Aligning Vision, Strategy, and Behavior - Essay Example

Aligning Vision, Strategy, and Behavior Aligning vision, strategy, and behavior As a result of the extreme market challenges that are prevalent in the modern market, it is very important for a business manager to be able to align the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior. For them to do this successfully they have to be skillful and cautious in coming up with the strategies that are used in aligning these business factors. Failure to align these factors can lead to a very frustrating situation for business organization executive officers. This not only cause discomfort to the management but to all the stakeholders in business organization. This a paper aims at discussing ways through which business organizations can align the vision and strategy with their employees’ behavior. The most important thing that a person needs to know before starting the alignment process is that the right strategy is the one which employees want to implement. Therefore, the management should make sure that employees are passionate about the strategy. In consideration to this point, the best strategy is always described as the one at the intersection of capability, passion, and opportunity. Through this the management will be able to make the business employees treat the business strategy as their own and not just some guideline that is imposed on them by the management. This might sound like an easy thing to do, but the truth is that there are allot of things that are involved in this process (Daniell, 2004). This means that diligence and cooperation will be of utmost importance in this process. In some cases business organizations can benefit from stability while in other cases, they benefit from the changes. In a typical business environment, a business organization will need to have both change and stability. The competitive values framework of management discourages the assumption that stability and change are exclusive in a mutual manner. A business organization should, therefore, be aware of the factors that should be left unchanged and those that should go through the process of change (Kerr & Jackofsky, 1989). For the alignment process to be a complete success, a business manager is expected to have the ability to mentor and aid those working under them to develop. The management might also opt to use the stage performance evaluation to evaluate the performance and development of the business organization’s employees. This evaluation process involves a cycle with four stages. These stages are performance planning, performance execution, performance assessment, and performance review. This is a very good way to know if there is an improvement on the performance or not. The competing value framework can be used to point out some of the criteria’s and values and effectiveness under which organizations and work units can be judged. The upper left quadrant of the competing value framework reflects collaborative action imperative. Effectiveness in this quadrant highly depends on the creation and the sustenance of commitment and cohesion. Collaborators are expected to openly and respectively communicate with everyone. This makes it very necessary for them to have a deep understanding and concern for others and themselves too. Collaborators might be important in monitoring and developing of persons in the organization as well as leading groups and managing team. The bottom left quadrant of this framework is always linked to the control action imperative. Effectiveness in this quadrant is aimed at establishing and maintaining continuity and stability. With reference to control, a business manager is supposed to have the knowledge of all the things that are going on in the unit, to find out whether employees are complying with rules and regulations, and to determine whether or not the unit is achieving its goals. As a result of the complex nature of most business organizations, managers are expected to have the capability to move across functions and not just within a single unit. In this case the performance will be measured in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency. This would make unit managers the busiest of all players in the unit. Compete action imperative is always represented by the lower right quadrant. Increasing and improving profitability and productivity is the primary criteria for effectiveness for the whole quadrant. This needs all members of the business organization to have an understanding of the mission of the business organization and the things that they have to do in order for them to contribute towards the organization’s mission. To turn the organization’s vision into reality, managers will have to communicate not only the business’ vision, but what is expected from the employees (Reis & Geller, 2010). Due to the nature of competition, managers are expected to be work focused and task oriented in order to be highly competitive. They are also expected to have the capability of taking quick decisive actions. They should possess characteristics such as energy, motivation, high interest, and personal drive. The upper-right quadrant of this framework shows the characteristics of the open system model and is always labeled creates. Evaluation of effectiveness in this quadrant is always based on the ability to conform to changes and acquiring external support. All managers have the duty of facilitating change and adaptation. Identifying important emerging trends, fostering and fueling innovation, and closely studying the changing environment are the primary tasks of a manager under this quadrant (Yearout, Miles, Koonce, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP., & American Society for Training and Development, 2001). Managers are also expected to establish their power base and negotiating agreements before they attempt to put their ideas into action. To make sure that the process of aligning the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior they work on the commitment and cohesion of their employees. This process involves enhancing flexibility of groups and individuals in the business organization. This will allow the development of personal skills and abilities. The first step involves making the employees aware of the goals of the business organization. This is accompanied by making employees aware of how their contribution fits into the business organization’s goals. With employees who are this much equipped, the