AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of strategy execution in an organisation cannot be downplayed because without it the sustainability of the organisation is at stake. Merely having great strategies is not sufficient as the implementation is the key to direct the activities of the organisation. Middle management plays a central role in strategy execution and any disconnect between them and the top management is bound to lead to organisational failure of effective strategy execution. This research study was based on the role that middle management play in the execution of strategy at the Roads Authority (RA). Semi-structured interviews were used to interview ten middle managers of the organisation, who were randomly selected through purposive sampling. The findings reveal that middle management is failing to play the requisite role of interpreting and translating strategy into actions. The findings further indicate that there is a leadership disconnect between them and their supervisors. They are also facing challenges of questionable strategy alignment within the operations which is causing ineffective resource allocation. In addition, the results indicate that the enabling tools such as the performance management, business systems and allocation of resources are falling short of assisting middle managers in strategy implementation. Lastly, these findings can assist the case study organisation to understand the strategic transformation process at middle management level and to review it for improving and to take corrective actions. The research study was an explorative one and used a limited sample, hence it will be necessary to do further research to get more insights about the potential roles that middle management could play in strategy formulation and the contributions they currently make towards it. The findings of this study can also not be generalised as they are for use only by the case study organisation.