In a number of widely read papers, Jay Barney, Gary Hamel, C. K. Prahalad, David Teece and others have argued that competitive advantage results from unique organizational resources. According to this view, the most important strategic resources are the knowledge and skills accumulated collectively over time by organization members. The organizational capabilities associated with such human assets cannot be bought on an open market. They are acquired over an extended period and as part of complex interpersonal processes, and this makes capabilities difficult or impossible to imitate. When they effectively differentiate a firm from its competitors, they are called “core capabilities.” In comparison to specific products or technologies which can be copied, capabilities provide the potential for a more sustainable advantage. In principle, therefore, dynamic capability, or the ability to develop new capabilities, is the feature of organizations most likely to be associated with long-term economic performance. [iii]

The striking correspondence between the nature of dynamic capability and our sense of how middle managers influence the quality of strategy provided impetus for our second study. Analyzed into its basic elements, dynamic capability is a learning process which calls on organization members: (1) to interpret the world around them, (2) to uncover new opportunities, (3) to focus existing resources efficiently, and (4) to accumulate new resources when existing ones become obsolete. Put simply, capabilities develop as the organization learns how to deliver what customers want and how to create new combinations of assets and skills.

After talking with dozens of middle managers and weaving our impressions from these interviews with the threads of prior research, [iv] we developed a theoretical framework which captures the roles of middle managers in dynamic capability. underlying the roles, there are two principle dimensions, each of which can be described as a dichotomy. Shown in Figure 1, the model combines upward and downward influence with integrative and divergent thinking to describe four roles: championing alternatives, synthesizing information, facilitating adaptability, and implementing deliberate strategy. [v]

Figure 1: Middle Manager Roles in Strategy