Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic Decision Management Essay

Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic finish Management EssayThe interrelationships in the midst of fundamental law, strategicalalal management and byplay purlieual conditions have been enduring themes of scram-up and management theory over the last 4 decades, and restructuring has emerged as a noteworthy mechanism in the successful adaptation of organisations to surroundal influences (Clark, 2004). The 1980s were characterised by a wave of important restructuring activities, this wave has become increasingly common during the mid-nineties (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006 Park Kim, 2008). The concept of restructuring is still a matter of debate and controversy because of the modernity of the subject. bowman and Singh (1993) described restructuring as transmit aims to improve the competency and effectiveness of management teams performance through considerable changes in organisational structure. Staniforth (1994) defined restructuring as opportunities for change, improvement s in the organisation, and to achieve the benefits of cost, the benefits of strategic close-making, the benefits of communication, and other(a)wise benefits to the organisation. Restructuring is a fundamental change that significantly affects the organisation, and takes place either at the organisational level or radically reorganising activities and relationships at the business unit level (Alkhafaji, 2001). Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2001) argued that restructuring is a strategy through which the organisation can change its financial or commercial position. Stevenson, Bartunek and Borgatti (2003) described restructuring as attempts to get people within the organisation to work more closely together. Restructuring is a purposeful strategic option for organisation renewal (Brauer, 2006), typically includes a set of activities such(prenominal) as downsizing, sale of a business line, closures or consolidation of facilities, business relocation, or changes in management struct ure, which often glide by as part of organisational strategies intended to improve efficiency, control costs, and adapt to an ever ever-changing business environment (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006). Thus, modifications of the organisations assets, capital structure, and organisational structure fall into the general concept of corporal restructuring (Singh, 1993 Bowman et al., 1999). Restructuring refers to the transformation of integrated structure (Bowman Singh, 1990), organisational re-configuration (Bowman Singh, 1993), re counseling (Markides, 1995), down scoping (Hitt et al., 1994 Johnson, 1996), and patch (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999 Siggelkow, 2002).The term restructuring is mainly used to denote considerable changes in the assets and structural comp unrivalednts of organisations through conscious managerial actions. Bowman and Singh (1990) claimed that restructuring is aimed at achieving individual, financial, strategic, and/or operational goals and objectives. Bowman et al. (1 999), differentiate three key forms of restructuring portfolio restructuring, related to the changes in the portfolios of businesses held by change organisations, including acquisitions, mergers, divestitures etc. financial restructuring, which includes considerable changes in the capital structure of an organisation, and organisational restructuring, which includes significant changes in the organisational structure of the organisation, including divisional redesign and downsizing. Advocates of corporate restructuring argue that the result of restructuring activities is a leaner and more efficient corporate (Singh, 1993). Critics, however, contend that restructuring damages the organisation and its congenital and external stakeholders ( stage set Easterwood, 1993).2.2.4.2 Key Drivers of RestructuringIn the 1960s and 1970s, several organisations diversified their business predominantly via the acquisition of businesses unrelated to their core activities, thus frequently realisin g conglomerate shape (Shleifer Vishny, 1991 Hoskisson Hitt, 1994 Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994 Servaes, 1996 Johnson, 1996 Bergh, 2001). During the 1980s and 1990s, many diversified organisations were reorganised as a result of organisational refocusing initiatives intended to cut down both the breath of organisation portfolios (i.e., demoralize levels of diversification) and overall organisation size, thus eventually translating into organisations holding more related diversified activities (Williams, Paez Sanders, 1988 Markides, 1992 Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994 Kose Ofek, 1995 Comment Jarrell, 1995 Berger Ofek, 1995 Johnson, 1996, Cascio, 2002, Park Kim, 2008). A related diversified business is one in which the company controls businesses that divvy up similarities in markets, products, and/or technologies with the intent of allowing organisation management to take advantage of the interrelationships amid the related businesses (Rumelt, 1974 Palepu, 1985 Hoskiss on Hitt, 1990 Hoskisson Hitt, 1994). As already mentioned, a multitude of theoretical and empirical investigations into the antecedents of restructuring have shown that different factors precipitate corporate restructuring. Restructuring literature reveals that there ar four key number one woods