MGT 527 Comprehensive Exam Research Assignment (Term Paper Sample)

Management 527 Comprehensive Exams
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
Question 1
Strategic Management
The literature explores to a great extent the in-depth understanding of strategic management and planning holistically as well as its roles and impact in organizations. The success of any organization is begged on strategic approach of all its dealings directed to its long-term goals and objectives. Strategic management and planning in any organization are required to fit all the dynamic changes in both internal and external environment. Although this kind of management comes with a cost, if it is well managed and timed will bring about the positive effect on the performance of any organization. The literature will explore the concept, roles, and impact of strategic management in an organization.
Concept of strategic management
Strategic management concept has been a term that most organizations use to implement and execute complex tasks such as environmental analysis, evaluation, and monitoring of organizational performance, making of decisions and budgeting. Strategic management although has been confirmed as one of the most effective avenues of meeting the set goals and objectives, it has elements of controversies especially in scientific, environmental setting (Sousa, 2017). Strategic management and planning concept emphasizes on step-wise and systematic approaches to the strategic development of an organization. Strategic management defines an organization's long-term objectives and goals, mission and vision statements, formulation of strategies, environmental analysis, control, and implementation. It further emphasizes specific process and steps during the determination of organization's long-term goals and objectives, evaluation and generation procedures. It also emphasizes on a good system of monitoring results after implementation. Strategic planning is also described as periodic processes that include activities like annual performance goals' performance, translation of priorities to the resourceful allocation of decisions and budgeting. In the formal context, strategic management and planning can be defined as those processes of employing systematic criterion as well as a rigorous study that helps in formulating strategies that can be used in implementing, controlling and documenting expectations of an organization. Strategic management and planning can also be defined as periodical processes that enable structured approaches to strategic formulations, implementation as well as control. (Wolf & Floyd, 2017).
The main purpose why a company makes decisions to come up with a good a strategic management and plan is basically to enhance and influence a company's strategic directions in a provided period as well as coordinating, integrating and merging various decisions that are strategic to the success of the company. The activities that strategic management comprises of include strategic meetings and reviews and strategic plan generation. The activities are directed and governed using the laid specific procedures, rules, and regulations where the formalization level varies in both between and within organizations. Strategic management cuts across marketing, finance, and operation management among other core organizational sectors.
Importance of strategic management and planning
Strategic management is vital in not only organizations but also even governmental agencies. It can be of help in identifying and developing company adaptability to changes in the surrounding environment. It can also help in improving decisions made by an organization and setting of priorities as well as enhancement of relationship with stakeholders.
To start with, strategic management helps organizations to utilize the resources with are limited optimally efficiently. Resources such as human capital and finances should be used to the fullest to yield more output at a minimal cost. For the resources to be used optimally, a sound strategic plan must be in place to provide direction of the management of the resources to the set goals and objectives. For instance, strategic management that should be employed in human resource sector will include coming up with a good organizational culture, teamwork and appraisal and rewards to best performers. These will motivate employees to work towards achieving the organizational goals. Strategic management in the financial sector will include coming up with a good financial structure that will define the ratio of debt financing to equity financing that will not lead the organization into financial difficulties.
Secondly, strategic management will help organizations to examine their challenges and opportunities in the external and internal environment, and this will help them build and strengthen their capacity instead of focusing on their day to day operations (Hu, Kapucu & O'Byrne, 2014). Strategic planning and management focus on the long-term well-being of the organization by placing the means and processes of reaching their goals and objectives. The strategy focuses on achieving the organizational goals in many years to come. This can be done through integrating departmental goals and objectives of an organization to match those goals and objectives of the organization. The organization's strategic planning can focus on the environmental dynamics that will place the organization either at risk or a good position and take relevant actions to take advantage of the opportunities and look for means to mitigate or avoid the risks.
Thirdly, strategic planning allows companies to engage in adaptive management tactics like expanding income earned as well as involving themselves in a joint program in dealing with uncertainties in funding. For a strategic plan to be successful, organizations need to improve their focus concerning company's values and mission that provide the organization's action blueprint, ways of assessing and monitoring actions, and how information is delivered within and outside the organization.
The previous studies on the correlation which exists between organizational performance and strategic planning will be analyzed by first understanding the whole concept of strategic planning and its importance to the organization. The study provides a good reason on how organizational performances are positively or negatively affected by choice of strategic plan. It is believed that strategic planning and management plays a vital role given strategic development, formulation of major solutions to problems, choice of strategies, analysis of alternatives and setting of goals and objectives. It has also been seen as the key means or mechanism used for coordination and integration during decentralization and centralization of company decisions. There has been inconsistency in research concerning the correlation between organizational performances and strategic planning, and this is due to evolution that is realized in strategic planning holistically. On the other hand, not all companies have realized a positive gain during the implementation of strategic management and planning, and this is because of some reasons that include the cost and complexity of its implementation.
This research incorporates a study that was carried out about thirty years ago as well as the development and evolution of strategic planning from normative or classical strategic planning model to empirical tasks that focus on the outcomes of strategic planning. The outcomes include organizational functions integration and coordination among organizational functions. Currently, for a relationship between strategic planning and organizational performance to be a success, some topics should be included. The topics include who does the planning, whether the means of planning practices will bring good outcomes, and how the planning is going to accommodate emerging influences. Scientifically, a good strategic plan should be surrounded by a rational paradigm. A rational strategic planning model or mechanism should have a systematic evaluation and identification of alternatives to problems, and a choice of one that has a best-projected outcome. (Malekpour, Brown & Haan, 2015)
Due to the uncertainty and complexity that is involved in strategic planning, an emergency of a sound decision-making that employs tools like Computational Exploratory Models for identifying static plans which perform so well given many different circumstances. These static plans include Adaptation Tipping Points, Adaptive Police-Making, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways and Adaptation Pathways. Adaptive Policy-Making supports implementation and design of strategic plans to curb uncertainties in the future using adaptation policies and processes done over a period. Adaptation Tipping Point seeks to make an identification of conditions where certain plans could not fulfill the laid objectives and goals newer strategies are needed. Adaptation Pathways provides alternative pathways (routes) into a future, and this is done once the conditions have been identified and reached to proceed with meeting objected intended. Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways is a hybrid of Adaptation Pathways and Adaptive Policy-Making which seeks to do an exploration of various uncertainties as well as their future implications, opportunities and vulnerability. It seeks to identify relevant actions, contingency action and action sequences that can maintain the track of a plan.
Organization performance can not only be improved through strategic planning but also the commitment of leaders, employee empowerment and team-work, employee and customer satisfaction and continuous improvements (Johanness, 2017). Strategic planning needs to incorporate other support mechanisms such as good communication, good organizational culture, change management, employee training and self-assessment, supportive processes, systems, and struc...