Strategic Management Planning - Case Study Example

Strategic Management Planning Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Strategic Management Planning Strategic planning refers to a process by which an organization determines its course of action in an effort to attain its laid down objectives. It entails making and implementing decisions as to how the available resources can be allocated in the most appropriate manner as a measure to achieve the set objectives. The resources to be taken into account during the process of strategic planning mainly include the organisation’s personnel and the capital employed. Basically, the aim of strategic planning is to provide a framework to be adhered to by the organisation as regards to how the targeted objectives can be reached and how it can ascertain whether any significant progress is being made with regards to the same. There are various approaches, models, and perspectives applied in strategic planning. How strategic plan is developed to a greater extent depends on a number of factors. These include the organisation’s nature of leadership, the organisation’s culture, complexity of the environment within which it operates, the organisation size, planners’ expertise, and so on (Rea & Kerzner, 1997). For an effective and successful strategic plan implementation, the various strategic planning models and business analysis techniques should be brought into perspective and a decision reached as to which among these is relevant with respect to the organisation’s strategic plan. For instance, the various strategic planning models can be issue based, goal based, organic based, or scenario based. Business analysis techniques on the other hand include strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis, also referred to as SWOT analysis; socio cultural, technological, economic, ecological, and regulatory factors also referred to as STEER analysis. There is also the political, economic, social and technological analysis, also known as PEST analysis; and the environment, political, informatic, social, technological, economic, and legal analysis, commonly known as, EPISTEL analysis (Gottschalk, 2009; Katyal, 2009). Under the goal based model, strategic planning starts with a focus on the organisation’s mission, objectives to work towards the mission, strategies to attain the objectives, and a well structured action plan. Under the issue based model, which is relevant to this paper, planning usually begins by evaluating issues that the organisation is facing, creating strategies on how to address these issues, and designing an action plan as regards implementation. Under organic based issues, strategic planning begins by interpreting the organisation’s mission and values, followed by putting action plans in place in an effort to achieve the vision while at the same time observing these values (Botten & Sims, 2006). Every strategic plan aims at addressing at least one of the following issues: what needs to be done in order to achieve target goals, the reason behind creating structures aimed at achieving these goals, and the way forward, or a guideline as to how the said targets goals can be reached. In business strategic planning, some critics rephrase the third issue as how can a competitive advantage be reached over respective business rivals or the best way on how to avoid competition from these rivals (Rea & Kerzner, 1997). What they imply by this is that in essence, the issue addressing the way forward is more about beating competitors as opposed to coming up with a strategic way forward per se. For an organisation to establish its course of direction, it is imperative that it ascertains where it stands, then determines the course it intends to take, its desired objectives, and how these objectives are to be achieved. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC) is one of the biggest healthcare organizations within the Middle East. The hospital incorporated a new strategy based on its mission, that is, to offer the highest level of specialized healthcare in an integrated education and research setting. Its vision is to be a global-leading institution of excellence and innovation in healthcare (KFSH&RC, 2008). As a means to achieve this end, the organisation intends to put an appropriate, relevant strategic plan to address some areas of the organisation in an effort to achieve its goal. As pointed out earlier, the key resources to be taken into consideration prior to developing an effective organisation strategic plan are human resource and the capital employed. The aim of this paper is to reflect the relative significance of an organisation’s personnel, specifically, KFSH&RC, to its strategic plan. Incidentally, the paper will encompass the competitive edge aspect of the organisation in respect to what issues need to be considered to incorporate the same in its strategic plan for the benefit of attaining the organisation’s objectives. From this point, this paper will focus on KFSH&RC in a way that shows how both management and HR play significant roles achieving goals and objectives. This in addition to application of its competitive edged to its advantage. According to Phillips (1996), human resource activities within an organization must be aligned in tandem with the organisation’s strategy to achieve the big picture of the organisation. As a result, linking the management and the HR department at KFSH&RC would make a significant difference in achieving goals. Moreover, looking at the hospital situation, it can be seen that KFSH&RC has been executing an organizational culture by using a set of operating values to illustrate how people within the hospital should behave and act in order to achieve goals and objectives in an efficient way. One of the major areas that the hospital is credited for is with respect to improved quality of life. This is a direct effect of advanced science attributed to committed scientists drawn from all over the globe. These scientists work together to develop their knowledge and experience to obtain solutions to the never-ending human diseases. In an effort to achieve and maintain this aspect of the organisation, the hospital recruits talented professionals from all over the globe. Additionally, the hospital offers these professionals a means to pursue their creative ideas collectively through use of modern technologies and equipment (KFSH&RC, 2008). The incorporation of professionals from all over the globe into the hospital’s research programmes brings into perspective the issue of diverse cultures considering these professionals are drawn from every corner of the globe. To this end, it is a pre-requisite that the organisation comes up with a proper plan on how to merge the various cultures in order to facilitate cooperation and communication amongst these professionals with an aim to create a conducive working environment. This should be done in such a manner that it does not compromise the organisational