Dynamic Managerial Capabilities and the Multibusiness Team: The Role of Episodic Teams in Executive Leadership Groups

Authors:
Jeffrey A. Martin
Affiliations:
Red McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Venue:
Organization Science
Year:
2011

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Abstract

This grounded theory-building multiple-case study examines the executive leadership group that comprises the general manager (GM) that heads each of the firm's business units in a multibusiness organization. Because each GM exercises control and authority over their business unit's resources, they operate at the nexus of firm-level strategy and strategy implementation through the development of business-unit-level strategy and tactics. Moreover, they play an essential role in adapting the organization by collectively sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring resources and thereby capturing product-market opportunities that emerge. However, there is little direct empirical understanding of this important executive leadership group. This study begins to address this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between the characteristics of the set of business-unit general managers and firm performance in six firms operating in the high-dynamic software industry with an in-depth comparative case study. New theory is developed that begins to open the “black box” of executive leadership groups, and in so doing contributes new understanding of executive leadership groups and dynamic managerial capabilities, and thereby introduces the notion of an episodic team.