Busy bosses who come up with too many projects are having a destabilising influence on their businesses, according to a survey.
A study published today that 83 per cent of people in business believe that too many projects do not result in anything that improves profitability.
And 77 per cent of those questioned feel that senior managers underestimate the stress of repeated initiatives and how much change can unnerve their staff.
Despite that, 76 per cent said that, if carried out properly, many initiatives could prove beneficial. The problem is in the way they are executed, not the underlying idea.
The company behind the survey, Pentacle, an online business school, said most executives and managers in British business have a sceptical view of the value of company-wide strategic initiatives.
But while revealing deep scepticism about the manner in which strategic projects are managed, the research also found that most executives are happy to face change where it is managed properly.
Pentacle director Eddie Obeng said: "The general malaise surrounding strategic change is far from a new thing, as UK workers have typically viewed change with a level of mis-trust, particularly where it adds additional duties to their daily workload.
"Interestingly, however, the majority of companies were enthusiastic about their own company's strategy showing that business has become much better at getting the buy-in of staff in recent years.
"UK business people are showing the kind of company loyalty, competitive spirit and can-do attitude that has been traditionally more associated with Americans. Indeed, 57 per cent of respondents felt that the typical UK culture did not put Brits in second position to the US in terms of delivering strategy."
Most UK business people (56 per cent) felt that it was in executing an idea that initiatives failed, rather than in the conception of the initiative itself.
Sixty six per cent felt that strategic project failure was typically the fault of senior management and commitment at the highest level was seen as more important than getting all staff
"on board". Of the most common reasons for failure, poor communication ranked highest, with 73 per cent of respondents seeing it as a regular cause of failure.
Prof Obeng said: "Senior management clearly take responsibility for the endeavours they attempt to implement and there is a widespread recognition that they are often to blame when projects go awry.
"Our survey revealed that people are aware that communication of strategy is of the highest importance.
"Senior management still need to step up to the challenge of being able to effectively disseminate the relevant parts of a strategy in the wider organisation, in order to be able to deliver the projects they design."