culture. As long as staffing is one of HR activities, particularly in the hospital case, KFSH&RC should consider its staffing system by continually hire, transfer, promote, train, develop and retain people who work in a way that fits the hospital’s culture which eventually lead to KFSH&RC’s objectives. This is supported by Bechet (2008) who states that having the appropriate people in the right positions at the right times is necessary to reach rapidly changing organisation strategies. For this reason, the topic of this paper has been linked to organizational culture as the strategic aspect, and staffing as the HR aspect. However, linking those aspects (organizational culture and staffing system) imposes other elements such as recruitment and selection, retention, training and development, knowledge management and communications to illustrate how organisational culture and staffing are linked to each other. Moreover, this paper will focus on knowledge management and communication as tools of linking the strategic aspect and HR aspect. These two areas are particularly significant because the relationship between organizational culture and staffing is quite strong. The management at KFSH&RC must ensure that they have delivered (by communication) clear expectations for every individual of the organization. These expectations should be supported by managers who let employees frequently know how their work is tightly linked with the overall objectives (Khan, 2005). The hospital gets its competitive edge from goodwill, which in actual sense is fuelled by its desire to achieve its objectives. That is, the goodwill emanates from the medical facility’s highly trained personnel made up of locals as well as expatriates certified by either European or North American Boards in their respective medical sub-specialties. This is coupled by the fact that the centre boasts of applying international standards of service delivery amplified by modern technological equipment (KFSH&RC 2008). It is therefore apparent that KFSH&RC needs to adopt and incorporate a relevant strategic plan in an effort to maintain or propel the organisation a step ahead of its competitors. The first step into developing a successful strategic plan is through ascertaining and learning the organisation’s culture which should includes the informal structure of the organisation, how appropriate the staffing decisions are and have been from the start, views and opinions as regards to the organisation’s leadership. The management also needs to consider the policies supported within its respective culture, the type of management and personal practices favoured by the organisation and those that it does not prefer, and the leadership style that is most preferred above others. Importantly, the organisation needs to consider the peculiarities associated with it, the significance of evaluation within the organisation and so on (Hunt, 1997). Knowledge concerning an organisation’s culture assists those involved in developing the organisation’s strategic plan and basing the plan on a specific knowledge background. Having knowledge of an organisation’s culture enables planners to forecast what plans have the potential to succeed in future and steps that can never succeed in that particular organisation. For instance, an organisation that is apprehensive to change is less likely to incorporate any programme that advocates for change (Steiner, 1997). An organisation can work towards a culture that depicts its held values. Whereas there are other values like integrity that are common in virtually every organisation, some vary from one organisation to another. Therefore, for KFSH&RC to come up with an effective strategic plan on how to sustain and implement its competitive edged over its rivals it is important that its culture be ascertained. Cameron and Quinn (2006) argue that successful organizations are characterized by specific well designed conditions. Further, they note that six of these conditions are more significant than the others. The first on of these is the presence of high entry barriers, that is, when other organisations within the same industry find it difficult to engage in similar business due to several factors such as special technology, high costs, endless formalities, and so on. A second feature identified with these organisations is the provision of services or products that have no substitutes - a monopoly of some sorts. The third feature is a large market share that facilitates the organisation to trade the advantage of efficiencies and economies of scale. The fourth condition is that the organisation is able to lock in its consumers; this is possible if the organisation can make its consumers to be totally dependent to its services or products (Cameron & Quinn 2006). A typical example is that of KFSH&RC where it aims at dominate the market through recruitment of talented professionals both locally and abroad. This in addition to its modern technological equipment which enables these personnel to come up with new techniques of practice and improve existing ones. This way, it follows that the services that the centre offers cannot be obtained elsewhere, hence the centre’s patients are compelled to seek its services. The fifth condition is more like the fourth one only that this one is aimed at locking in the suppliers. When an organisation comes up with a formula on how to lock in the supplier, the implication is that since the respective suppliers have no other option than to sell their products to the institution, the organisation has an upper hand in terms of bargaining power. Additionally locking in the suppliers implies that the organisation has the final say with regards to the time schedule on when they want their products delivered. Finally, the sixth condition is competition among its rivals. Rivalry among organisations competing for provision of the same services or products has the effect of diverting attention from head-on competition (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). Based on its mission and value statement, it is clear that implicit in KFSH&RC organisational culture, that of the conditions pointed out above, the first, second, and fourth condition do exist. However, to stay ahead of its competitors, it would be necessary that it takes into account the other conditions as well, more so the fifth one. That way, it will easily dominate the market and subsequently achieve its goals - to offer the entire population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia top quality tertiary medical care for every type of cardiovascular disease in a balanced and coordinated program through medical practice, medical research, and education (KFSH&RC, 2008). Another area of consideration is the role of human resources in strategic planning. It is worth noting that KFSH&RC recruits its personnel both locally and internationally. Based on this, it is imperative that measures be put in place to familiarize