International Behavioural Perspectives on How Boards of Directors and Top Management Teams Interact and Plan Strategically for Uncertain Futures

关于董事会和高层管理团队如何互动并针对不确定的未来进行战略规划的国际行为视角

• 批准号: ES/K00235X/1
• 负责人: Neil Pyper
• 金额: $ 9.65万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK00235X%2F1
• 关键词: International; Behavioural; Perspectives; How; Boards

This project would involve an international comparative study of the role of boards of directors and top management teams in strategic decision making processes. The research would draw on behavioural theoretical perspectives to examine how formal and informal strategy formulation and decision-making routines and processes function and have been developed. It would pay particular attention to how corporate leaders view and analyse risk and uncertainty in strategic planning. The study would take a methodological approach grounded in ethnography. It would draw on a range of qualitative tools. These would include in-depth fieldwork with a number of organisations. This would involve observing meetings and other informal interactions between non-executive and executive directors and senior managers, as well as shadowing a number of them. These techniques would be combined with semi-structured and structured interviews across a larger number of organisations to facilitate comparative perspectives. The aim of employing such an approach would be to gain insight into the 'inner' working of organisations, particularly the dynamics of relationships between executive and non-executive directors and top management teams, and how these affect the political bargaining and knowledge creation processes that accompany strategic planning.The research would make a distinctive contribution in a number of areas. It would aim to enhance understanding of how corporate decision makers think about the future in formulating strategy. In particular, it would aim to analyse how they cope with often subtle differences between quantifiable risk and uncertainty, and what this means for their ways of thinking about futures. In so doing, it would aim to extend understanding of the use of scenario analysis to generate insights into the use of scenario planning methods to anticipate and plan for uncertain futures, as well as potential limitations of this approach. The comparative and international nature of the project would also enhance understandings of the role of wider cultural and institutional factors in how corporate leaders think about and manage risk and uncertainty.In addition, the study would seek to challenge the dominant theoretical view, which sees boards of directors as 'principals' exercising control over executive 'agents'. It would draw on the resource-based view, which sees a role of the board as helping firms secure and maintain access to resources. It would also critically examine the usefulness of the concept of stewardship, which sees executive and non-executive directors and top managers as having shared aims. In so doing, it would aim to contribute to the development of a behavioural theoretical paradigm, which would draw on a number of theoretical strands. This could help explain ways in which collaboration and shared aims between boards of directors and top management teams could improve the effectiveness of strategic planning processes.

该项目将涉及对董事会和高层管理团队在战略决策过程中的作用进行国际比较研究。该研究将利用行为理论的视角来研究正式和非正式的战略制定以及决策例程和流程是如何运作和发展的。它将特别关注企业领导者如何看待和分析战略规划中的风险和不确定性。该研究将采用以人种学为基础的方法论。它将利用一系列定性工具。其中包括与许多组织进行深入的实地考察。这将涉及观察非执行董事、执行董事和高级管理人员之间的会议和其他非正式互动，并跟踪其中一些人。这些技术将与更多组织的半结构化和结构化访谈相结合，以促进比较观点。采用这种方法的目的是深入了解组织的“内部”运作，特别是执行董事和非执行董事以及高层管理团队之间的动态关系，以及这些关系如何影响伴随战略规划的政治谈判和知识创造过程。这项研究将在许多领域做出独特的贡献。其目的是加深对企业决策者在制定战略时如何看待未来的理解。特别是，它的目的是分析他们如何应对可量化风险和不确定性之间的微妙差异，以及这对他们思考未来的方式意味着什么。这样做的目的是扩展对情景分析使用的理解，以深入了解情景规划方法的使用，以预测和规划不确定的未来，以及这种方法的潜在局限性。该项目的比较性和国际性也将增强人们对更广泛的文化和制度因素在企业领导者如何思考和管理风险和不确定性方面所发挥的作用的理解。此外，该研究还将寻求挑战主流理论观点，即认为董事会是对执行“代理人”行使控制权的“委托人”。它将借鉴基于资源的观点，该观点认为董事会的作用是帮助公司确保和维持资源的获取。它还将批判性地审查管理概念的有用性，该概念将执行董事和非执行董事以及高层管理人员视为具有共同的目标。这样做的目的是为行为理论范式的发展做出贡献，该范式将借鉴许多理论线索。这有助于解释董事会和高层管理团队之间的协作和共同目标如何提高战略规划流程的有效性。