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Developing an Organization Capable of Implementing Strategy and Learning

Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

Russell A. Eisenstat

Concord, Massachusetts.

Acting as consultants, the authors developed a process by which leadership teams in Alpha Technologies' many business units could develop an organization capable of implementing strategy and learning. Leadership teams of 20 units implemented the self-diagnosis and redesign process between 1988 and 1994. The process was designed to develop the ongoing capacity of the client organization to achieve systemic change, to surface undiscussible data about barriers, as well as to develop a partnership with employees. Research was conducted to determine whether the intervention achieved its intended objectives, as well as to understand the elements of the intervention design, and managerial and organizational context that lead to these results. The research, funded by the Harvard Business School, relied on the following methods: content analysis of task force reports, interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation. The process succeeded in the short term in all of its attended objectives. The process, however, does not appear to have increased the client's underlying capability for organizational learning. The implications of the findings for intervention theory and practice are discussed.

Key Words: strategy implementation • organization development • organization learning • organization design • overcoming defensive routines • strategic human resource management

Human Relations, Vol. 49, No. 5, 597-619 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679604900504


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