Alignment in Strategy Cascading : A Case Study across Manufacturing Firms

This study examines the operational (improvement) benefits of strategy cascading — as well as the effects of leadership style — as embedded in the organizational context of portfolio complexity. We use multiple comparative case studies (based on nine manufacturing sites of a global automotive supplier) to analyze strategy cascading, for which theory has so far failed to established measurable constructs. We complement the case studies with archival data for performance measurement and with questionnaires to assess leadership styles, where established measurable constructs do exist. We find three clusters of sites in which improvement performance, strategy cascading quality, and certain leadership styles tend to go together. Thus, our results suggest that operations strategy execution may have the characteristics of a “package” whereby strategy cascading benefits accrue only if cascading is (i) accompanied by certain leadership styles and (ii) supported by an effort to influence the organizational context (specifically, the product portfolio)