ABSTRACT
The issue of managerial agency and its consequences has been claiming increasing attention within recent organization theory (Reed 1988, Whittington 1989, Ahme 1990). At the same time, detailed empirical studies of top management decision making have been revealing the full complexity and ambivalence of mana gerial strategic choice in practice (e.g. Pettigrew 1985, Johnson 1987). Managers are no longer seen as the faithful conduits of market forces, but as agents whose strategies affect the course of events in their own right.