business organization will be able to get the best out of their employees (Jackson, Schuler, Werner & Jackson, 2009). The paradoxes can exist when ideas that seem to be contradictory or inconsistent are in in actual sense both true. Value frameworks that are competitive assert that managers are often faced with paradoxical situations. Some of these paradoxes are a result of demands that are competing due to the competing values across the quadrant. There are various types of paradox that can emerge from such a process. There might be a paradox associated with learning more about oneself I order to increase someone’s capacity to go through change and become a better person. There is also another paradox that is related to the human quadrant which emerges when the management overemphasizes on building commitment and cohesion by involving people in the decision making process. This is because decision making that involves groups usually takes longer. This might be as a result of the difference in the various opinions that members of the group might have. This will mean that the management will have to go it alone when it comes to making individual decisions in circumstances where using groups is likely not to yield quality results. In the human relations model, there are various assumptions that are made. The first assumption is that the business organization is not entirely an economic system, but a social one. This is aimed at enabling the alignment process to take into consideration the interests of all the interested parties. The second assumption is that many needs can result to the motivation of employees. The third assumption is that people will not always behave in rational or logical ways. The fourth assumption asserts that at a working place, workers are always interdependent and their behavior during this period is determined by the social context (Edwards, 2000). The fifth assumption is that the behaviors and attitudes of employees are highly affected by the informal work group. The sixth assumption is that economic rewards, rules, and regulations have very minimal impact on the way employees behave in a business organization. The seventh assumption assumes that job roles are by far more complex than job descriptions. Communication channels should also consider both the employee’s emotional needs and the business organization’s economic goals. The ninth assumption is that teamwork is very important in enhancing proper decision making among employees. The model also assumes that job satisfaction enhances productivity and proper use of resources. The final assumption is that managers need both social and tactical skills in order to properly manage a business organization effectively (Tavana, 2011). There are four inter-professional Collaborative Practice Competencies. These are: value/ethics of inter-professional practice, Inter-professional Communication, Roles/Responsibilities, and Teams and Teamwork. Value/ethics of inter-professional practice enhances and regulates how a person works with people of different professions with the aim of enhancing a climate of shared values and mutual respect. Inter-professional communication enables an individual roles/responsibilities enables the use of the knowledge of one’s role in the business process and the roles of other professionals to assess the matters at hand. These competencies help individuals in understanding themselves and the people around them. They also enable individuals to communicate effectively and honestly. They also enable people to mentor and monitor others. They also give business managers the skills of leading teams and managing groups. Through these competencies managers can also be able to manage conflicts and encourage those that are constructive. These abilities can enable a business manager to effectively align the business strategies the behaviors of their employees with the aim of maximizing the productivity of the business organization. There are various advantages that are related business management, focusing on human relations. This is because managers who focus on human relations have been discovered to show higher levels of self-awareness. They have also proved to be good communicators. This is seen in the way they are able to make good listeners and good speakers. They are also able to regularly provide their employees with constructive feedback. This helps in enhancing their employees’ belief in their leadership capabilities. They are also able to effectively communicate the business’ expectations to team members. This makes them reliable team and group leaders. This breed of business managers were also discovered to be able to give encouragement to their employees to learn from each other (Kumar, 2010). This is basically facilitated by the different perspectives and ideas that the group members might be having. This breed of manger can, therefore, be said to possess the adequate skills and abilities that can enable them to bring out the best from the team members. This will eventually reflect in the performance of the business organization. There are four primary tensions that business managers should always consider when trying to align the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior. These tensions are internal focus, stability, external focus, and flexibility. If the management takes all these tensions into consideration then they will most definitely be successful in the process of aligning the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior. On the other hand failure to put all these tensions can lead to the failure of the all process. As much as the business would need stability, the stability will have to be balanced with some flexibility. The business should also make sure that they have a balance in both internal and external focus. In the process of aligning the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior to be successful, the manager is expected to possess social and emotional intelligence. The manager should be aware of their own emotions and be able master their own emotions. This can only be possible if they go through a process of self-assessment. This will help them have a full understanding of themselves. This understanding will be a boost to their self-confidence (Oden, 1999). A leader or manager with no self-confidence will have a hard time trying to win the confidence of the people they are leading. This is likely to negatively affect the aligning