Keywords
Strategic Renewal
Intraorganizational Ecology
Lean
Longitudinal Study
How to Cite
Abstract
Purpose – Strategic renewal (SR) is a process involving beliefs, actions, and learning that helps organizations adjust their strategy in response to environmental changes. This study explores how middle managers (MMs) influence SR through their roles in strategy implementation.
Theoretical framework – Using intraorganizational ecology theory, this study examines MMs’ contributions through the processes of variation, selection, and retention. MMs were involved in planning and executing cycles, using lean practices, and engaging in the ongoing development of strategic initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted at a Brazilian manufacturing firm over ten years (2012–2022), including 125 semi-structured interviews with MMs involved in strategic workshops and lean-based practices. The study examines SR across four phases: professionalization, recognition, depression, and resumption.
Findings – MMs are key to both executing existing strategies and driving SR. They mediate between top-down directives and emergent strategic needs, helping align initiatives with formal structures. MMs contribute to SR through mechanisms such as reducing resistance, promoting integration, fostering cognitive development, and supporting organizational learning and adaptation.
Practical and social implications of the research – The proficiency of MMs in strategic roles enhances SR. The study highlights the importance of MMs in enabling strategic flexibility and offers insights into leveraging middle management for sustainable transformation.
Originality/value – This research bridges the gap between strategy implementation and renewal by illustrating how MMs, as enactors and originators of strategic change, influence SR through lean, practice-based interactions.
References
Burgelman, R. A. (1983a). A model of the interaction of strategic behavior, corporate context, and the concept of strategy. Academy of Management Review, 8(1), 61–70.
Burgelman, R. A. (1983b). A process model of internal corporate venturing in the diversified major firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(2), 223–244.
Burgelman, R. A. (1991). Intraorganizational Ecology of Strategy Making and Organizational Adaptation: Theory and Field Research. Organization Science, 2(3), 239–262.
Christie, A., & Tippmann, E. (2024). Intended or unintended strategy? The activities of middle managers in strategy implementation. Long Range Planning, 57(1), 102410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2023.102410
Crossan, M. M., Lane, H. W., & White, R. E. (1999). An Organizational Learning Framework: From Intuition to Institution. The Academy of Manag. Review, 24(3), 522.
Floyd, S. W., & Lane, P. J. (2000). Strategizing throughout the organization: Managing role conflict in strategic renewal. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 154-177.
Floyd, S. W., & Wooldridge, B. (1992). Managing strategic consensus: The foundation of effective implementation. Academy of Management Perspectives, 6(4): 27–39.
Fonseca, R. C. Z., Fernandes, B. H. R., & Vaz, S. L. (2025, Jan./Apr.). The strategic roles of middle management in contemporary organizations: A systematic review of the literature. Iberoamerican Journal of Strategic Management (IJSM), 24(1), 1-44, e24872. https://doi.org/10.5585/2025.24872
Gioia, D.A., Corley, K.G. and Hamilton, A.L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 15-31.
Hautz, J. (2017). Opening up the strategy process – a network perspective. Manag. Decision, 55(9), 1956-1983.
Huy, Q. N. (2002). Emotional balancing of organizational continuity and radical change: The contribution of middle managers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1), 31–69.
Huy QN. 2011. How middle managers’ group-focus emotions and social identities influence strategy implementation. Strategic Management Journal 32(13): 1387–1410.
Johnson, G., Whittington, R., & Scholes, K. (2011). Exploring strategy: Text& cases (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times: Prentice Hall.
Kahn, W.A., (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of management journal, Vol. 33, No.4, pp.692- 724.
Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management review, 24(4), 691-710.
Miles, R. E. and C. C. Snow. Organizational Strategy, Structuire, and Process. McGraw Hill, New York, 1978.
Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. (1985). Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6, 257–272.
Mirabeau, L., & Maguire, S. (2014). From autonomous strategic behavior to emergent strategy. Strategic Management Journal, 35(8), 1202-1229.
Monteiro, E. O., Vaz, S. L., & Silva, A. C. (2025). Realização estratégica em organizações pluralistas: Papéis de alta administração e média gerência. Revista Ciências Administrativas, 31. https://doi.org/10.5020/2318-0722.2025.31.e14805
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5: 14-37.
