Strategic Management for Forestry Commission - Case Study Example

?Strategic Management Strategic management mainly consists of analysis, decisions and action undertaken by an organization in order to make and sustain competitive advantages. Strategic management is concerned with vision, mission and strategic objectives along with the internal and external environments of the particular organization. The study taken here is a Forestry Commission’s (FC) case study based on a country base company. In early 1919, with the passing of Forestry Act, FC was established as a Government department. Their traditional Autocratic management practices concentrate only on the industrial revolution and rural development, which was the need of their political agenda those days. This resulted into deforestation. In Autocratic or Authoritative management style, the senior managers take all the important decisions without considering the involvement of workers. Senior managers do not trust their workers; they simply give orders to them. The disadvantage of Autocratic style of management style is that there is only one way communication, and this creates “them and us” attitude in between managers and workers. In FC, the organizational structure was hierarchical too. So, there was a wide gap between top to bottom order. Due to this kind of command and control system, workers just did only what they were told to do because of fear. Centralization is a system in which the concentration of decision making lies in few hands only. All the important decisions are subjects to the approval of top-level management and other levels can implement these decisions as per the directions of top level managers. On the other hand, decentralization means systematic delegation of authority to all levels of management and to all departments of an organization. In 1995, David Bills was appointed as the Director General of FC. One notable point about him is that he is an outsider from Australia. Environmental concern is one of the big issues in front of FC. Few groups raised environmental issues against FC; they accused FC of lack of awareness in various environmental and animal right issues. It became very crucial to FC’s economic survival. Nowadays, the term 'corporate social responsibility' is much closer to all organizations. Corporate social responsibility refers to the way companies integrate environmental, social and economic concerns into their values and operations in an accountable and transparent manner. It is related to long term growth and success of the organization. It plays an important role to contribute to the sustainable growth of communities. It became a responsibility of any organization to foster and promote corporate social responsibility. Another problem in front of David Bill is to change the FC’s culture. It is more difficult to change the existing culture than create a new culture in a new organization. When an organizational culture is already there, it is difficult for people to forget their old behavior, beliefs and assumptions and to adapt a new behavioral pattern. In business world, one thing can be least assured, which is change. If any organization experiences changes, resistance among employees is common. Executive support and training are most important elements to create a cultural change. When David Bill joined the organization, he found a very challenging task in the organization and that was to boost the morale of employees, who had a very low morale and they considered the organization to be a ‘sinking ship’. For him, the most important task was to raise the morale of the employees and to employ them as profitably as he could in the organization. The main aim of the FC was to rebuild and maintain the timber reserves. But the organizational structure was highly influenced by the “hierarchical military systems of the time and the use of military language” (McCann 2004, p. 949). Hierarchical system in an organization allows for understanding the direct line of authority. There should be a line of authority. Authority should also be accompanied with responsibility. Authority and responsibility also call the need of accountability in the organization. When a person is entrusted with the authority of the organization, he has the task of being responsible for all in the organization and similarly, he is accountable for all the happenings in the organization. It is important that the flow of information is through a line of authority. Line of authority helps to carry out the division of work easier and allows the flow of information passing appropriately by following the adequate chain of command. After David Bill took charge of FC, he intended to practice the flow of information through an adequate line of authority so that each person is answerable to his duties and can report to his next superior. Similarly, the employees can know to whom to talk about their grievances when there is a line of authority. Line of authority helps in identifying and removing the communication gap in the organization. Communication gap is the cause of several miscommunications and misunderstandings in organizations, which eventually affects the organization’s success. Within FC policy and planning, conservation of environment and the amenity issues were of high concern. Because of the pressures in the forestry review, in 1994 the FC splitted into Forestry Authority (FA) and Forest Enterprise (FE) in order to serve the commercial affairs of the organization. Strategic management is a very important task and after the adoption of the CONNECT events several changes had taken place in the organization like the adoption of the new FC values. The new FC values reaffirmed the organizational culture and in May 2002 the director was able to inculcate in the firm teamwork, professionalism, respect, communication, learning and creativity. These positive character traits were brought into the organization and this was mainly due to the strategic management capabilities adopted by David Bill. The senior management agreed on the ‘CONNECT’ action plan. The VSPC programme was another programme aimed at improving the strategic management in the firm. This programme aimed to cring stargic cultural change in the organization. Thus the CEO brought several changes and incorporated the theories of strategic management for improving the organization’s external and internal weaknesses. The CEO could readily change the culture of the sub units also and the managers actively participated in their work. Changes in the organizational structure cannot be made by the incorporation of a grand plan, but it can only be made through gradual process which brings about adequate stability in the organization. Maintaining a line of authority helps in the unification of the workforce. Incorporating changes by following the adequate hierarchical control helps the firm in achieving a strong internal structure which strengthens the organization and helps it in achieving its goals and objectives more successfully. It is important that strategic management needs to be practiced adequately in the organization so that the organization achieves success and the corporate level and international strategy in the organization is strengthened. Therefore, strategic management is not a task which can be incorporated in just a day or two. It is a task which requires careful operation and management of the firm’s affairs. Reference List McCann, A., 2004. The Forestry Commission: Cultural Change to Deliver a New Strategy. Pearson Education. Print. Read More