Article Critique on "Creating Vision and Strategic Direction and Leading Change"

Article Critique 5 pages (1279 words) Sources: 4

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Vision and Strategic Direction

Visionaries, Managers, and Strategic Direction Critique

In Visionaries, Managers, and Strategic Direction (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000) the authors contend that the most effective CEOs mitigate the risk of biased analyses of a visionary new initiative or product strategy by choosing one that is narrowly focused over broad, complex and often unwieldy ones to manage. A foundational precept of the study is that bias exists in how CEOs choose the projects that support their vision-based orientation of their businesses. As the CEO's vision for the company changes, there are reverberating impacts on intensive and compensation plans.

The foundational premise of the article Visionaries, Managers, and Strategic Direction (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000) is that when a company vision changes, it becomes inordinately more difficult to manage compensation and incentive plans accurately and with fidelity to the original promises made to employees. The authors also state that "profits may be enhanced further by letting objective middle managers decide which projects to investigate even through their decisions can depart from the firm's "strategy" by differing from those the CEO would have made" (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). The authors continue with an expanded analysis of how visions of CEOs that have a narrow focus have a much greater potential of being achieved. This is paradoxically presented by the authors, as they state CEOs must be expansive and all-encompassing in their vision of what their enterprises can be, while at the same time having a very granular, clear focus on a very specific vision that has a higher probability of being accomplished (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). This paradox serves as the foundation for the remainder of the analysis and the following key points.

Making a case against micromanagement as being detrimental to the growth of a business, the authors state that "independence of middle management is critical for the implementation of the vision "(Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). This further galvanizes the paradox the authors have made to illustrate how wide, broad visions of CEOs often conflict with the need for a very precise, finely defined vision that middle managers and employees can rally around and believe in.

The authors also contend that the "role of middle managers in bridging the gap between visionary senior managers and the lower-level managers who are the engine of innovation, experimentation and change in the organization " is essential (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). The article concludes by showing how significantly the economics of a given enterprise is directly tied to the performance of the CEO in the area of defining and executing on a vision. CEOs that are biased or capitulate on their visions for a business essentially obliterate compensation and incentive plans, robbing employees of the opportunity to have greater ownership over their inventions and innovations (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000).

The researchers need to be more precise in their prescriptive guidance to CEOs and be blunter, even direct, in their feedback. The research completed is extensive, and there is an abundance of theoretical support for their concepts. Paradoxically, just as the authors make the point that without a clear, concise vision the incentive and compensation programs of a business fail, the article itself has lessened its most critical goal, which is defining how incentive programs become ineffective to discuss the problem of how CEOs become myopic or biased in their approach to defining a vision for their businesses (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). A vision needs to provide an exceptional level of acuity and clarity to the direction of a given enterprises galvanizing everyone to a common series of goals while also giving everyone an opportunity to see how their contributions matter (Wilson, 1992). The authors fail to do this, only getting to the most fundamental of factors, which they illustrate by saying "autonomy is critical for middle managers to attain the visions of a business" (Rotemberg, Saloner, 2000). Instead of charging… READ MORE

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