Consensus on Strategy Is Paramount.

A company's operations strategy must be clear to every employee, or that strategy will be weakened by thousands of decisions employees make every day, maintains Chris McDermott, an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. "If the competitive priority is low-cost, everyone should be clear on that. If, on the other hand, the strategy is flexibility, that must be clear to every employee," says McDermott, who studied communication in the metalworking industry with Ken Boyer, an assistant professor at DePaul University, Chicago, Ill.

The researchers found a substantial lack of consensus on corporate strategy during separate interviews with managers and the people who operated the machines on the factory floor. Both groups were asked to rank the importance the company placed on cost, quality, delivery...