Managerial Consensus and Corporate Strategy:: Why Do Executives Agree or Disagree about Corporate Strategy?

This paper reports on a study which examined firstly the extent to which managers from the same corporation shared similar perceptions of corporate strategy, secondly, the extent of consensus across the corporations and finally the extent of consensus about different rationales for corporate strategy. The results revealed that consensus was not widespread. We suggest that this could occur where the rationale is unknown to the entire managerial team, ambiguous, regarded as unbelievable or of little interest. We also explain why there was generally consensus about competence-based strategies, and a lack of consensus about the motives for divestment and acquisition strategies.