The Operations of Different Organisations in the Environment - Essay Example

?Change is real, it is radical and it faces us every day given that aspects such as changing consumer lifestyles, economic conditions, political forces, social systems as well as employee profiles force organisations to adapt or die (Schultz et al 2005). Thus, winning companies are those that anticipate change and react to it in time. As such, this paper seeks to answer six different questions showing a critical analysis of how the different concepts raised in each question impact on the company’s initiative to implement change. The following concepts are going to be covered in the main discussion of the paper: strategic planning as a tool for change, aspect of strategic drift, quality concepts, quality gurus, total quality management as well as performance management and balanced score card. A summary of the main points discussed will be given in the conclusion at the end of the paper. 1. Basically, strategic planning can be defined as the process of attempting to strike a balance between the organisation’s objectives and resources and its changing opportunities (Mintzberg, 2000). It tries to set the direction for the use of all resources and this direction will remain valid for a period of time. As such, analysing scenarios and using them as a strategic planning tool is beneficial for planners to rank them and attempt to identify commonness in possible futures and potential pathways. Thus, scenario review involves engaging in a systematic conjecture concerning potential futures and is mainly based on scanning the environment in which the organisation operates, interpreting signals and making predictions about what might happen next. This allows the organisation to be better positioned to formulate ideal strategies that can be implemented to meet the changing demands of the environment in which the organisation operates. It is important for the planners to rank these scenarios given that they often differ in their order of importance. Some scenarios would require immediate actions while others would require long term plans. It is also important for the planners to identify the commonness of these scenarios in possible futures and potential pathways so as to enable them to ensure that they do not waste resources on scenarios which would otherwise require the same strategy to be solved. The planners have to first identify the scenario then followed by choosing the appropriate pathway that can be taken to fulfil the strategy. Pertinent scenarios to the organisation are often given priority and it is the duty of the planner to anticipate the intended destination of the strategy to be implemented. 2. Strategic drift is a scenario that is witnessed when a strategy manager has failed to monitor and keep pace with its changing external environment. There are certain issues for managers when they prevent strategic drift and some of them involve the following: establishing the capacity of the organisation to make the strategy happen, availability of resources as well as fear for worsening the situation. The environment in which organisations operate is dynamic and at times, unprecedented scenarios which are unfavorable to the organisation may emerge the reason why managers ought to prevent such issues from happening (Kleynhans et al 2007). In most cases, the managers prevent strategic drift by weighing their capability of making the strategy happen. Indeed, there may be changes in the external environment and it is the role of the strategy managers to ensure that the organisation has the capability to meet these changes. In order to prevent strategic drift, the managers ought to deploy strategic decisions that will ensure that the organisation may remain viable in the face of changing environment so as to be able to be better positioned to keep pace with the changes. The availability of resources and time may be the other issues for the managers when preventing strategic drift. It is the duty of the manager to ensure that they channel adequate resources that enable them to monitor the environment to avoid strategic drift. The other issue for the strategy managers when they prevent strategic drift is that they may be afraid of worsening the situation hence will try by all means to deploy the limited resources to ensure that the organisation is better positioned to keep pace with the changes that may take place in the environment. 3. Quality is based on judgement by the individual or organisation of a particular product with regards to value or satisfaction derived from using it. Thus, Kotler & Armstrong (2004) suggest that product quality has two dimensions namely level and consistency. In developing the product, the marketer must first choose a quality level that will support the product’s position in the target market. In this case, product quality means performance quality which entails the product’s ability to perform its functions. On the other hand, high quality can also mean high levels of quality consistency, freedom from defects as well as satisfactory performance. Thus, organisations that are concerned about their viability give the concept of quality precedence as it is a source of competitive advantage. An article by Carney Dan (2 October, 2010) entitled ‘Toyota woes follow years of slipping quality’ is going to be analysed in order to describe how Toyota applies the concepts of quality in its operations. Historically, the Japanese automaker’s products have been highly valued by the Americans as a result of their high quality. However, Toyota seems to have sacrificed its market share for the need of high market share which has resulted in decline in terms of the products offered. This came as a revelation that it would recall 437 000 hybrid vehicles worldwide for braking problems. This article suggests that there is no substitute for quality the reason why it had to recall the defective vehicles. In as far as the concept of quality is concerned, an organisation that does not prioritize it is likely to suffer the consequences as the sales will decline. As noted in this article, the aspect of quality has been giving Toyota the competitive edge in the motor industry. 