of restructuring.2.2.4.2.1 The Agency justificationThe chancellor justification as to why companies engage in restructuring is in reaction to less than acceptable performance (Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984 Duhaime Grant, 1984 Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994 Hoskisson Hitt, 1994 Markides, 1995 Johnson, 1996 Markides Singh, 1997, Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000, Love Nohria, 2005 Perry Shivdasani, 2005 DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007 Hsieh, 2010). In other words, a company divests organisational assets with the intent of improving organisational performance, whether it is their organisational performance in respect to competitors, the overall constancy, or a predetermined objecti ve (Greve, 1998). Research has undoubtedly demonstrated that organisations employed in restructuring often are performing unsatisfactorily introductory to the initiation of corporate restructuring (Duhaime Grant, 1984 Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984 Sicherman Pettway, 1987 Duhaime Baird, 1987 Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987 Montgomery Thomas, 1988 Hoskisson Johnson, 1992 Markides, 1992 Hoskisson Hitt, 1994 Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994 Lang, Poulson Stulz, 1995 Markides, 1995 Johnson, 1996 Markides Singh, 1997 Bowman et al., 1999 Bergh, 2001 Love Nohria, 2005 Perry Shivdasani, 2005 DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007 Hsieh, 2010). The majority of large organisations evidence periodic corporate restructuring involving simultaneous changes in strategy, organisational structure, management systems, and corporate top management members. Such corporate restructuring usually follows declining organisational performance (Grant, 2008). Jain (1985), for example, found that organisatio n performance began to suffer nearly a year prior to restructuring and caused negative excess stock return of 10.8% within the period of one year prior to the restructuring.Such evaluations of ones own organisational performance are considerable since sound organisational performance is required to ensure the sustenance and survival of the corporate (Child, 1972), as well as offering feedback to the organisations as to the viability of their plans (Cyert March, 1963). Thompson (1967) notes that publicly traded organisations closely monitor changes in the value of their stock since the market exhibits a visible social judgment about the organisations fitness for the organisational future.The agency justification of restructuring, poor organisational performance as an antecedent of restructuring (Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987 Hoskisson Turk, 1990 Hoskisson Hitt, 1994 Markides Singh, 1997 Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000) has become the leading justification in the literature to acco unt for the corporate restructuring wave of the 1980s. Mainly, this precept claims that organisation performance needs to be improved as a direct outcome of past managerial incompetence, which includes excessive levels of diversification, inappropriate diversification, unprofitable investments, and subscript investments in RD. For example, it is argued that finding makers frequently increased organisation size and levels of diversification without comparable increases in organisation value (Jensen, 1986 Hoskisson Turk, 1990 Jensen, 1993 Johnson, 1996). Moreover, it is argued that strategic determination makers have the luck to diversify their firms even when doing so does not enhance the market value of the organisation because their personal wealth is associated more with organisation size than to organisation performance (Jensen Meckling, 1976 Amihud Lev, 1981 Bethel Liebeskind, 1993). Grant, Jammine and Thomas (1988) found that increased degrees of diversification gave ri se to decreased organisations returns, thus implying that, over time, strategic finality makers sacrificed performance for diversification and growth. Empirical studies (e.g., Rumelt, 1974 Wernerfelt Montgomery, 1988 Lubatkin Chatterjee, 1991 Palich, Cardinal, Miller, 2000 Bergh, 2001 Mayer Whittington, 2003) have substantiated such a conclusion by arguing that organisations pursuing a organisational strategy of unrelated diversification possess lower market returns than organisations pursuing related diversification and growth strategies.Supporter of the agency justification suggest that such managerial inefficiencies occur considerably as a consequence of agency costs (i.e., enlarge managerial consumption of organisational resources resulting from poor, or ineffective governance systems). Essentially, this lieu argues that the board of directors, ownership concentration, and finis makers incentives were inefficient and led to the failure of organisational governance as a m echanism (Hoskisson Turk, 1990 Jensen, 1993 Bethel Liebeskind, 1993 Gibbs, 1993 Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994 Johnson, Daily, Ellstrand, 1996 Johnson, 1996 Chatterjee Harrison, 2001). Although never clearly clarified in the literature, poor governance is believed to be identified by diffusion of shareholdings among foreign owners, certain characteristics of strategic decision makers (e.g., insignificant equity ownership by strategic decision makers and board members or an insignificant number of outsiders sitting on the board), and decision makers and board members passiveness (Johnson, Hoskisson, Hitt, 1993 Bethel Liebeskind, 1993 Gibbs, 1993 Johnson, 1996 Westphal Fredrickson, 2001 Dalton et al, 2003). Thus, the agency perspective has made restructuring synonymous with poor corporate governance (Hoskisson Turk, 1990 Bethel Liebeskind, 1993 Markides Singh, 1997).2.2.4.2.2 The Mimicry JustificationIt is argued that organisations restructure as a consequence of mimicki ng the behaviour of other firms that are engaged in the divestiture activities (Markides Singh, 1997). In line with mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio Powell, 1983 Oliver, 1991), this perspective claims that organisations, either intentionally or unintentionally, engage in mimicry of organisational patterns of other actors in their networks who are realised as more successful or legitimate. Strategic decision makers engaged in such imitation consider that their actions willing be perceived as rational (Meyer Rowan, 1977 DiMaggio Powell, 1983). Such claims were adopt by Davis, Diekmann, and Tinsley (1994) in their justification of the decline of the conglomerate organisation in the United States of the States during the period of 1980s.2.2.4.2.3 The Environmental JustificationScholars (e.g., Meyer, Brooks, Goes, 1990 Grinyer McKiernan, 1990 Hoskisson Hitt, 1990 Shleifer Vishny, 1991 Kose, Lang Netter, 1992 Chatterjee, 1992 Johnson, 1996 Bergh Lawless, 1998 Robinson Shimizu, 20 06 Park, 2007 Park Kim, 2008 Nag Pathak, 2009) have suggested that environmental circumstances serve as antecedents to increased corporate restructuring. It is argued that antitrust policy shifts, revenue enhancement rationales, junk bond financing, intense competition, deregulation, technology developments and changes, and takeover activities through the market for organisational control are reasons for the significant increase in corporate restructuring activity in the 1980s (Johnson, 1996).A synthesis of studies exploring such associations suggests that changes in the environmental conditions, which increase environmental uncertainty or turbulence, result in a greater likelihood of corporate restructuring. Grinyer McKiernan (1990), for example, suggested that corporate restructuring may result from changes in the industrial sector that create an aspiration-induced crisis built on the current organisational performance or market share and where strategic decision makers believ e the firm ought to be. Further support of the environmental conditions argument was conducted by Meyer, Brooks and Goes (1990) who explored organisational strategic responses to discontinuous change at the industrial sector level. They explored the hospital industry in San Francisco state, which was facing considerable environmental turbulence, which led to excess capacity, regulatory changes, and resource scarcity. To deal with these environmental changes the hospital industry engaged in spin-offs of unnecessary areas, at a lower placewent divestitures of peripheral activities, and created networks among the hospitals to respond to the need for managed health care in the San Francisco state. Moreover, a third study to justify the environmental conditions perspective was offered by Bergh and Lawless (1998), who explored external uncertainty and its influence on the strategic decisions the organisation makes. Their study suggested that organisations experienced with gamely uncerta in circumstances engage in divestitures to cut down the expenses of managing a diverse portfolio.Scholars (e.g., Garvin, 1983 Ito, 1995, Campa Kedia, 2002 Rose Ito, 2005) have contended that restructuring can be a reaction to shocks in the external environment. Dodonova and Khoroshilov (2006) found that divestiture activities tend to occur during economic booms, whereas Campa and Kedia (2002) suggested the opposite. Divestiture activities seem more likely to occur in ever-changing business environments and highly competitive markets (Ito, 1995 Eisenhardt Brown, 1999).Because large organisations form significant parts of the confinement environments of other firms, one organisations restructuring may tend to create environmental instability for other firms, particularly those in the same industrial sector. Such claim is distinct in Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) perspective of strategy as structured chaos. They argue that the go around-performing organisations consistently lead c hange in their industrial sectors. accord to Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) theory, such organisations dominate their markets. In fact, these organisations become the environment for others. Not only do they lead environmental change, but these organisations also set the rhythm and pace of that environmental change within their industrial sectors (Brown Eisenhardt , 1998). The role of restructuring in creating environmental turbulence and change is also implicit in the stream of research based on the hyper-competition concept (e.g., DAveni, 1994 Young, Smith, Grimm, 1998 Thomas, 1998). The primary idea of hyper-competition is that competing firms engage in a continuous series of strategic actions that undercut the key advantages acquired by their competitors (DAveni, 1994 Smith Zeithaml, 1998). Such outgrowth is interchangeable, as objectives of competitive initiatives respond to those initiatives with actions of their own, their goals counter-respond, and so on. Therefore, chang es in competition are among the most significant environmental factors