Strategy Implementation Management Issues
1. Setting of annual objectives
- Establishing annual objectives is a decentralized activity that directly involves all managers in an
organization.
- Active participation in establishing annual objectives can lead to acceptance and commitment.
- Annual objectives are essential for strategy implementation because they
(1) represent the basis for allocating resources;
(2) are a primary mechanism for evaluating managers;
(3) are the major instrument for monitoring progress toward achieving long-term
objectives; and
(4) establish organizational, divisional, and departmental priorities.
- Objectives should be consistent across hierarchical levels and form a network of supportive aims
- Annual objectives should be measurable, consistent, reasonable, challenging, clear,
communicated throughout the organization, characterized by an appropriate time dimension,
and accompanied by commensurate rewards and sanctions
- Annual objectives should be compatible with employees and managers values and should be
supported by clearly stated policies.
2. Developing policies
- Policies facilitate solving recurring problems and guide the implementation of strategy.
- Policies are instruments for strategy implementation.
- Policies set boundaries, constraints, and limits on the kinds of administrative actions that can be
taken to reward and sanction behavior;
- They clarify what can and cannot be done in pursuit of an organizations objective.
- Policies let both employees and managers know what is expected of them, thereby increasing the
likelihood that strategies will be implemented successfully.
- They provide a basis for management control, allow coordination across organizational units, and
reduce the amount of time managers spend making decisions.
- Policies also clarify what work is to be done and by whom.
- They promote delegation of decision making to appropriate managerial levels where various
problems usually arise.
- Simply, policies provide guidance and direct behavior
- Thus, they represent the means for carrying out strategic decisions.
3. Resource allocation
- Four types of resources that can be used to achieve desired objectives: financial resources,
physical resources, human resources, and technological resources.
- Factors that prevents effective and efficient resource allocation are: overprotection of resources,
too great an emphasis on short-run financial criteria, organizational politics, vague strategy
targets, a reluctance to take risks, and a lack of sufficient knowledge.
- The real benefit of resource allocation has to do with the accomplishment of the organizational
objectives
4. Managing conflicts
- Interdependency of objectives and competition for limited resources often leads to conflict.
- Conflict can be defined as a disagreement between two or more parties on one or more issues.
- Conflict may be managed and resolved through avoidance, defusing and confrontation
5. Matching structure with strategy
- Strategy affects the structure of an organization largely because of how objectives and policies
are set; as well as resource allocation.
- Conflict can be defined as a disagreement between two or more parties on one or more issues.
- Conflict may be managed and resolved through avoidance, defusing and confrontation
6. Matching structure with strategy
7. Linking performance and pay to strategy
8. Managing resistance to change
9. Creating a strategy supportive culture