Hoon (2007), Human Relations

Committees as strategic practice: The role of strategic conversation in a public administration

In a public administration rolling out staff development, middle and senior managers shaped strategy not just in formal committee meetings but in informal conversations around them, where they built shared understanding, aligned on issues and pre-arranged support.

Parts of the Loop it informs

Make sense togetherSupports Start it close to the workSupports

Read the original paper

Summary written by Unfrozen from the full paper, then checked twice by independent reviewers against the source. Loop coding is exploratory and AI-assisted, pending human verification. Spot an error? Email info@unfreeze.us and it gets fixed.

Questions this study helps answer

What the research saysWhat do middle managers actually do during change?

Related studies

Huy (2011)In a three-year case at a large tech firm, executives treating strategy as a purely task-focused job unintentionally stirred middle managers' group identities around tenure and language; the resulting emotions saw managers, even ones executives promoted, back or quietly brush off an initiative.Huy et al. (2014)Over three years of a radical change, middle managers went from supporting their top leaders to mutiny as they reassessed whether those leaders were legitimate, and their emotional reactions fed rising resistance.Hope (2010)In an insurance company's change effort, middle managers used their business expertise and political moves to steer how even their bosses understood the change.Starke et al. (2011)At a small manufacturer, most of a transformation happened after its champion CEO left and an unsupportive former CEO returned, with supervisors, staff and new systems filling the leadership gap.