Identifying Rewards for Strategic Thinking — A Survey of CEOs and Middle Managers

Recently, the senior author of this study conducted a series of seminars for top executives on “Strategic Management: A Problem of Implementation”. The series followed the traditional seminar format in that a brief theoretical introduction was followed by lengthy open‐ended discussions. The most critical problem relating to strategic management, as perceived by the participants, was how to create an environment that encourages and rewards middle managers for thinking strategically. One of the executives aptly summarised the reasons for rewarding middle management for strategic thinking: