Importance of Organisation Policy in the Implementation of Strategic Evaluation Tool - Literature review Example

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 5.0 INTRODUCTION The outcome of the primary research was presented in chapter four. However, this outcome has not been discussed in detailed. This is the objective of chapter five. And tit will guarantee reliability of the structure of the topic covered. Chapter 5 therefore will discuss the findings of chapter four, to depict a chronological order of the discussion, the following figure portray a diagrammatic depiction of the chronology of the discussion with regards to the five themes and their sub themes. 5.1 Organisation policy Organisation policy and sub themes remove the diagram It is evident from data analysis that the research question on organisation policy tries to identify the organisation policy that is deem important in supporting the adaptation of the strategic evaluation tool. It was apparent that organisation policy is important in the implementation of strategic evaluation tool within the MOI, The organisation policy helps in determining how the use of strategic evaluation tool depict an effect on how the MOI meets is strategic goals. The insinuation is that the ministry need an organization policy, which will be supportive in ensuring that strategy evaluation used is pertinent to sufficient framework and tools to guarantee their adoption and implementation in a recommended manner. The need for improved organisation policy is also supported by response from the participant 1 and 4. “Senior leadership Officers, Higher committees and His Highness are all very good leaders in showing their commitment to strategy. Clear leadership Commitment. -Performance and development Department with MOI deliver strategic planning process in support of senior leadership Aims and Strategic Objectives.-Local Emirate GHQ’s and MOI functional directorates deliver strategy implementation and performance management, at local emirate and departmental level (1), (4)” . The adequacy of overall strategy and Organization policies as an instrumental in the success of any new programs, it can be observed from the analysis of the feedback from the respondents that the organization policy will not hinder the use of strategic evaluation tool. The ministry’s culture has been educated throughout the past few years to make it easier and more acceptable for people to adapt to change about the person who implements the strategy within the ministry, the ministry’s strategy and performance development department is leading and observing the overall strategy implementation, with collaboration with the other responsible. The sectors within the Ministry’s structure under the supervision of the strategy and performance development are accountable for the implementation of the strategy tool. Maintaining the continuity of internal operations during the development and implementation of strategic plans can minimise the negative effects of changes and can increase the probability of success of the strategic plan planning (Mietzner and Roeger, 2005). In this regards, where a large organization, even if it is in the process of evaluating a major strategic change, is still an on-going operation with thousands of moving parts that need to be maintained and supported (Tanner, 2007). Any change to the internal dynamics of an organization like a corporation or a governmental ministry or department can cause severe dislocation for workers as well as major financial damage for the organization and its stakeholders. Despite the purported proliferation of strategic evaluation tools, the extent to which they are actually used by companies is limited. Indeed, (Kasanen, 2000) demonstrate that the majority of senior managers within organisations rely on their intuition in order to develop strategy and to initiate strategic change. However, it is important to note that the findings may be because research focuses on the prescriptive use of strategic evaluation tools, and thus exclude the more creative linguistic and cognitive ways in which such tools are being used by organisations (Workman, 2005). The limited use of strategic evaluation tools by companies has been attributed to what managers perceive to be their restricted effectiveness because of the complex nature of circumstances, issues of confidentiality, and a lack of quantitative data (Tayler, 2007). Funding issues Funding issues and sub theme Concerning the funding issues, it results show that approximately more most of the response from the participants ranked it as moderate as observed in Table 4.2 of the Theme two for funding issues under the sub theme of fiscal policies.. This is in response to the literature review in which same situation. The participants concludes that the implementation would require high cost for implementing the new strategic evaluation such since, some cost drivers used in strategic evaluation tools might be costs associated with activities that are intense in terms of cost. The participant’s interview also provided some aspect like the need for transparency to get rid of redundancy. but, the point had to do with the truth of the new strategic evaluation tool within the ministry in order to avoid the effect of workers resistance to change and thus the ministry will agree to open information polices where they have trust in their workers. Furthermore, the need to having more verdict making power locally or even within the department in the ministry is problem identified about bureaucracy issues. This is supported by the following response from respondent 18 and 19 in chapter four: “If by capital you mean finance yes organisation change requires investment – firstly ensure efficiency and effectiveness by ensuring current resources are used effectively e.g. Best Value – Can the same be achieved with less? Or can more be achieved with the same – once this can be answered with honesty No then investment can be justified” (18)| (19 the respondents) The firm might decide that the best way to provide their customers with the best value is to improve the features that their product offers, to improve their responsiveness in customer service both online and over the phone and increase their digital marketing efforts. These three strategies would be the best combination and then would then be used to attain sustainable differentiation advantage over the competition. For example, even if a manager does not explicitly adopt or follow the Balanced Scorecard approach, the emphasis of that tool on alternative, non-financial measures of performance can affect the way the manager views his or her division or department and widens their consideration of the effects of major changes. However, the explicit use of strategic evaluation tools is limited in organisations both public and private. This has been attributed to what managers perceive to be their restricted effectiveness because of the complex nature of circumstances, issues of confidentiality, and a lack of quantitative data (Tayler, 2007). A lack of reliable, quantitative data on the effectiveness of these tools in complex decision-making environments leads managers and decision makers to rely upon their own experience, judgment, and intuition to make major strategic plans. Organization culture issues . Organisation culture and sub themes It results show that that culture within the ministry of interior depicts an effect on the implementation of the strategic evaluation tool and hence, there is need of effective communication skills within the ministry of interior. It is evident that this factor plays an important function in guaranteeing that the strategic evaluation tool is efficient in the ministry of interior. In looking at the effect of new system in the ministry of interior, the participants Resistance to change, management intuition, education and the unwillingness to accept new developments and strategies will hinder the effective use of strategic evaluation tools and hence, there is need for assessment of organization culture with regards to the implementation of the new system and also the approach to evaluating the Organization culture as well as contentment. However, as per assessment combining with the theme on organization culture issues that is mentioned in chapter two of the study, it is evident that is not yet been executed within the academic study which another deviation within the literature. In this regards, the participants response concerning the effect of organization culture with regards to implementation of strategic evaluation tool depict that the responded are content that the MOI culture is mature enough at present to co-op with the former or later strategic tools but resistance to change, management intuition, education and the unwillingness to accept new developments and strategies will hinder the effective use of strategic tools. Another important focus of the literature review was the concept of internal continuity. According to Rothaermal, (2014), he argued that Major shifts in organisational strategy may require cultural change within internal operations and evaluation tools like Scenario Analysis can help an organisation recognise potential disruptions that can result from these changes and to incorporate them into their long-term planning (Mietzner and Roeger, 2005). Maintaining the continuity of internal operations during the development and implementation of strategic plans can minimise the negative effects of changes and can increase the probability of success of the strategic plan. The literature review examined internal continuity, as it was one of the main objectives of the research, and focuses specifically on prior research that examined the effects of carrying out strategy activities. After reviewing prior research on strategic evaluation tools and their impact on internal continuity, the organizational structure and management culture was important because this was the organization that will be the focus of research and where the research study will be carried out. This is evidenced from the response (17) (19) from chapter four: “Most large organisation can suffer from a lack of communication from senior level to operational lowest level or individual, I think whilst communication is adequate I think better communication and feedback channels/mechanisms would help support new plans and Policies, these points will enhance performance in any organisation. Also bureaucracy structure, different leader’s intuition, financial resources (17) (19)” In understanding the effect of strategic evaluation tool about Organization culture and participants contentment with the new system, there is need to evaluate the importance of internal continuity, which is linked to the relationship between the Ministry of interior behaviour and the employees’ social identities (Ullrich et al., 2005). The social identity approach, which proposes that the emotional significance individuals give to their group memberships is a result of the way in which their self-identity is interrelated with their group membership, has seen a number of studies in recent years in the field of Ministry of interior behaviour (Ullrich et al., 2005; Haslam, 2001; Hogg and Terry, 2001; Academy of Management Review, 2000 (special issue)). Group membership for individuals within Ministry of interiors can refer to the employee’s feeling of belonging in the Ministry of interior as a whole or to their sense of group identity in their work-group, division, region, or other sub-unit of the Ministry of interior (Hughes et al., 2014). The employee’s work-team identity or Ministry of interior identity is founded upon their beliefs about the work-team or Ministry of interior’s distinctiveness. The depth of Ministry of interior identity is influenced by factors like the amount of time the employee has been working for the Ministry of interior, the degree of out-group competition (i.e. with other companies in the same industry), and the employee’s perception of and pride in his or her role in the Ministry of interior (Haslam, 2001). Employees having a strong sense of identification with the Ministry of interior are generally regarded as desirable for the Ministry of interior because those employees gain in self-esteem when the Ministry of interior does well and therefore have an interest in its continued success. (Haslam, 2001; Ullrich et al., 2005; Van Dick, 2001) Based upon this relationship, it may be imagined that employees with higher levels of identification would be engaged in and supportive of the goal of successfully implementing Ministry of interior change. Bureaucracy issues Bureaucracy issues Status Quo Bureaucracy issues and sub themes The results shows with regard to bureaucracy issues depict that there is possibility that the hierarchical state as well as the semi military state of the ministry will de-motivate plans as well as innovation. Hence, the ministry needs to review its current process for use of the evaluation tools since, The results shows that the MOI depict a huge structure that might be the only reason for any delay in implementing strategic evaluation tools which implies that there already exists an overly bureaucratic structure which stifles flexibility, innovation, and decision-making. The Improved communication response and the mechanism will aid in supporting the latest plans as well as policy for the company, which will, in turn, improve the performance of a company, organizational structure as well as the kind of leadership. This is evident from the analysis of the above result of the 20 participants about bureaucracy issues since; it results show that that the very determinant of bureaucracy is the semi military structure and the effect of communication skill. The participants confirmed that bureaucracy issues depict an impact on the implementation of strategic evaluation tool within the ministry of interior. Much validation for the effect of bureaucracy issue such as the complexity of the ministry and the communication was some of the factors that affect the implementation of strategic evaluation tool in MOI. Below is the response from participant (13) (14) from chapter four with regards to bureaucracy issue “There is a chance that the hierarchical nature and semi military nature of the organisation does discourage initiative and innovation. The focus on the need for an extensive bureaucracy as a means of ensuring central oversight of implementation can be an inbitor. In addition the requirement for monthly reporting and monitoring as opposed to quarterly process makes it very labour intensive and perhaps inflicts too much pressure – Very little changes in a month!