4. A guru can be loosely defined as a wise person and a teacher. As such, a quality guru should be these and he should also have developed a concept and an approach to quality within organisations that has made a major and lasting impact in the operations of organisations. In this case, attention will be give to the work of Edwards W. Deming who placed great emphasis on the operations of the management both at individual and company level. His concept of quality is based on the notion that the management is responsible for about 94 % of all the quality problems that are faced by the organisations in their day to day operations. He suggested a systematic approach to problem through his widely acclaimed model which involves the following steps: Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) cycle which was originally developed by Walter Shewhart. Deming also suggested a fourteen point plan which is a philosophy of management and this can be applied to any organisation, whether small or large in the private, public as well as the service sectors of the economy. The fourteen point plan is comprised of the following elements: Create a constancy of purpose, adopt a philosophy of prevention, cease mass inspection, select a few suppliers based upon their quality, constantly improve the system and workers, institute worker training, instill leadership among supervisors, eliminate fear among employees, eliminate barriers between departments, eliminate slogans, remove numerical quotas, enhance worker pride, institute vigorous training and education programs. If these points are carefully implemented in the organisation, the chances of ensuring consistency in the quality of product will be very high. It can be noted that most organisational processes are cross functional hence the need to ensure that parts of the system work together in order to attain the goals of maintaining quality and consistency. During the contemporary period, it can be noted that most of the organisations implement this system given that there is a strong correlation between the activities of different departments and the management has a task of optimising the whole system. Quality of products and services offered by the organisation plays a very important role in ensuring the viability of the organisation. The concept of quality gives the organisation a competitive advantage given that the products offered will be valued by the customers as a result of the satisfaction derived from using them. There will be chances of creating loyalty among the customers which is very important especially during the current period where it can be noted that the environment in which the organisations operate is characterised by stiff competition from different actors in the same industry. 5. Total quality management (TQM) is an approach in which all the company’s people are involved in constantly improving the quality of the products, services and business processes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004). This is a continuous process in the organisation and the main aim is to ensure that the organisation offers quality products all the time. Quality is associated with customer satisfaction and this is one of the main reasons why organisations are particularly concerned with ensuring that their products and services are of high quality. Thus, TQM philosophy is mainly concerned with providing a framework for continually improving the organisation to enhance customer satisfaction. However, total quality management movement has drawn some criticism. This is the reason why some major organisations, who were world leaders in adopting TQM are now moving their organisational focus and investment away from it and other formal quality frameworks. Many companies view TQM as a magic cure-all and created token total quality programmes that applied quality principles only superficially (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004). The problem identified with TQM is that some people tend to narrowly define its principles and have lost sight of broader concerns for customer value and satisfaction which often results in many programmes failing. For many top organisations, customer driven quality has become a way of doing business in a bid to satisfy the needs of the customers profitably. Today the companies are taking a quality approach whereby they view quality as an investment which is responsible for producing better results. 6. Performance management refers to all organisational processes that find out and control how well the employees and the teams perform in their work (Kleynhans, 2007). It involves the use of performance measurement information to set performance goals that are agreed by the members of the organisation, allocate resources towards the attainment of the set goals, change the current course of action to meet the goals as well as to monitor success in the implementation of the strategy to ensure that the set goals are met. On the other hand, the balanced score card is a tool that was created by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton of Harvard University in 1992 to show how the use of only financial measures had a negative correlation with an organisation’s overall performance. This is a tool that provides a basis for strategic measurement and management by utilising four perspectives namely financial, customers, internal business processes and learning & growth. These factors ought to be balanced in order for the firm to achieve its strategic goals. Balanced scorecard is different to the traditional performance management systems in that it seeks to ensure that the four mentioned factors are balanced in order to ensure optimum performance of the organisation as a whole. On the other hand, traditional performance management is mainly concerned with ensuring the attainment of the set goals through the effort so employees in the organisation. Particular emphasis is on how they perform towards the attainment of the goals. This system is goal oriented while the balanced scorecard attempts to balance the four factors mentioned above. The BSC ensures that the customer needs are satisfied through competitive prices, employees are satisfied with their work, and the internal processes are in compliance with production costs as well as welfare of the employees while stakeholder issues are taken care of. All these elements contribute to the effectiveness of the organisation in as far as performance is concerned. From the discussion above, it can be noted that change is real and it affects the operations of different organisations in the environment they will be operating in. Winning companies are those that anticipate change and react to it in time (Schultz et al 2005). This paper discussed critical areas that impact on the organisation’s initiative to implement strategic change so as to be able to remain viable. It has been observed that the concept of quality plays a pivotal role in ensuring the viability of the organisation given that customers are mainly concerned with deriving satisfaction from the products they will purchase. In order for a firm to gain a competitive advantage, quality is a virtue as it distinguishes the organisation from the others through offering valuable products. An organisation that fails to prioritize quality is likely to record a decline in the sales. References Armstrong, M 1994, Human Resources Management Practice, 7th Edition, Kogan Page Limited, NY. 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