Noda, T., & Bower, J. L. 1996. Strategy making as iterated processes of resource allocation. Strategic Management Journal, 17(special issue): 159-192.
Novais, A. S., Vaz, S. L., & de Almeida Cruz, M. (2025). Discursos e sensemaking em contextos de mudança organizacional: estudo de caso em uma empresa do setor de mineração. Revista Orbis Latina-ISSN: 2237-6976, 15(1), 294-314. http://10.5281/zenodo.14775372
Pedersen, C. L., Ritter, T., and Andersen, T. J. (2024). A Project-based Perspective on Strategic Renewal. Strategic Management Review: Vol. 5: No. 3, pp 241-271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/111.00000069
Roos, J. and Nilsson, V. O. (2020). Driving Organizational Readiness for Change through Strategic Workshops. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 7(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.71.20-001
Rouleau L., Balogun J., & Floyd S.W. (2015). Strategy-as-practice research on middle managers’ strategy work. In: Golsorkhi D, Rouleau L, Seidl D, et al. (eds) Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 598–615.
Salvato C. (2003) “The role of Micro-Strategies in the Engineering of Firm Evolution”, Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1, 83-108.
Schmitt, A., Raisch, S., & Volberda, H.W. (2018). Strategic Renewal: Past Research, Theoretical Tensions and Future Challenges. POL: Other International Strategy & Policy (Topic).
Shook, J. (2008). Gerenciamento para o aprendizado: usando o processo de gestão A3 para resolver problemas, promover alinhamento, orientar e liderar. Lean Institute Brasil, São Paulo, 2008.
Sosa, M.E. (2011), “Where do creative interactions come from? The role of tie content and social networks”, Organization Science, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 1-21.
Tarakci, M., Ateş, N. Y., Floyd, S. W., Ahn, Y., & Wooldridge, B. (2018). Performance feedback and middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior: The roles of social comparisons and organizational identification. Strat. Manag. Journal, 39(4), 1139–1162.
Tarakci, M., Heyden, M. L. M., Rouleau, L., Raes, A., & Floyd, S. W. (2023). Heroes or Villains? Recasting Middle Management Roles, Processes, and Behaviours. Journal of Management Studies, 60(7), 1663–1683. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12989
Van de Ven, A. H. (1992). Suggestions for Studying Strategy Process: A Research Note. Strategic Management Journal, 13, 169–191. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2486359
Van Rensburg, M. J., Davis, A., & Venter, P. (2014). Making strategy work: The role of the middle manager. Journal of Management and Organization, 20(2), 165–186.
Vaz, S. L., Goussevskaia, A., Felix, B., & Nelson, R. E. (2025). Identity regulation in post-acquisition: a double-edged sword. International Journal of Organizational Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2025-5446
Volberda, H.W., Baden-Fuller, C., Van Den Bosch, F.A.J., 2001a. Mastering strategic renewal: mobilising renewal journeys in multi-unit firms. Long Range Planning, 34, 159e178.
Weiser, A. K., Jarzabkowski, P. and Laamanen, T. (2020). Completing the adaptive turn: An integrative view of strategy implementation’. Academy of Management Annals, 14(2), 969–1031.
Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T. (2003) Lean Thinking. Free Press, New York.
Wooldridge, B., Schmid, T., & Floyd, S. W. (2008). The middle management perspective on strategy process: Contributions, synthesis, and future research. In Journal of Management (Vol. 34, Issue 6, pp. 1190–1221).
If a paper is approved for publication, its copyright has to be transferred by the author(s) to the Review of Business Management – RBGN.
Accordingly, authors are REQUIRED to send RBGN a duly completed and signed Copyright Transfer Form. Please refer to the following template: [Copyright Transfer]
The conditions set out by the Copyright Transfer Form state that the Review of Business Management – RBGN owns, free of charge and permanently, the copyright of the papers it publishes. Although the authors are required to sign the Copyright Transfer Form, RBGN allows authors to hold and use their own copyright without restrictions.
The texts published by RBGN are the sole responsibility of their authors.
The review has adopted the CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 allowing redistribution and reuse of papers on condition that the authorship is properly credited.