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Chapter 12: Strategic Leadership (SL)
Overview:
Strategic leadership & top-level managers importance
Top management teams and effects on firm
performance
Managerial succession process
Value of strategic leadership in determining firm’s
strategic direction
Importance of strategic leaders in managing firm’s
resources
Organizational culture and actions to sustain it
Ethical practices: establishment and emphasis
Importance and use of organizational controls
The Strategic Management Process
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Strategic Leadership and Style
Strategic leadership: the ability to anticipate,
envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others
to create strategic change as necessary
Multifunctional task that involves
Managing through others
Managing an entire enterprise rather than a functional unit
Corporate, business, and international strategies
Coping with change from internal and external environments
Attracting and managing human (includes intellectual)
capital
Being able to meaningfully influence others
Strategic leaders make a major difference in how
well a firm performs
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Strategic Leadership and the Strategic
Management Process
Effective strategic leadership is
the foundation for successfully
using the strategic management
process
Strategic leaders:
Shape the formation of vision and
mission
Facilitate strategy formulation and
strategy implementation
Are needed for the achievement of
strategic competitiveness and
above-average returns.
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The Role of Top-Level Managers
Top level managers play a critical role in strategy
formulation and implementation
Their strategic decisions influence how an organization is
designed and how goals are achieved
Top managers also develop structure, culture, reward systems,
and policies/SOPs
Having a top management team with superior managerial
skills is critical (and can be a source of CA and AAR)
Managers make a difference because of the discretion (or
latitude for action) they use when making strategic
decisions
This discretion influences firm outcomes like performance
A manager’s decision-making discretion is determined by
several factors