the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior process. Social intelligence will enable a manager to have social awareness. Social awareness will help them in having healthy relations with the people around them. This will mean that they will be able to effectively work with the entire stakeholder in the business organization. Social intelligence will also enable the business management to effectively manage relations within the business organization. Given that they will be acting as team leaders, it is very important for them to be able to make sure that the relationships between the team members are healthy ones. This will help in enhancing collective productivity in the business organization. A business manager should also develop the culture of seeking feedback from their employees. This will help them in knowing what the team members think about their ideas and perspectives. They should do this by making sure that they open to hearing new ideas. This can only happen if they have developed good working relationships with the team members. They should also keep it in mind that by welcoming feedback they are welcoming other people’s perspectives and they do not necessarily have to be similar to their perspective. When a feedback is given they should always make sure that they have the right understanding of the feedback in order to avoid misconceptions. Finally, they should always make sure that they show their appreciation for the feedback given. This will encourage more feedback in the future. Effective communication is of high importance to the process of aligning the vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior. There are various factors that can hinder proper communication in a business organization. One of such factors is hidden agenda. When a person has an agenda that is contrary to that of the business organization they might find it hard to communicate to their colleagues with honesty (Kets, 2010). Inarticulateness can also hinder proper communication in a business organization. This is because it can lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings. In a case where one of the parties in a communication setting is hostile, the effectiveness of the communication process might be tampered with. This is because the other parties might shy away from being involved in such communication. Distractions are also likely to interfere with the quality of communication in a business organization. This is because it can negatively affect the accuracy of the communication process. The business management should also make sure that the communication style that is used in the business organization is synchronized. This enables them to avoid the undesirable effect of having dissimilar communication styles within the business organization. It is clearly evident that the alignment of the business’ vision, strategy, and employees’ behavior is a vital thing in business management. This is because it enables the business and its employees to function as a single system. This process is, however, not a walk in the park. This is because it requires allot of managerial input for it to be successful. Failure of proper management will mean that the whole process might turn into a big failure. As shown through this paper, a manager is expected to have relevant skills, attitude, and character that will enable them to successfully align these important aspects of a business organization existence and growth. References Daniell, M. (2004). Strategy!: A Step-by-Step Approach to Development and Presentation of World Class Business Strategy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Edwards, B. A. (2000). Chief executive officer behavior: the catalyst for strategic alignment. International Journal of Value-Based Management, 13(1), 47-54. Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., Werner, S., & Jackson, S. E. (2009). Managing human resources. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Kerr, J. L., & Jackofsky, E. F. (1989). Aligning managers with strategies: Management development versus selection. Strategic Management Journal, 10(S1), 157-170. Kets, . V. M. F. R. (2010). Reflections on leadership and career development. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Kumar, D. (2010). Enterprise growth strategy: Vision, planning and execution. Farnham, Surrey, England: Gower. Oden, H. W. (1999). Transforming the organization: A social-technical approach. Westport, Conn: Quorum. Reis, M., & Geller, J. B. (2010). A managers guide to human behavior. New York: American Management Association. Tavana, M. (2011). Managing adaptability, intervention and people in enterprise information systems. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Yearout, S., Miles, G., Koonce, R., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP., & American Society for Training and Development. (2001). Growing leaders: A leader-builder handbook for HRD and training professionals, business executives and managers, executive coaches. Alexandria, VA: ASTD. Appendix : Implementation Plan Improvement Strategy Name: Aligning vision, strategy, and behavior Time allocated: 12 months. Strategy Description 1. The first step on this plan would be trying to find out what the eployees generally think about the strategy of the business organization. This will help the management to know whether the employees are satisfied by the strategy employed by the firm. This is likely to occuy the first month 2. After knowing what the employee think and getting their reccomebndations, the management should consider explaining the firm’s vision and help them know how their contribution is helpful to the process. This might also take a month. 3. After making employees understand the company’s vision and strategy, the campany should arrange comferences and seminars that are meant to bring the views of emploeyies and the vision and strategy of the business to a consensus. This should take about three months. 4. After the various conferences and seminars, the business should then com up with a strategy that will enhance job satisfaction while at the same time fulfilling the firms goals. This will take a total of three months. 5. With a new strategy the company will need to undertake a prototype to make sure that the revised strategy is effective. This will take 2 month. 6. After the prototype the company will do the final editing of the strategy and job description before they emplement the plan. This is supposed to take 2 months. Read More