(13)(14)” Studies done by Jeffrey etal., (2015)note that managers are wary of using strategic evaluation tools is because of the unique nature of strategic level situations, decisions that affect the long-term direction of an organisation, implying that the traditional methods of evaluation, which are utilised in lower level decision situations, are not feasible. They further argue that this hesitation is based on the fact that strategic decisions require the balancing of multiple external forces, such as competitor behaviour, regulatory change, production costs, as well as internal factors like employee welfare and productivity and investor confidence. This is expanded upon by Olphert and Wilson (2004) who argues that the complex nature of real life circumstances means that the use of a strategic evaluation tool is closely related to the context in which it is used, and the two factors cannot be separated in the process of strategic evaluation. Their study examined the use of spread sheet-based decision support systems and the influence of contingency factors on the validation process. The relevance and influence of each contingency factor depends on the particular circumstances of the organisation, but the range of factors they identified can be analysed broadly. The tool, therefore, must be adaptable and able to be used by different organisational types in a wide variety of conditions. Mingers (2004) goes further than this by arguing that, in the process of using strategic evaluation tools for the purpose of strategy evaluation, it is necessary to take into account issues such as social relationships, and the personal, political and social views of the people who are involved Supremacy issues Supremacy issues Status Quo Supremacy and sub themes The results shows that the supremacy issues depict an impact on the status quo of the organization which implies that the effectiveness and implementation of strategic evaluation tool will be affected by the supremacy issues and status quo within the ministry of interior in UAE. About the question of supremacy issues, it was eminent that some participants were reluctant to provide clear response. From the literature review, it is evident that due to the nature and the anticipated outcome, government officials will fight over the control and eventful formulations thus seeking to address research question 3 in identifying the steps to be taken to increase the effectiveness with which the strategic evaluation tools can be used to achieve the MOI’s objectives. The is further supported by response from participants (6) (8) chapter four. “I do feel it's good and we have clear strategic goals and aims within our plan and clear delivery mechanisms in strategic Initiatives linked, etc. However, I think there may be an “organisational gap” and need for more detailed policies and procedures to link strategy with operational delivery (6) (8)” It results show that that there is a need for strategic evaluation tool in formulating strategies. For instance, Studies done by Jeffrey etal., (2015) note that managers are wary of using strategic evaluation tools is because of the unique nature of strategic level situations, decisions that affect the long-term direction of an organisation, implying that the traditional methods of evaluation, which are utilised in lower level decision situations, are not feasible. They further argue that this hesitation is because strategic decisions require the balancing of multiple external forces, such as competitor behaviour, regulatory change, production costs, as well as internal factors like employee welfare and productivity and investor confidence. Jensen and Zajac (2007) support this theme in their studies as illustrated in the literature review. See sections 2.2 strategic evaluation tools and 2.10 internal continuity. About the general question such as the need for strategies evaluation tool within the ministry of interior, the response was very high. In a company with a culture of trust, accountability and communication engaged workers with the good interpersonal association, resistance to change is will be identified easily and thus will less exist. Results confirmed that the strategic evaluation tool is considered as important in the ministry in managing the ministry activities. The hypothesis that the strategic evaluation tool is important in the ministry in managing the activities of the ministry might not be confirmed clearly. The evaluation of an organization and its efficiency entails the appraisal of its variables linked to the trend of a company attitude and its efficacy. In this regards, the strategy evaluation tool is considered an important tool in aiding executives to enhance the effectiveness of their operations and might be a tool for developing public support for the study plans as well as outreach activities However, the participant believed that resistance to change, management intuition, education and the unwillingness to accept new developments and strategies will hinder the effective use of strategic tools. Another issue, which has been identified by managers with regard to the use of strategic evaluation tools, is that the unique nature of strategic level situations means that the traditional methods of evaluation, which can be used, are not feasible (Rosenhead& Mingers, 2001). This is expanded upon by Olphert and Wilson (2004) who argue that the complex nature of real life circumstances means that the use of a strategic evaluation tool is closely related to its context, and the two factors cannot be separated in the process of strategic evaluation. Mingers (2001) goes further than this by arguing that in the process of using strategic evaluation tools for the purpose of strategy evaluation, it is necessary to take into account issues such as social relationships, and the personal, political and social views of the people who are involved. Read More