The Middle Managerial Process of Strategically Aligning Work-floor Employees: An Exploratory Study

We know relatively little about how a formulated strategy is translated into results via employee strategic alignment. Middle managers are often noted as crucial actors in aligning employees to strategic goals. This paper examines the process that takes place at the middle managerial level vis-à-vis their work-floor employees, to ensure that their behaviours are in line with strategy. We used a mixed-method approach of 20 interviews with middle managers and six observations of their staff meetings. The resulting process model provides insight in the complexity of strategic alignment of how middle managers bring their work-floor employees from strategic awareness to showing seven categories of strategically aligned behaviours. Our primary contribution is that we demonstrate how the strategic alignment process works at the lowest level of the organisation. A better understanding of such micro-practices enables practitioners to effectively influence this process and strategically aligned behaviours through training and development.