strategy implementation.
Lastly, these findings can assist the case study organisation to understand the strategic
transformation process at middle management level and to review it for improving and to take
corrective actions.
The research study was an explorative one and used a limited sample, hence it will be necessary
to do further research to get more insights about the potential roles that middle management could
play in strategy formulation and the contributions they currently make towards it. The findings of
this study can also not be generalised as they are for use only by the case study organisation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/96212
Date12 1900
CreatorsNowases, F.
ContributorsUngerer, Marius, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Graduate School of Business
PublisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Languageen_ZA
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
RightsStellenbosch University

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