Investigating employee strategic alignment during a transformation to lean manufacturin

Relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which an organizational strategy is translated into individual attitudes and behavior. This research examines the concepts of strategic knowledge and commitment as they relate to kitchen cabinet production employee engagement in strategic supportive behavior. Employee engagement in strategic supportive behavior is also known as "strategic alignment". Employees must behaviorally contribute to a new strategy in order for a strategic implementation to be successful. Further, strategic alignment is an important concept to consider given the strategic changes that kitchen cabinet producers are undergoing in order to remain competitive. Increased strategic change is likely to become the norm as kitchen cabinet manufacturers experience an increase in global competition, advances in manufacturing technology/systems and ever-changing consumer preferences.;This work examines a strategic change at a Pennsylvania kitchen cabinet manufacturer by evaluating longitudinal data that was collected over a period of two years from 363 hourly production employees who were experiencing a strategic transformation to lean manufacturing. Structural equation modeling results indicate that employee strategic knowledge and strategic commitment are positively related to employee strategic alignment. Further, results suggest that the individual antecedents of affective commitment and perceived change momentum positively relate to strategic knowledge. Also, strategic commitment was shown to mediate the relationship between strategic knowledge and strategically supportive behavior.;This research offers three key theoretical contributions: (1) insight is provided into the problem of strategic alignment by developing and testing the concepts of strategic knowledge and strategic commitment; (2) this work builds upon research that bridges strategy and organizational behavior; and (3) the people side of strategic implementation, which has received limited attention in strategic management research, is addressed by this research. On the practitioner side, study findings support the need for managers to consider fostering a work environment that is conducive for developing employee strategic knowledge and commitment. Based on the project findings, forest product manufacturers should consider employee dispositions and attitudes as they relate to fostering employee strategic knowledge and commitment.