Strategic intent is a useful concept in accounting for purpose and continuity of goals in an organization adapting to internal and external developmental pressures. Yet, extant literature on strategic intent does not account for heterogeneity of goals within an organization. Indeed, there is...

There are still few explanations of the micro-level practices by which top managers influence employee commitment to multiple strategic goals. This paper argues that, through their language, top managers can construct a context for commitment to multiple strategic goals. We therefore propose a...

We examine managerial sensegiving in the context of a false start, a planned strategic change that was cancelled. Based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study of an organizational merger process, we examine an early success in managerial sensegiving to the merger and the subsequent failure in...