Resources, Competencies, and Capabilities Strategic Management in Healthcare - Essay Example

? Strategic Management in Healthcare Resources, competencies, and capabilities A healthcare organization needs different assets to run its processes and activities. “Ttangible and intangible assets a firm uses to choose and implement its strategies” can be termed as resources (Haverkamp 50). Resources are categorized into internal and external resources on the basis of their nature. If the resources are created within the organization, they are called internal resources. In contrast, if resources are obtained externally from suppliers, they can be regarded as external resources. Evidently, an organization can use its different resources to create and gain competitive advantages if they are employed in a meaningful way. The strengths an organization possesses to confront with its competitors in the marketplace can be considered as the organization’s competencies. An organization must acquire a minimum level of competencies to survive the current stiff market competition. It must be noted that competencies may not benefit an organization when they stand alone. An organization can attain competitive advantages when its competencies are combined in the right proportions. In case of a healthcare organization, it must possess competencies like quality care, uninterrupted services, and improved patient safety; and, these competencies have to be combined in the right manner to achieve a key position in the healthcare industry. Finally, capability can be simply referred to an organization’s ability to utilize its resources and strengths in proper way to achieve a particular objective. It is clear that resources and competencies are of no use if the organization does not possess enough capabilities. In addition, if the organization maintains strong capabilities, it can find newer potential resources and develop more improved competencies. Generally, investors and market analysts observe resources, competencies, and capabilities of an organization so as to determine its industry position. Therefore, the organization’s management emphasizes developing more potential resources and competencies and thereby achieving stronger capabilities. 2. Home care: Three barriers Home care, or sometimes referred to as social care, is a specific healthcare service area providing supportive care in patients’ home. Although this healthcare service sector is becoming popular in the United States, organizations find it difficult to enter this area due to some potential entry barriers. The main barriers to entry in home care include strict certification rules, lack of qualified staff, and violence toward home care workers. Although certification laws are favorable in states like California, which is not a licensure state for custodial care services, strict certification rules become a potential challenge to providers in states like Florida. Therefore, strict certification laws significantly reduce the scope of home care. Likewise, inadequacy of qualified staff is another major entry barrier in home care. Home care workers are required to attend an examination to achieve the status of a state tested Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). In addition, they need to undergo drug testing, background check, and other general reference procedures. Due to such tough qualification tests and declining availability of nursing care workers, fewer staff is available for home care work. Reports indicate that violence towards home care staff (particularly female), is growing in the United States. As a result, workers are reluctant to go patients’ home where they (workers) are likely to be assaulted sexually or physically. In short, these three potential entry barriers force health providers to stay away from the home care sector. 3. Strategic planning and strategic thinking It is a common misperception that strategic planning and strategic thinking are interchangeable terms. The fact is that these are two distinct terms even though they are interrelated and complementary. Management professionals opine that strategic planning and strategic thinking must support one another in order for promoting effective strategic management. The Graetz’s model clearly states the roles of strategic thinking and strategic planning. According to this model, the role of strategic thinking is “to seek innovation and imagine new and very different futures that may lead the company to redefine its core strategies and even its industry” whereas strategic planning functions are “to realize and to support strategies developed through the strategic thinking process and to integrate these back into the business” (Graetz’s). Hence, strategic planning and strategic thinking differ in a number of dimensions of strategic management. As Lawrence points out, in the view of Liedtka, strategic thinking can forecast only ‘the shape of the future’ whereas strategic planning can predict and specify future in detail. The author specifically states that strategic formulation and implementation are more interactive under strategic thinking while formulation and implementation roles can be neatly divided under strategic planning. In terms of managerial role in strategy making, lower level managers are encouraged to respond thoughtfully to developing opportunities. At the same time, senior executives collect the crucial information from lower level managers in order to create a strategic plan, which in turn is assigned to managers for implementation. As Lawrence describes, Liedtka indicates that strategic thinking encourages managers to understand the connection between their roles and the functioning of the larger organizational system. They also need to recognize the interdependence between different roles that constitute the system. However, strategic management is a top management process and therefore lower level manages need to know only their roles (Lawrence). Strategic thinking plays an important role in terms of strategy making. It gives the personnel a feeling that change is necessary and finding and implementing a new strategic option is inevitable. The role of strategic planning in strategy making is to set a clear strategic direction. Finally, strategic thinking specifically emphasizes the planning process whereas strategic planning pays particular attention to the creation of the plan. 4. Mission, vision, and values Simply, mission can be defined as the major purpose of an organization. In other words, the mission statement should reflect the reason why the organization is running. Some management experts claim that mission statement must answer questions such as: who you are? What do you do? Why do exist, and what do you serve?; and in addition, it should include the purpose, which means that the end result the organization is seeking to achieve (Davis-Allison). The vision particularly focuses on a future period (at least five years ahead) and clearly defines a desired status of the company at that time. Some authors refer vision to the shared image of success that motivates and guides people to work together. A vision statement must particularly answer the question: what will success look like? In addition, the vision must be potential to inspire the workgroup to improve their capabilities for achieving the purpose of the organization. Another feature of a good vision is that it primarily focuses on the client to be served. Generally, “vision statements begin with intuition and ideas, evolve through discussion and result in a shared sense of direction and motivation” (Davis-Allison). Referring to Masters, some key and lasting beliefs shared by an organization’s members constitute values. They keep such beliefs in common and put them into practice. The values set by an organization guide its members to perform their tasks in an ethical way (80). Mission, vision, and values form the foundation for strategy development and implementation. Evidently, a potential strategy is effective to create organizational value and to serve customers better way. In addition, an effective strategy provides the organization with a winning formula for its purpose, goals, and standards. Therefore, it can be claimed that major intention of strategy development and implementation is to support the organization’s mission, to achieve the vision, and to promote the values. Hence, top management usually gives particular focus to the organization’s mission, vision, and values while addressing strategy development and execution. Works Cited Davis-Allison, Jennifer. Mission, vision, values: A workshop. Partners Consortium, LLC. Web 15 March 2013 Graetz, Fiona. "Strategic thinking versus strategic planning: towards understanding the complementarities", Management Decision, (2002) 40 (5): 456 – 462. Haverkamp, Derk-Jan. Environmental Management In The Dutch Food And Beverage Industry. Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Pub, 2007. Print. Lawrence, Eton. Strategic thinking: A Discussion Paper. Public Service Commission of Canada, 1999. Web 15March 2013 Masters, Kathleen. Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice. UK: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009. Print. Read More