The Company Mission as a Strategic Tool - Essay Example

Planning By Student’s Name Institution Course Prof Date According to a survey conducted in 2014, business world has become quite complex in the recent years. Competition among the business organizations has gone from bad to worse while customers have become extremely sensitive to price changes. The trend has seen thousands of business organizations vanish in the market while the remaining ones have undergone huge structure changes to deal with the complex business environment. Strategic management has become a major tool of handling the complex business environment and business leaders and managers are left with no option but to understand how to use the tool to execute the management functions. This paper will demonstrate how the elements of strategic management help to optimize the effectiveness of the management functions. There is no basic definition for the terms strategic management. According to Koontz and O'Donnel (2008) strategic management refers to the art and the science of formulating policies and implementing them with the aim of achieving an organization objective. Elkins (2011) writes that strategic management is the process which formulates, implement and evaluate decisions in order to achieve long term objectives of an organization. Despite the numerous definitions, the terms simple refers to the process in which the top management in an organization devises or formulates policies, implement them and evaluate the implementation to achieve the long term goals. Koontz and O'Donnel (2008) point out that strategic management has four elements namely environmental analysis, strategic planning or formulation, strategic implementation and evaluation and control. They add that these elements have a significant influence on the management functions such as planning, leading, organizing and controlling. Therefore, effective integration of these elements in the management is necessary in order to optimize the effectiveness of the management functions. Elkins, (2011) writes that the success of management functions depend on the effective understanding of the strategic management and its elements. Paine (2014) holds that environmental analysis is the cornerstone of a successive planning in an organization. Environmental analysis in strategic management is a comprehensive process which involves analysis of all factors can affect business organizations. Paine (2014) argues that environmental analysis evaluates all possible factors outside the business which affect business activities. It gathers a wide range of data in the market and evaluates them to extract useful information. This element of strategic management helps to optimize the effectiveness of the planning function of the management. According to Pearce (2009), planning is based on the quality, quantity and accuracy of information which the management has gathered. A management that has done thorough and detailed analysis of their environment will have accurate and quality information which they can use for planning purposes. Paine (2014) argues that plans that are based on accurate and quality information are comprehensive and inclusive. Consequently, the plan addresses, to a wide scope, various aspects of plan structure. Therefore, the environmental analysis as an element of the strategic management provides accurate and quality information which help to optimize the effectiveness of the planning function of management by providing information needed for planning. In his article, Mintzberg and Waters (2013) write that environmental analysis does not only help in planning but also in the leading and organizing. The leading function of the management refers to the use of influence to motivate the employees to achieve the organizations’ goals. Employees’ motivation is dependent on numerous factors such as economic, social and cultural factors. Management cannot influence the employees to achieve certain desired goal without the understanding of the factors affecting the human resource. The information about the human resources is obtained by conducting environmental resources. Buford and Bedian (2009) point out that understanding the needs and the culture of the employees is vital in leading them towards a common goal. Therefore, the environmental analysis which includes the analysis of the employees’ culture and needs perfects the effectiveness of the leading function of the management. Analysts state that the effectiveness of a management in executive their organization function depend hugely on the how well the management understanding their business organization internal and external environments (Buford & Bedian 2009). Organization entails devising a structure, acquiring and communication pattern. Strategic management investigates the skills available in the market and the one required in order to achieve the required objectives. Therefore, the organization function benefits from the strategic management in the sense that it provides the information necessary to develop the most suitable structure and employee’s recruiting and training criteria. For instance, strategic management identifies the skills in the market while the management develops a structure that corresponds to the available skills. The strategic management identifies the engineers in the markets while the management develops a structure that includes this skill. Strategic planning is a major element of strategic management that has a great influence in the management functions. Mintzberg and Waters (2013) write that strategic planning provides a platform for the management functions namely organizing, leading and controlling. Leading employee in an organization indicates that the management must have a plan of what should be done and what should be accomplished. The motivation of the employees is done in order to achieve predetermined organizational goals. The details of these organizational goals are contained in the strategic planning element of the strategic management. Therefore, strategic planning provides an opportunity through which the management can optimize the effectiveness of the leading function of management. Strategic planning plays a major role in the organization function of management. Mintzberg and Waters (2013) indicates that the development of an organization structure depend on the plan which the organization intends to achieve. The structure is devised to meet the position formulated and outlined in the strategic plan. Strategic plan identifies the skills required in an organization in order to achieve the strategic goals and objectives. According to Mintzberg and Waters (2013), organizational structure is developed to meet the requirement of the strategic plan. Consequently, strategic plan can help to optimize the effectiveness of the organizational function of the management as the plan provides an outline of what is to be achieved. Anderson (2010) writes that controlling is only possible if there is a plan upon which the progress of the business is evaluated. Controlling cannot take place if there is no plan to compare the progress and the initial plan. Apparently, the interrelationship between the strategic planning and the controlling of the management is indispensable. A comprehensive and detailed plan enhances the controlling function of management as the organization progress is clearly evaluated at every stage. Paine (2014) argues that the controlling function of the management start by developing a comprehensive plan that capture a wide range of the business goals and objectives. It is therefore, fairly agreeably that developing a detailed and a clear strategic plan will help optimize the effectiveness of the controlling function of the management. Strategic implementation is a major element of strategic management that is interlinked with most of the management functions. Strategic