Gårsdagens suksess – morgendagens begrensning? Strategisk relevant handlingsrom: En rikere forståelse av leders handlingsrom
Original version
10.23865/noasp.118.ch4Abstract
Managerial discretion is said to be a fundamental condition for effective
leadership. Studies of managerial discretion have to a large degree focused on the
magnitude of managers’ discretion and how different factors influence managers’
perceived level of discretion (Hambrick, 2007; Hambrick & Finkelstein, 1987;
Hutzschenreuter & Kleindienst, 2013). In this chapter, we argue that it is insufficient
to study the size of managers’ room for discretion. We also need to understand the
content included in leaders’ discretionary rooms. In a study of ten successful logistics companies, one of which was studied more in-depth, we find that the managers
perceive their room for managerial discretion as large. However, the alternatives
considered are to a large extent operational and short-term, at the expense of more
long-term, strategically relevant alternatives facing future challenges. Hence, we
develop the concept “strategically relevant managerial discretion”, which, in addition to the alternatives that managers are aware of and that are acceptable for the
mangers’ stakeholders, also includes a new dimension: to what extent the alternatives are strategically relevant for future challenges. We conclude the chapter by
pointing out interesting directions for future research, including a call for empirical
studies of the conceptual model developed in this chapter.