Broadening the management team: an evolutionary approach

Purpose – Research has shown that the assimilation of managers into the growing small business is a process fraught with difficulty. The purpose of this paper is to use the evolutionary approach to shed new light on the process in which the management team broadens in a growing small firm. Design/methodology/approach – The paper puts forward a conceptualisation of the units of analysis, namely habits and heuristics. Then using a case study approach, these concepts are operationalised to describe the process in which the management team broadens in a growing porcelain company. An analysis of the findings is then be organised around the evolutionary mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. Findings – It was seen that existing habits, routines and heuristics acted in a policing fashion to resist variation introduced by the newly arriving manger. This resistance led to the failure of the firm to vary practices in line with changes in the marketplace. Research limitations/implications – By focusing on the evolution of habits, routines and heuristics, and the fit between these concepts and the changing external world, new insights can be gained on the broadening process and ultimately the survival of the organisation. Originality/value – It is argued that the approach taken in this paper promotes more theory‐driven research with a strong focus on process and context, and can build on both the behaviour‐based and learning‐based approaches by allowing multi‐level analysis of the process in which the management team broadens.