Strategic Decisions - Definition and Characteristics - Research Paper Example

Research Proposal number: Introduction The decision making process of an organization dictates its ability to decide on its activities that needs to be conducted in the upcoming days to ensure that the firm is progressing in the desired direction. The decision taken by the higher authority of the organization is largely responsible for the sustenance of the firm and it also dictates how it will carry on its daily activities (Pearce and Robinson 34-56). The decisions taken by the company also defines the organizational culture and behavior, and at the same time it also determines how well its operational activities are being commenced. The strategic decision making on the other hand is a more streamlined segment of the overall decision making process. It is can be considered as an ongoing process which is involved in developing strategies so that the organization is capable of achieving goals and at the same time capable of altering the existing strategies based on the outcomes. The strategic decision making is largely responsible for the success of a company as it determines the success of major operational activities like the manufacturing, marketing, distribution, etc (Stokman 1-153). This research proposal is based on the influence of strategic decisions on the operational activities of product manufacturers. The research paper will encompass the case of Toyota to justify the findings and to answer the research questions. Rationale of the Study The global business environment is increasingly becoming more competitive where the business entities are trying to seek out new ways to increase their competitive advantage and gain higher market share in the industry. This as a result makes it imperative for the organizations to ensure that they are taking the right decisions that will help them to reach achieve the organizational mission in an efficient manner. In order to achieve competitive advantage the firms need to ensure that they are able to generate the higher value at the lowest possible resource utilization. Thus this research work will allow the readers to have a clear idea of the importance of strategic decision making and how other organizations can utilize the findings to increase their operational efficiency. Research Questions The research question acts as the backbone of the research work as it provides a definite direction in which the research work will progress. The research question for this study is as follows: How is strategic decision making responsible for the operational success of the manufacturing companies? How has Toyota managed to design its strategic decisions that have lead to its long term success? What are the generic recommendations that can be outlined from the findings for other manufacturing companies? The research questions clearly indicate that the study will be conducted by focusing on the strategic planning and decision making of Toyota. It will help the researcher to identify the underlying process followed by a successful manufacturing company to run its operational activities. This as a result will help the researcher to make a generic recommendation that can be utilized by other manufacturing companies looking forward to improve their business operations. Research Objectives The research question stated above can be answered by meeting the research objectives. The research objectives for this research paper are as follows: To determine the correlation between the strategic decision making and the operational success of the manufacturing companies. To find out how Toyota commences its operational activities by leveraging strategic planning and decision making. To formulate a set of recommendations for other manufacturing companies that they can employ to achieve desired output. Literature Review The literature review of the research work offers a background discussion to the readers, which helps them to have a clear understanding of the research work. It also allows them to clear idea of what the research work is focused on. This literature review is focused on the strategic decision making and how it is useful for the organizational success. It will also focus on the strategic management of Toyota and other theoretical aspects based on the topic of discussion. It has been mentioned that the decision making process of an organization is one of the most important aspect of the organization, as its success is highly dependent on it. The decision taken by the organizations define the way the organization will progress (Epstein and Westbrook 72). The decision making can be divided in to two dimensions: control and performance. The control is associated with how much the decision making and the outcome can be influenced by the organization. It dictates whether the organization can utilize the existing options present in front of the management or they can develop new ones in order to fit the existing situation. The control dimension also indicates if the organization can control the outcome of the decisions taken or it is completely handicapped in front of the outcome. On contrary, the performance dimension is involved with the way the organzniation measures success. It also indicates how the firms perceive success and whether it is relative or absolute (Rasheed 229). It have opined that the strategic decision making process is one of the most talked about topic in the business management. The decision making process has undergone several speculations starting form behavioral decision making theory to the transaction cost economics (Smith 6-8). However, the topic of organizational decision making has been evolved over the years and has taken the form of “Strategic Decision Making”. In the past decade despite of the several studies conducted in this field, the decision making was mostly based on descriptive studies made on assumptions based on untested hypotheses. However, over the years, several changes have been made in the existing theories. Currently, the study of strategic decision making is more focused on the organizational needs and how their mission statements have been designed. It have been mentioned that the strategic decision making was previously focused on a generic outcome irrespective of considering the organizational needs (Epstein and Westbrook 72). Every organization varies from each other, thereby differing on the grounds of their operations, product and service offerings, and organizational culture. Thus a single thumb rule cannot be designed to work effectively for every organization. This particular drawback gave rise to the concept of strategic planning, where an organization manages it activities in such a way that the priorities are set according to the organizational mission and the management can focus the resources to strengthen the existing operations and that the stakeholders including the employees bear a common goal. It have been mentioned that the strategic planning is a documentation in which connects the organization with the respective organizational goals, the necessary activities required to be conducted in order to achieve those goals and to ensure that the organization