Belaboring the not-so-obvious: Consensus, commitment, and strategy implementation speed and success

One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.