the newly recruited personnel with the organisational culture if any level of success is to be achieved, more so the fresh employees recruited internationally. Additionally, a case study research is necessary to evaluate the organisation’s progress to incorporate a strategic plan. This is even more important for an organisation that is made up of transient personnel based on its cultural values and objectives. Human resource development entails career development, organisational development, and training (Bogardus, 2004). More often than not, the human resource division is excluded from participating in an organisation’s key strategic issues. This is a grave mistake as it can prove to be quite detrimental to an organisation’s strategy in realising its goals. When objectives are set, it is the organisation’s personnel who work to achieve these goals. Therefore, as earlier pointed out, having the appropriate people for the right job is essential. Decisions become more effective when an organisation’s human resource division is made aware of the same (Bogardus, 2004). The implication here is that by the employees being made aware of any strategic plans, they can air out any potential conflicts in terms of the set objectives in theory, and those that are achievable in practical sense. Strategic planning usually includes changes within the workplace systems. Even though every department in the organisation is possibly aware of its departmental status, the human resource personnel are usually familiar with group initiatives and general changes within the company (Burton, 1992). In this regard, the human resource personnel possess the ability to highlight, with unique insights, organisational development issues, and how prospective changes will affect the systems and processes that are already in existence. As technology changes so do the methods and practices, and subsequently the skills. This implies that training and development are necessary at some point in an effort to facilitate the strategic growth process. KFSH&RC has already made major strides in this respect; this is evident through continuous training and advanced education offered to its professionals in an effort to bring forth the best in hospital leadership and staff through holistic educational programmes. Further, KFSH&RC under its Nursing Development and Saudization (ND&S) program offers all-inclusive educational services to foster staff development and continuous education at all stages. The educational services entail staff development, orientation, continuous training, and academic education. The aim of this programme is to familiarise the hospital’s new employees with the hospital environment, to facilitate harmony among employees, and to create an environment that nurtures and supports innovation of new ideas and practices (KFSH&RC 2008). The significance of this programme also comes into perspective against the background that the hospital also recruits expatriates, thus the programme plays a central role in assisting them to blend with their new environment both professionally and socially. O’Donnell et al. (2006) highlighted that an organisation must enhance supportive organisational environment, where staff can share experiences and knowledge. As a result, the creation of new knowledge might influence employees to change their behaviour. However, organisations can implement total quality management (TQM) to control the new knowledge within the organization in terms of learning and development (De Cieri et al. 2008). Furthermore, Smith et al. (2004) stated that organizations tend to apply TQM to fulfil organizational change. In addition, Kanji (1991) stated that TQM must be used to change the culture of the people in the way they think, act and feel and also this was supported by Tollinson (1992, cited in Nanda 2009) has pointed out that the introduction of TQM mentions for training strategy that combines training, basic skills improvement and job skills as long as they are interdependent. Therefore, KFSH&RC can use TQM to help its employees in regard to what type of services stakeholders (patients and relatives) expect, which leads at the end to the satisfaction. When employees are aware of their stakeholders’ expectations, that is, as soon as they view their work from the stakeholder’s point of view, then, by adopting the TQM approach, they may change their behavioural and attitude to suit these expectations. In conclusion, most organisations view the responsibilities assigned to the human resource department as those for taking care of employee welfare. However, there is more to it - involving employees in strategic planning is imperative. For KFSH&RC’s strategic plan to be effective, it is necessary that as many stakeholders as possible be involved. Top management ought to realise that employees are the ones to practically execute the strategic plan and hence see the need for active development both in strategy formulation and implementation processes. Doing this will imply the success of the plan is almost assured. As a means to achieve this end, the strategic planning that KFSH&RC intends to adopt should encompass small workshops to ingrain the hospital’s vision in the employees. For a strategic plan to be effective and successful, it should be in form of a vision and not simply a structure or a plan. It is on this basis that employees must be actively engaged in every aspect of the plan. Further, the fact that the hospital recruits employees from diverse cultural backgrounds implies that its orientation programmes take longer than three days to enhance cohesion among employees. Additionally, implementation of total quality management will be necessary. KFSH&RC’s mission statement states that it aims to offer top quality tertiary medical care. The strategic plan must highlight this as it is the key immediate short term goal. The strengths and weaknesses arising inherent in the mission statement have to be ascertained and addressed, and the type of capabilities required to achieve its goal be taken into consideration. Finally, it is imperative to have a step by step guiding framework to be followed by the strategic planners in an effort to execute the best strategic plan that appropriately fits the hospital. Reference List Bechet, P. (2008). Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. New York: AMACOM Div American Management Association. Bogardus, A. (2004). Human Resources Jumpstart. New York: John Wiley and Sons publishers Botten, N. & Sims, A. (2007). Cima Learning System 2007: Management Accounting - Business Strategy Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann publishers. Burton, L. (1992). Developing Resourceful Humans: Adult Education within the Economic Context. London: Routledge Publishers. Cameron, K. & Quinn, R. (2006). 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(1997). Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Must Know. New York: Simon and Schuster Publisher. Read More