TOPIC #2: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

• way of managing a business that stresses the need to think and act strategically, that is, to be concerned with where the business is, where it should be going and how it is going to get there.

ENDS

• it describes a vision of what something will look like in the future.

MEANS

• it shows how it is expected that the vision will be realized.

STRATEGIC HRM

• adopts a strategic management approach when intentions are being defined on how HRM strategy should be developed in a manner that contributes to the achievement of an organization’s goals,

BOXALL AND PURCELL

• “It is a process of strategy making, of forming and, if the firm survives, reforming its strategy as the environment changes.”

JOHNSON ET AL

• “Strategic management is understanding the strategic position of an organization, making strategic choices for the future, and turning strategy into action”

KANTER

• “the purpose of it is to elicit the present actions for the future and become action vehicles – integrating and institutionalizing mechanisms for change’”

STRATEGY

• The determination of the long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals.

BOXALL AND PURCELL

• “Strategies are the ways in which managers of firms understand their goals and develop ­ resources – both human and non-human to reach them.”

JULIAN RICHER

• “strategy is identifying the direction we should be moving in”

ABELL

• “A good strategy is one that works, ensures that organizations adapt to changing demands and circumstances by ‘mastering the present and pre-empting the future’.

BOXALL

• “Strategy should be understood as a framework of critical ends and means.”

FORWARD LOOKING

• deciding where you want to go and how you mean to get there.

CAPABILITY

• its capacity to function effectively

RESOURCE CAPABILITY

• the quality and quantity of its resources and their potential to deliver results

STRATEGIC FIT

• to achieve congruence between functional and the organization’s business strategies within the context of its external and internal environment.

DEVELOPING STRATEGY

• a matter of creating a sense of direction and purpose and ensuring strategic fit.

STRATEGY FORMULATION

• can best be described as ‘problem solving in unstructured situations’ (Digman, 1990: 53) and strategies will always be formed under conditions of partial ignorance.

LOGICAL INCREMENTALISM

• strategy formulation evolves in several steps rather than being conceived as a whole. (Quinn)

EMERGENT STRATEGY

• ‘a realized strategy can emerge in response to an evolving situation’

STRATEGIC PLANNER

• ‘a pattern organizer, a learner if you like, who manages a process in which strategies and visions can emerge as well as be deliberately conceived’

HR

• has a major role in ensuring that innovation or change is carried out effectively through people.

IMPLEMENTATION

• entails converting the strategic plan into action and then into results