for strategic decision makers to consider in corporate restructuring (Johnson, 1996). Competition may intensify because of the diversity of strategies by organisations in an industrial sector, a change in the power balance of organisations, and shifts in market pray (Porter, 1980). To cope with the challenges of increasing competition, strategic decision makers of organisations are usually encouraged to take further risk and often respond by corporate restructuring (Cool, Dierickx, Jemison, 1989). According to Grinyer and McKiernan (1990), competitive changes tend to an aspiration-induced crisis. When the competitive environment changes, corporate restructuring helps organisations to realise synergies, allocate resources, and improve organisational performance (Chatterjee, 1986 Hoskisson Hitt, 1988 Bergh, 1995 Bergh 1998).Another significant environmental antecedent of restructuring, the degree of governance regulation, is a tool to control high risk-taking at the organisation level when an economy is greatly regulated, firms are faced with bounded discretion in their strategic decisions (Wiseman Catanach, 1997). The reduction of governmental involvement increases the strategic decision-making discretion of organisations, improves the effectiveness of governance systems, and decreases the barriers to investments (Ramamurti, 2000). On the other hand, reduced governmental intervention increases the degree of uncertainty for organisations payable to the increase in the variety of stakeholders, the rise of newly privatised organisation, and a concomitant increase in the probability of bankruptcy (Megginson Netter, 2001). Moreover, regulatory changes are positively associated with changes in organisation risk-taking strategies and behaviour, such as acquisitions (Ginsberg Buchholtz, 1990 Datta, Narayanan, Pinches, 1992). Under deregulation, according to Rajagopalan and Spreitzer (1997), less-focused, defender-like organisations tend to shift to greater focused, prospector-like strategies.2.2.4.2.4 The Strategic JustificationScholars suggest that organisation strategy is a driver of restructuring (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984 Duhaime Grant, 1984 Baysinger Hoskisson, 1989 Markides, 1992 Markides, 1995 Johnson, 1996). In other words, restructuring may be associated with an organisations corporate or business level strategy. The strategic perspective claims that organisations decide to restructure for either corrective or proactive goals. Corrective divestiture activities are intended to make up for former strategic mistakes (Porter, 1987 Hitt et al, 1996), to reduce exaggerated diversification (Markides, 1992 Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994), to refocus on core activities and businesses (Markides, 1992 Seth Easterwood, 1993), to react to an increase in industrial sector competition (Aron, 1991), to adjust organisation strategy with the organisations identi ty (Mitchell, 1994 Zuckerman, 2000), to eliminate negative alliances (Miles Rosenfeld, 1983 Rosenfeld, 1984), or to deal with organisational problems such as bad organisational governance (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). On the other hand, the target of proactive divestitures is to restructure the organisational portfolio (Hitt et al., 1996 Bowman et al., 1999) by routinely redesigning, splitting, changing or exiting activities and businesses to cope with changing environment opportunities (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999 Siggelkow, 2002). This restructuring is aimed at creating a more efficient organisational governance system ( Seward Walsh, 1996), improving organisational profitability and performance (Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992 Mitchell, 1994 Fluck Lynch, 1999 Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2002), obtaining more cash flow (Jensen, 1989 Hitt et al., 1996), decreasing high level of debit (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984 Hitt et al, 1996 Allen McConnell, 1998) or tax payments ( Schipper Smith, 1986 John, 1993 Vijh, 2002), acquiring better business contracts from regulators (Schipper Smith, 1986 Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992), or enhancing organisational entrepreneurship and innovativeness (Garvin, 1983 Cassiman Ueda, 2006).From a strategic view, most divesting organisations seem to be more diversified than their industrial sector counterparts (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994 Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2003). Over-diversification pushes an organisation toward de-conglomeration and de-diversification as a correction of its strategic decisions and resources. Nevertheless, in very specific contexts, divestiture puzzle outes are also used to improve diversification (such as spin-offs processes in Japan) (Ito, 1995). Over-diversification decreases innovation and entrepreneurial disembodied spirit within organisations. Extremely diversified organisations tend to give priority to financial controls, to ignore strategic controls and therefore create les s organisational innovation (Hitt et al., 1996), and to enlarge managerial risk aversion (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). Thus, according to Garvin (1983), an organisation may engage in unbundling processes to enhance its entrepreneurial spirit and its organisational innovation, or to enter technology-based and immature activities. Spin-offs processes, for