Strategic Management
Strategic management is a management activity used to set priorities, strengthen operations, and focus resources and energy to ensure that stakeholders and employees work towards the achievement of a common goal. Strategic planning has a lot of importance in an organization such as ensuring that all the workers work to achieve a common goal, ensure that a firm does not waste resources in wrong investments and to ensure a company works towards the achievement of a common goal. Managers play an important role in ensuring a firm achieves its plans. This paper is going to expound on the argument that strategy cannot be planned yet planning is one of the critical management functions and other management related topics while looking at Amazon the fifth most admired firm globally.
Skills and Planning
Mintzberg (1994) suggests that skills cannot be taught in a class but instead learned through experience claiming that one can explain many sorts of practices that help in management but one cannot teach management to people who are not managers. Studies conducted by the United States planning forum suggests that only 24% of firms indicated that their planning process is active, 0C & S strategy Consultants reported that most strategic planning processes should be stopped. Henry defines planning as a system for elaborating, operationalization and codifying the strategies that firms have while in contrast strategy is either a deliberate perspective or an emergent pattern (Dibrell 2014, p2000). Planning is concerned with policy, analysis planners are not redundant therefore are valuable as analysts, catalysts and strategy finders; however, Mintzberg argues that strategy is hard to plan. Mintzberg identifies pitfalls in today's strategic planning to be the following, first, assumption that discontinuities are predictable, secondly, planners are detached from an organizations reality and finally is that strategic plan can be formalized (Mintzberg 1994, p.114).
Organizational Structures and Strategy
According to Walsh (2011, p.50), the management theory proposed by Henry suggests that management roles and responsibilities need to be broken down and the workplace should be organized to simplify complex concepts. Henry suggests that there are five organizational structures namely, simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, diversified (divisional) form, and adhocracy. Mintzberg indicates that there are six essential corporate parts, namely, strategic apex, middle line, operating core, technostructure, support staff, and ideology (Kornberger 2011). Mintzberg suggests that there are five visions for strategy in a firm hence referred to as the 5'Ps of policy with the P's standing for, ploy, perspective, plan, pattern, and position that works for successful firms like Amazon. Klag and Langley (2014, p.280) suggests that strategy is a plan aimed at dealing with the specific situation,( Amazon firm focuses on profitable niches and ensure they are dominant); pattern entails actualization of the policies that have been applied before, it is very vital for a firm to place itself well in the market. A firm should not only rely on its position but a broader perspective while using ploy strategic choice to enable a business to make profits (Klag & Langley 2014).
Management Theories
Management theories are very essential in helping organizations to increase their service, quality and productivity. Chaos theory, contingency theory, and system theory are the original management theories. Theory X and Y are essential in addressing the management strategies for workers for motivational purposes to increase productivity (Kenny 2018). Contingency theory states that managers make decisions depending on the situations that they are in rather than assuming that "single size fits al." Amazon employees according to Jeff Bezo have valuable insights and are able to predict what to watch out for and what to expect and adopt accordingly. Managers according to system theory suggest that different system systems affect a worker and a worker also has a lot of influence on the system that surrounds them. Chaos theory recognizes that change is inevitable and even though certain circumstances in a firm can be controlled not all eventualities can be controlled; hence organizations need to be flexible. Certain managers according to theory X believe that workers usually lack ambition need incentives while theory Y suggest that workers are generally driven and are responsible. Managers that think in theory X typically use an authoritarian leadership style while those that rely on theory Y encourage workers participation it is arguable that Amazon firm relies on Theory Y (Iglesias 2015).
Leadership and Ethical Management
A good leader motivates his or her employees to adhere to ethical business management that will enable a firm to succeed. According to Iglesias (2015,p.40) a leader needs to develop sound management practices such as engaging workers since an alienated employee usually cares only about being paid, but a worker should care about the firm's vision. Workers need to feel valued by recognizing the effort for a good job. Kenny (2018, p.4) suggests that cultural cohesiveness culture is essential since it stands for shared value and the right level of engagement that will lead to the development of efficient and productive outcomes. A firm needs to focus on team efforts to ensure productivity this can be attained by hosting retreats to assuring solidarity continuous realignment and assessment of the team goals is a right way of achieving excellent results. Kornberger and Clegg (2011) suggest that management at all levels of administration is essential in companies rather than focusing and investing heavily in leadership training and ignoring middle managers and supervisors. Support should be provided to employees when it is genuinely needed while giving meaningful feedback on a regular basis.
Strategic Planning and Strategic Management
People may assume that strategic planning and strategic management are the same, but they have a difference. The strategic plan is generally the process of forming direction in an organization while strategic management refers to the method of determining how the path that is assigned in planning can be achieved (Kornberger and Clegg 2011). The diplomatic process usually begins an organization deciding on its objectives and mission statement. Amazon strategic plan, involved identification of its primary challenges and ways of improving on its strongholds, and after strategic planning strategic management begins, the firm determines the short and long-term methods to leverage its resource to achieve its goals. Strategic plans can be compared to road maps while the company goal is the destination. Large organizations hire chief strategy officers or corporate strategic planning managers and hand them the role of administration of strategic planning process since is argued that they can understand an organization better than an external consultant (Dibrell, Craig & Neubaum 2014)
Involvement in Strategic Planning
Studies suggest that when a person is assigned the role of strategic planning, they will be in touch with the capabilities, biases, and opinions of the administrative team of an organization. Even though there is a prime importance of managers being involved in strategic management handing over the strategic planning process to a single senior manager may result in other administrators to feel they luck ownership (Iglesias 2015). Senior firm executives may feel they are not involved in an enterprise "corporate strategic plan" if the decisive planning role is assigned to a single senior manager yet an organization depends on them to be committed to ensure implementation of a business plan. Middle-level managers are usually not involved in strategic planning until the senior managers design the design. Studies suggest that mid-level managers can play more roles in planning by offering feedbacks and can help to turn large plans to small specific goals (Dibrell, Craig & Neubaum 2014).
The Importance of Planning and Manager's Role
Strategic planning is essential in helping firms to achieve their goals; planning is one of the primary management functions. Managers play an important role in an organization to ensure that it succeeds by developing strategies. Managers play an important role and need to be involved in the planning process.
References
Dibrell, C, Craig, JB & Neubaum, DO 2014, ‘Linking the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness to firm performance’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 67, pp. 2000 -2007.
Iglesias, A 2015, ‘Making strategic planning work in local government: An empirical study of success and failure’, Strategic Public Management Journal, vol. 1, pp. 40 – 55.
Kenny, G 2018, ‘Your strategic plans probably aren’t strategic, or even plans’, Harvard Business Review, April, pp. 1 - 4
Klag, M & Langley, A 2014, ‘Critical junctures in strategic planning: Understanding failure to enable success’, Organizational Dynamics, vol.
43, pp. 274 – 283.
Kornberger, M & Clegg, S 2011, ‘Strategy as performative practice: Thease of Sydney 2030’, Strategic Organization, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 136 – 162.
McGrath, RG & MacMillan IC 1995, ‘Discovery-Driven Planning’, Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 1 – 13
Mintzberg, H 1994, ‘The fall and rise of strategic planning’, Harvard Business Review, January-February, pp. 107-114
Walsh, D 2011, ‘Strategies for developing a university-sponsored youth sports summer camp, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation &Dance, vol. 82, no. 9, pp. 24 – 50.
