Abstract
Strategy implementation frequently breaks down not because strategies can be poorly formulated, but because they may be enacted through strained or misaligned relationships between organizational levels. Middle managers play a pivotal role in this process, translating strategic intent into operational action while navigating competing demands for compliance, adaptation, and innovation. Yet, we still lack a clear explanation of how relational dynamics between top managers and middle managers shape implementation outcomes. Drawing on a mixed-methods study of 39 Italian manufacturing firms undergoing digitalization, servitization, and sustainability transformations, this paper examines how relational alignment and misalignment between top and middle managers affect strategy implementation. Combining qualitative interviews with 96 managers and survey data from 49 matched top manager–middle manager dyads, we show that high-quality relationships alone are insufficient. Instead, implementation fidelity, adaptive divergence, and innovation depend critically on whether top and middle managers share aligned perceptions of trust, openness, and reciprocity. Relational asymmetries systematically reduce middle managers’ strategic involvement, delay innovation projects, and weaken implementation outcomes. By conceptualizing strategy implementation as a relational accomplishment, this study advances implementation research by identifying relational alignment as a core mechanism linking managerial interactions to strategic outcomes. For practitioners, the findings highlight relational symmetry as a manageable condition of implementation, alongside structure, resources, and control systems.