example, can be used to encourage entrepreneurial spirit and organisational innovation in the divested business unit, while the parent gains several(prenominal) advantages from the new product, service, or technology developed in the independent organisation (Garvin, 1983).2.2.5 Linkage Between Environmental Conditions, Decision Makers, and Restructuring as a Strategic DecisionThe antecedents of restructuring show that restructuring is a strategic phenomenon. There are several postulates underlie such a perspective. The first postulate is that strategic restructuring decision is typically an organisational response to changin g internal and/or external conditions. The second postulate is that internal and external pressures and influences are largely, but not totally, clear and identifiable in initiating such strategic restructuring. The third postulate is that numerous organisations currently experience these clear pressures and influences for a strategic adaptive response, and that large numbers of these firms seek to respond by strategic restructuring. A fourth and final postulate is that corporate restructuring generally improves organisation performance. Taken together, these postulates form the basis for a strategic view on corporate restructuring in other words, that there are forces, pressures, and influences that admit a stimulus for strategic restructuring, that these pressures affect several organisations, large numbers of whom respond by corporate restructuring, which improves organisational performance. However, two important questions should be raised how do you decide which restructuring strategy to apply to which organisation? And what are the key factors affecting the strategic decision-making process and consequently restructuring decision as strategic choice?Although external environment has been identified as a significant variable in explaining numerous organisational phenomena (Jones, Jacobs, Spijker, 1992), scholars (Hitt Tyler, 1991 Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992 dean Sharfman, 1993 Rajagopalan, Rasheed Datta, 1993, Papadakis Barwise, 1997 Brouthers, Brouthers, Werner, 2000 Hough White, 2003) realise that an organisations economic environment and competitive circumstances alone cannot clearly explain the record of strategic decisions and its performance outcomes. So, to enhance the performance of their patterns, strategists have begun to focus on the behavioural factors of organisational strategic decision-making. This growing recognition to the significance of the behavioural element has naturally a focus on the individuals characteristics responsible for making these organisational strategic decisions. In public sector organisations the top managers are considered to be responsible for achieving the alignment of the organisation with its environmental conditions (Andrews, 1971 Child, 1972). These decision makers must gather the significant teaching by which to make strategic decisions, analyse this input, deduce alternative approaches of action for the organisation, and finally choose and implement a particular strategic action for the organisation.The relationships mingled with strategic decision makers, strategic decision-making processes, and organisational outcomes have been the key focus of top management research. Strategic decision makers, according to this research, do make a dispute in the matter of organisation outcomes such as innovation strategies (Bantel Jackson, 1989 Camelo-Ordaz, Hernandez-Lara, Valle-Cabrera, 2005) organisational strategic change (Wiersema Bantel, 1992) and organisational performance (Hamb rick Mason, 1984 Murray, 1989 Michel Hambrick, 1992 Peterson et al., 2003 Dwyer, Richard, Chadwick, 2003 Carpenter, Geletkanycz, Sanders, 2004). Such research suggested that certain demographic characteristics of the strategic decision makers (e.g., age, educational level, and tenure) were associated with organisational outcomes. Other scholars (Hitt, Ireland, Palia, 1982 Gupta Govindarajan, 1984 Walsh Seward, 1990 Davis Thompson, 1994 Westphal Fredrickson, 2001) have found that decision makers characteristics such as experience are linked to the organisational strategic orientations.The empirical relations found between demographic characteristics of decision makers and organisational outcomes suggest that functional backgrounds might have significant ramifications for organisational strategic decision-making. Scholars have found that functional experience tends to restrict the areas to which strategic decision makers pay attention and may lead them to neglect certain stim uli (Beyer et al., 1997). Moreover, managerial experience affects the types of changes that decision makers perceive in the effectiveness of their firm, but not its environment (Waller, Huber, Glick, 1995)Managerial experiences shape the cognitive perspective of strategic decision makers (Hambrick Mason, 1984). The upper echelons theory claims that the strategic decision makers observable experiences affect their orientation and that strategic choice (Hambrick Mason, 1984 Finkelstein Hambrick, 1996 Pansiri, 2007). Therefore, according to Gupta (1984), decision makers differ in the sets of abilities, skills, and views that they bring to a company. Managerial skills, abilities, and perspectives are largely a function of previous functional backgrounds, personal backgrounds, and educational level. In other words, cognitive perspectives brought to bear on strategic