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336 CHAPTER 9 • THE PRoCEss of oPERATions sTRATEgy – foRmulATion And imPlEmEnTATion
experiments – namely, ‘Is it representative of a broader sample or did something
atypical occur during the experiment?’ This is an issue that needs to be considered
when selecting user participants for any implementation project. Are their skills and
experience representative of the rest of the organisation?
3 Willingness – A basic question perhaps, but some studies have shown that levels of
user satisfaction amongst implementation participants are related to the level of
involvement they originally wanted in the process, compared with the involvement
they actually had. Anyone who is forced to spend more time than they believe rea-
sonable on an implementation project may resent it, regardless of the outcome.
Increasing the level of user involvement is, of course, not unambiguously positive. Truly
radical solutions do not always emerge from discussions limited to current experience.
Such a limited range of experience can also lead to the development of processes that
address today’s rather than tomorrow’s difficulties. Despite such concerns, the benefits
of increased user involvement in overcoming process ‘distance’ are usually regarded as
significant.

Prerequisites for effective involvement
Although there is no simple formula that will ensure everyone’s commitment to mak-
ing strategic implementation a success, there are some key elements of basic human
resource practice that can facilitate successful involvement. Here we group these ele-
ments in a structure known as the ‘CEO Principle’. This means, simply, that for people
to be involved effectively in an implementation they must
● have the confidence that involvement will be a positive experience;
● have the education that will allow them to contribute intelligently; and
● be allowed the opportunity to participate in the implementation process.

Confidence that involvement will be a positive experience
One of the most important elements affecting peoples’ confidence in their ability to
contribute is an organisational culture that makes it clear that its people are an impor-
tant strategic resource that can directly affect its success. If, through its actions and its
communications, an organisation makes it clear that everyone’s individual efforts can
have an impact on what happens in the organisation, most people will feel that their
contributions are worthwhile. Just as importantly, the opposite is also true. If people
feel that they cannot influence what happens, why should they bother participating?
The same argument applies to how people regard their security within the organisation.
By security we mean both the obvious issues such as job security or salary security and
more subtle types of security, such as security that their reputation will not suffer by
making suggestions that are not supported by others in the organisation. Unless one
has a future in the organisation, why become fully involved?
A factor that can negatively affect confidence is confusion over what a strategy is
trying to achieve. An unambiguous and shared vision of the overall purpose of the
implementation is clearly a help in moving everyone towards the same goal.
Charismatic leadership can sometimes achieve this, but even where this exists effec-
tive communication is equally important. Remember, though, that for people to have
the confidence to participate, communication should be a two-way street. That is,

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