Strategy Execution: An Empirical Analysis of Obstacles Faced by Master of Business Administration Executive Students

Problem statement: This study examines obstacles faced by MBA executive students, regarding five dimensions of obstacle management. The purpose of the research is to assess the relative importance of these dimensions and to establish empirical linkages among obstacles and factors such as overall perception of the organization in terms of obstacle management, span of control of the best management practices, age and success, in order to better understand the influence of those obstacles in light of organizational strategy execution. Approach: A survey questionnaire was administered to 512 managers to study the five pre-defined dimensions regarding obstacles in strategy execution faced by MBA executive students. We used Principal Component Analysis and then ANOVA analysis to examine the empirical linkages between the dimensions of strategy execution identified in previous research and socio-demographic variables such as age, span of control, success, tenure and experience. Results: We found that the dimensions that came first in order of importance, were the obstacles related to emotions, followed by the immediate action, integrity, initiatives and finally the obstacles related to rules. This study also found a linkage between the Emotions dimension (getting a commitment for your objectives) and the variable Eval₁ (How would you score your organization in terms of managing the five obstacle dimensions?) and Eval₂ (What would be the score of your organization if the management of the 25 (Obstacles) practices had been mastered?) Moreover, our results reveal a connection between the immediate action dimension and Eval₂. The integrity dimension highlighted the linkage with the Eval₁. We showed the tie-ins between the initiatives dimension and the Eval₂. The rules dimension reveals three linkages with the socio-demographic variables such as age, Eval₁ and Eval₃ (I believe that my success in work-related activities is often a matter of luck). We also found that the younger the MBA executive students were, the more their perception of obstacles related to the rules dimension was important. This research found many connections between the five dimensions regarding obstacles in organizational strategy execution. The set of obstacles faced by MBA executive students did not register the same impact according to strategy execution. However, additional work is necessary in order to generalize our findings. Conclusion: This study proves a contribution by identifying a set of specific obstacles for each facet of strategy execution faced by MBA executive students in the execution of their organizational objectives.