The Effect of Political Skill in Using Executive Training to Enact Strategic Renewal

The literature remains ambiguous on the impact of corporate-specific executive training programs on organizational performance. Instead of considering economic and learning performance, we study executive training programs as platforms that political coalitions can use to promote or block strategic renewal processes. The findings of our qualitative comparative analysis suggest that the transformative results of executive training programs hinge on the interplay of four potential factors: the characteristics of the organizational architecture, program organizers’ political skills, the degree of ambiguity of the strategic goals, and the educational content of the training program. We argue that skillful executives may use training programs as vehicles in broader programs of strategic renewal. However, organizational architecture and strong political coalitions may easily block such attempts and marginalize executive training programs as ritualistic symbols of modern management