Perceptions of strategic priorities, consensus and firm performance

This paper reports the results of a study into strategy content, consensus, and firm performance. It is argued that the content of consensus, i.e. what the agreement is about, is of importance, and that strategic priorities concerned with the extant strategy are constructs that are strategically relevant to the exploration of consensus-performance links. Whereas previous studies have used a statistical measure of consensus (summing standard deviations), in this study the managers' perceptions of strategic priorities have been plotted on two-dimensional graphs. We argue that in contrast to the use of means and standard deviations, by plotting the patterns of perceptions produced by a management group, more information is retained for subsequent interpretation and hence a richer picture of the extent and nature of shared perceptions within a management group can be developed. Using this approach, data from 32 strategic business units were analysed, revealing patterns of consensus and performance. The paper discusses the implications of these patterns, and suggests some avenues for further research.