is not being deviated from its mission statement (Stokman 1-153). According to the reports of Statista the global automobile industry is dominated by Toyota in terms of global sales. The company holds highest market share industry and is immediately followed by Volkswagen. It has been stated that Toyota is one of the best companies which is known for their efficient strategic planning and operational efficiency. The core competencies of Toyota includes the ability to manufacture automobiles which the maximum value addition possible. The company is capable of producing vehicles of the highest quality and sells it the best price in the market. This can be attributed to the company’s ability to design the most efficient strategic plans. The lean management system developed by Toyota offers an excellent example of efficient operational management resulting from strategic decision making. Research Methodology The methodology of a research work gives a clear over view of how the research work will be conducted. It gives the reader a clear idea of how the researcher has conducted the research work. The methodology of the research offers a general idea regarding how the researcher has attempted to answer the research questions. It discuses about the different ways in which the researcher has collected the data required to meet the research objectives. The research methodology has been conducted by following the research onion described by (Cooper and Schindler 371-406). Research Philosophy The research philosophy dictates the philosophy adopted by the researcher while conducting the research work. The research philosophy can primarily be of three types, positivism, realism and interpretivism. The positivism suggests that any data used for conducting the research work has to be factual and must be backed up by sufficient evidence to prove its authenticity. The positivism philosophy is mostly based on quantitative data. The realism philosophy suggests that the theoretical approach is quite different from the real life practices (Bryman and Bell 56-78). This as a result allows the researcher to consider several perspectives of real life scenario before proposing a theoretical statement. The interpretivism is dependent on the interpretation of the researcher and how the data is being presented. The researcher needs to give sufficient evidence to support his propositions. This research work is based on the realism philosophy, where the researcher will study existing theories on strategic management and will also present the real life case study of the Toyota. This approach will help the researcher to make a compelling statement regarding strategic management and its impact on successful organizations like Toyota. The realism philosophy will also help the reader to compare the proposed statement with the case of Toyota. Research Approach Based on the way the research work has been constructed the research approach can be of two types, inductive and deductive. The deductive approach can be considered as a top down method, where the researcher tests whether or not the observations are in line with the theoretical propositions. On the other hand the inductive approach is a bottom-up approach where the researcher is identifies a pattern from the observation and formulates a theory there from (Greener 40-58). This research work will be based on an inductive approach where the researcher will find the pattern in the operational activities and the strategic planning of Toyota. This as a result will help to formulate a theory than can be generalized. This as a result will help the researcher to develop a generic recommendation for other companies. Research Strategies The research strategies determine data sources on which the research work is based on. It can be based on experimentation, survey, case study, ethnography and action research. This research work will be based on a case study approach, where the data required to meet the research objectives will be gathered from case studies (Cavana, Delahaye and Sekeran 67-72). This as a result will help the researcher to gather real life data on Toyota and it strategic planning and how it has been responsible for the success of the company. The data types can also be divided in terms of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data are descriptive in nature and is mostly based on non-quantitative data which does not require any mathematical analysis. The quantitative data on the other hand is numerical in nature and can undergo numerical and statistical calculation. This research work is based on qualitative data gathered on the strategic planning of Toyota from case study. Data Collection The data collection process is can either primary or secondary or of mixed type. The primary data collection gathers data from primary sources like survey from sample group respondents, observation, etc. The primary data collection helps to gather responses of the pollution of a particular topic of interest. The secondary data collection is based on secondary sources like books, journals, previously published articles, etc (Greener 40-58). This research paper is based on qualitative data collection. The data will be collected from journal articles on operations management and will cover details on the strategic management of Toyota. Ethical Issues Every research work is faced with certain degree of limitations. This research paper is no exception. The researcher has ensured that the research work has been conducted by following all the rules and regulations of the university and not external help has been taken while conducting this study. The researcher has however taken guidance from the module teacher to ensure that the study is progressing in the right direction. The researcher has also ensured that the data collected has not been manipulated in any way to meet the desired results. The secondary data gathered to conduct the research work has ensured to be authentic and relevant in terms of its relation to the research objectives. Works Cited Bryman, Alan, and Emma Bell. Business research methods. Oxford university press, 2015. 56-78. Print. Cavana, Robert, Brian L. Delahaye, and Uma Sekeran. Applied business research: Qualitative and quantitative methods. John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2001. 67-72. Print Cooper, Donald R., and Pamela S. Schindler. "Business research methods." (2003): 371-406. Print. Epstein, Marc J., and Robert A. Westbrook. "Linking actions to profits in strategic decision making." Image (2012). 72. Print. Greener, Sue. Business research methods. BookBoon, 2008. 40-58. Print. Pearce, John A., and Richard Braden Robinson. Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control. Irwin/McGraw-Hill, (2000). 34-56. Print Rasheed, Abdul. "A Multi-Theoretic Model of Strategic Decision Making Processes." Strategic Decisions (2012): 229. print Smith, Ronald D. Strategic planning for public relations. Routledge, 2013. 6-8. Print Statista. Leading motor vehicle manufacturers worldwide in 2014, based on global sales. Statista. 2015. Web Stokman, Frans N., et al. "Strategic decision making." Advances in Group processes 17.13 (2000): 1-153. Print Read More