The Role and Importance of Strategy Workshops - (AIM) Research

Research MethodIn the summer of 2004, AIM Fellows Gerard Hodgkinson and Gerry Johnson, working together withRichard Whittington of the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and Mirela Schwarz of theUniversity of Southampton approached the Chartered Management Institute (the Institute) with a viewto collaborating on a postal survey to gather this type of basic data. A survey was designed jointlybetween the researchers and the Institute and was distributed via the Institute to a stratified randomsample of 8000 of its members, drawn across all management levels, sectors and size of organisation.■ A total of 1,337 returns were received, a response rate of 16.71% ii ;■ The sample is roughly evenly divided between not for profit and public sector organisations (42.8%)and for profit organisations (57.2%);■■The sample is also fairly evenly divided in terms of organisational size (number of employees):≤ 250 = 39.3%; 251-5000 = 31.4%; over 5000 = 28.9%;As shown in Tables 1 and 2 respectively, there is a wide cross-section of sectors and managementfunctions represented in the sample, but, in keeping with the composition of the Institutemembership, the sample is weighted toward general management functions;■ The sample of completed questionnaires is also somewhat more weighted toward director (30.7%)and senior (45.7%) managerial levels, just 22.4% drawn from other ranks;■In total, 301 (22.5%) of the respondents are female; lower than that in the general populationof UK managers. iiiTable 1. Sample broken down by sector.Table 2. Sample broken downby management function.Sector % Function %Central/local government 15.1 General management 31.5Education 11.4 Management consultancy 10.2Other business services 10.1 Production/operations 9.3Manufacturing 7.6 Administrative/management services 8.9Health/social work 7.3 Business development 7.7Engineering 7.1 Finance/accounting 3.8Uniformed/emergency services 6.6 Marketing/sales 3.4Construction 4.7 Personnel/HR 3.4Banking/insurance/finance 4.3 IT/computing 3.3Computer/IT services 3.8 Facilities management 1.9Utilities 3.0 Purchasing/contracting 1.2Transport 1.6 Corporate affairs/public relations 1.1Retail 1.4 Miscellaneous 15.6Sales/marketing/advertising 1.3Other 14.33