decisions are a result of the various experiences that strategic decision makers acquire during their organisational ca reers (Schwenk, 1988).Research on organisational strategic issue diagnosis has drew attention to how decision makers cognitions can affect several aspects of the organisational strategic decision-making process from environmental scanning (Daft, Sormunen, Parks, 1988 Milliken, 1990 Abiodun, 2009), processing and abstract (Gioia, 1986 Dutton Duncan, 1987 Herrmann Datta, 2005), the evaluation of alternative approaches, and implementation of selected strategic decision (Dutton Jackson, 1987 Ganster, 2005 Kauer, Waldeck, Schaffer, 2007). Strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental maps represent experientially acquired reference frames which involve sets of different criteria, standards of evaluation, and strategic decision rules that can restrict as well as facilitate the organisational ability to change.While strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental frameworks provide a significant reference point for strategic decision-making, they can also extr emely constrain the ability of the organisation to adapt to changing environmental demands. Weick (1979) argued that decision makers act on impoverished perspectives of the world. According to Schwenk (1988) cognitive limitations can thus provide biases into managerial schemata which can negatively influence the nature of strategic decision-making. The experientially acquired nature of strategic decision makers cognitive views makes them probably to be more reflective of previous organisational scenarios and strategic decisions than of present ones. By depending on past images of historical environmental conditions and competitive circumstances, strategic decision makers may not be able to realise or adequately define the need for organisational change. Thus strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives can determine the ability of the firm to cope with changing requirements and times and therefore decision makers can act as a stabilise power on the organisation.Scholars (e.g. S chwenk, 1984 Wiersema Bantel, 1992 Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992 Waller, Huber Glick, 1995 Tyler Steensma, 1998) have argued that strategic decision makers characteristics might limit information search, processing, and/or retrieval in spite of decision makers desire to make strategic decisions according to the environmental requirements and conditions. As stated in social motivation perspective, managers may remain committed to specific courses of action based on their need to sustain consistency (Staw, 1981 Brockner, et al., 1986 Taylor Brown, 1988 Brockner, 1992 Keil, Mann, Rai, 2000 Biyalogorsky, Boulding, Staelin, 2006 Keil, Depledge, Rai, 2007). The incentives and needs that drive managers have significant ramification for strategic decisions First, strategic decision makers who encounter information consistent with their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs will support that information. Second, strategic decision makers who are heavily invested in or committed to a specific approach of action are more likely to ignore information that does not consistent with their previous strategic decisions. Finally, only strategic decision makers who are committed to performing under scenarios of change will be willing and receptive to incorporate inconsistent information. Accordingly, research on social motivation argues that strategic decision makers are best at being receptive and willing to information that only marginally deviates from their sets of beliefs, while key changes are more unlikely to be easily incorporated. Moreover, strategic decision makers will probably ignore information that considerably deviates from their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs.Finally, Strategic decision makers can become embedded within the corporate routines and organisational processes that contribute to sustaining the status quo (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978 Staw Ross, 1980 Daft Weick, 1984 Tushman Romanelli, 1985). With growing organisational tenure and funct ion experience and considerable familiarity with organisational processes and routines, strategic decision makers become susceptible to the organisational inertias factors. Miller (1991) argued that increasing managerial tenure results in corporate insularity. Over time, corporate exposure tends to lead to consistency to organisational norms and values (Kanter, 1977). Strategic decision makers may act as a stable governance system that determines the organisations ability to change. Decision makers experiences and perspectives reinforce prior courses of organisational strategic decision-making (Staw Ross, 1980). Therefore, managerial turnover provides an important mechanism by which firms can realign themselves with external environmental circumstances (Thompson, 1967 Katz Kahn, 1978 Perrow, 1986). By changing the power distribution within the firm, thus influencing the dynamics of strategic decision-making processes (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978), managerial turnover serves as a key f orce to overcome organisational resistance and inertia (Tushman Romanelli, 1985). Moreover, managerial turnover, according to Wiersema and Bantel (1993), may help the organisation to cope with radical changes in its external environment by introducing new values, beliefs, and knowledge ba