A psychological perspective on middle managers’ championing behavior

Nufer Ates, Murat Tarakci, Yoojung Ahn, Steven W. Floyd, Bill Wooldridge

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Organizations rely on middle managers’ championing novel strategic initiatives to provide a much needed competitive edge. Existing literature on championing focus on structural conditions regarding whether or when managers fulfill the championing role, and neglect managers’ individual motivational drivers for championing. Integrating goal orientations theory and team contextual factors, we develop and test a cross-level model which proposes that individual differences in goal orientations may motivate managers to search for or avoid new strategic initiatives, and that individual motivational orientations flourish in different intra-team contexts. Based on data from 181 middle managers in 26 teams of a large company, we found that learning and prove goal orientations affect championing behavior positively, whereas avoid orientation has a negative effect when the team is not behaviorally integrated
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Handbook of Strategy Process Research from a Middle Management Perspective
EditorsS.W. Floyd, B. Wooldridge
Place of PublicationCheltenham
PublisherEdward Elgar Publishing Inc.
Chapter16
Pages399-424
ISBN (Print)9781783473243
Publication statusPublished - 2017

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