implementation is an element of the strategic management that deals with the execution of actions as stipulated in the strategic plan to meet the organizations’ objectives. According to Mintzberg (2009) controlling is done on activities that have already been executed. Therefore, in order to perform the controlling function of management, the activities that feature in the project plan should be implemented. Apparently, strategic implementation allows the management to perform the control functions on the progress made by an organization towards the set objectives. In order to optimize the effectiveness of the control function of the management, strategic implementation should adhere to the initial plan so that there is no wide diversion from the initial plan. The last element of strategic management is the evaluation and control that has a huge influence on the management functions. Strategic evaluation and control involves examining the progress of the strategic plan by comparing what has been done and what was planned. The element allows the management to identify diversion from the initial plan and hence make the necessary step to correct the diversion. Buford and Bedian (2009) writes that strategic evaluation help to identity potential risks that may affect the strategic plan and hence take the precautions to prevent the risks from occurring or minimize the detrimental effects of the risks. Koontz and O’Donnel (2008) argue that the strategic evaluation and control is a vital element that help organization management to improve and optimize the efficiencies of most of the management function namely planning, leading and organizing. He states that evaluation and control is a measure of the effectiveness of the planning, leading and organizing functions of the management. Effective planning, leading and organizing eases the control function of the management. A good plan captures a wide range of the activities and provides solutions to various issues likely to arise during the planning. It is therefore arguably true to say that strategic evaluation and control help to optimize the management functions namely planning, organizing and leading as its measures the efficiency at which these functions were performed. This paper has demonstrated how the elements of strategic management help to optimize the effectiveness of the management functions. Strategic management has four elements namely environmental analysis, strategic planning, strategic implementation and evaluation and implementation. These elements are interlinked with the management functions namely leading, planning, organizing and controlling. As a result, these strategic elements can be used to optimize the management functions as described in this paper. Bibliography Anderson, T., 2010, Strategic Planning, Autonomous Actions and Corporate Performance. Long-range planning, 33, (2), p. 184 - 200. This article by Anderson (2010) discusses the strategic evaluation and control as an element of strategic management. The article indicates that strategic evaluation and control is important in management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management functions namely leading, organizing and planning. The article is used to show how the strategic evaluation and control help to improve the efficiency of planning, organizing and controlling functions of management Buford, J. & Bedian, A., 2009, Management in extension. Journal of management, 17 (9) 263. The article by Buford and Bedian (2009) captures element of strategic planning and organization function of management and described how it related to strategic management. The article indicates that Strategic planning id related to management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management functions namely leading, organizing and planning. The article is used to show how the strategic evaluation and control help to improve the efficiency of planning, organizing and controlling functions of management. Elkins, A. (2011). Management structures, functions, and practices. Oxford Business Journal, 8 (7) p.78. This article by Elkins (2011) define strategic management and how it is related to management functions. The article shows that strategic management significantly affected the management functions. The article is used to define the term strategic management and the show how the elements can optimize the management functions. Koontz, H., & O'Donnel, C. (2008). Essentials of management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, p. 104-105. This article by Koont and O’Donnel (2008) descries various elements of the strategic management and how the elements are related to the management functions. The article states the four elements of the strategic management and describes how they affect the management functions. The article is used to define the term strategic management and the show how the elements can optimize the management functions. Mintzberg, H., 2009,Crafting Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 65 (4) p. 44--55. This article by Mintzberg (2014) describes the strategic implementation as an element of the strategic management. The article argues that strategic implementation is vital in management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management function namely planning. The article is used to show how the strategic implementation helps to improve the efficiency of planning function of management. Mintzberg, H. & Waters, J., 2013, Planning of strategies deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6 (3) p 257—272. This article by Mintzberg and Waters (2013) describes the functions of management namely leading, organizing and controlling and how they are related to strategic management. The article argues that environmental analysis is important in management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management function namely leading, organizing and controlling. The article is used to show how the environmental analysis helps to improve the efficiency of the stated functions of management. Paine, L., 2014, Managing for organizational integrity. Harvard Business Review, 26 (4) 106- 117. This article by Paine, (2014) describes the environmental analysis as an element of the strategic management. The article argues that environmental analysis is important in management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management function namely planning. The article is used to show how the environmental analysis help to improve the efficiency of planning function of management. Pearce, J.,2009,. The company mission as a strategic tool. Sloan Management Review, 28 (9) 15-24. This article by Pearce (2009) describes the environmental analysis as an element of the strategic management. The article argues that environmental analysis is important in management hence can be used to improve the efficiency of the management function namely planning. The article is used to show how the environmental analysis help to improve the efficiency of planning function of management. References Anderson, T., 2010, Strategic Planning, Autonomous Actions and Corporate Performance. Long-range planning, 33, (2). 184 - 200. Buford, J. & Bedian, A., 2009, Management in extension. Journal of management, 17 (9) 263. Elkins, A., 2011, Management structures, functions, and practices. Oxford Business Journal, 8 (7) p.78 Koontz, H., & O'Donnel, C., 2008, Essentials of management. Harvard Business Review 38, (9) p 104-105. Mintzberg, H., 2009,Crafting Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 65 (4) p. 44--55. Mintzberg, H. & Waters, J., 2013, Planning of strategies deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6 (3) p 257--272 Paine, L., 2014,. Managing for organizational integrity. Harvard Business Review, 26 (4) 106-117. Pearce, J., 2009, The company mission as a strategic tool. Sloan Management Review, 28 (9) 15-24. Read More