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The importance of aligning managerial characteristics to functional strategy in public sector organisations: An empirical study of Dubai government.
Sebaa, Ali A.
Sebaa, Ali A.
Publication Date
2011-05-19
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The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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Accepted for publication
Institution
University of Bradford
Department
School of Management
Awarded
2010
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Abstract
Managerial characteristics have an important influence on strategy
implementation. Previous studies have looked at the alignment of
managerial characteristics with strategic type and aspects of performance.
In all cases, the focus has been on corporate strategy and, predominantly,
in private sector organisations. This study combines these objectives and
investigates alignment between managerial characteristics, strategy and
perceived performance. It focuses on management at the functional level in
a public sector setting and demonstrates that classical upper-echelon theory
is also relevant when applied at the functional level of management.
The Miles and Snow (1978) typology is applied to the functional strategy for
Dubai government organisations, to investigate whether functional units
pursuing strategies are led by functional managers with dissimilar attributes,
and whether the alignment between managerial characteristics and strategy
is related to performance of the functional unit.
Based on the extant literature, a research model has been developed,
which yields two types of hypothesis. Data was collected by means of
interviews and surveys to obtain knowledge of strategy types, and
demographic and psychological characteristics for the functional managers.
Regression techniques have been used for data analysis rendering support
for two types of hypothesis. Consequently, this study supports the view that
Upper Echelon theory can also apply at the functional level, emphasising
the role of the functional managers, at the lower management levels of the
organisations, in strategy implementation.
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Type
Thesis
Qualification name
PhD