| The premise of this research is that the crux of employee alignment is in the actual day-to-day decision-making and behavior of employees. To use their discretion in line with the strategic direction employee arguably need more than a strategic orientation alone. First of all, to adequately interpret situations and behavioral events as relevant regarding the new strategic initiative employees most probably need a certain type of awareness, labeled here as strategic mindfulness. The concept of strategic mindfulness represents the ability of employees to recognize the relevance of the new strategic initiative to a certain decision or situation. A similar concept was introduced into business ethics literature in the form of ethical mindfulness by Thomas, Schermerhorn & Dienhart (2004: 16), who state that: ethical mindfulness becomes a form of self-regulation that causes one to behave with an ethical consciousness from one decision or behavioral event to another . Furthermore, next to the ability to recognize the strategic nature of a decision or situation, employees have to have the volition to follow through on their interpretation. This not only requires motivation, which but it also necessitates willpower for purposeful action taking (Ghoshal & Bruch, 2003). Research on volition by Ghoshal & Bruch (2003) found that it was the decisive driver of effective implementation of change initiatives. As a result, the process of employee alignment warrants extra attention, reflected in the central research question of this project: |
