Strategy Implementation Definitions
Business strategies have been embraced heavily by all types of organizations for the core purpose of achieving their overall objectives. This is due to the facts that most of the business environments that organizations operate in have become too dynamic, complex and hostile in nature. Moreover, strategy implementation into these organizations’ daily transactions or business activities will come in handy while operating in their environment. it no secret that it can be difficult for any management team when formulating and efficient strategy that would synchronize with the goal and objective s of the firm, however incorporating the strategies into the daily business activities of a firm is fairly more difficult. (Cândido & Santos,2015). However, in order to get a clear picture of the factors that influence strategy implementation, and analysis of the various literature review related to the filed will be conducted and the sources will be relevant academic and peer-reviewed journals. These academic sources will be sourced from the various academic databases such as Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest.
There are various situations or elements that would significantly have a considerable effect on the process by which strategic plans or ideas are translated and transformed into hierarchal activities in a firm. Moreover, strategy implementation unlike strategy formulations if often viewed as a specialty, as opposed to a science, and its research history has already been depicted as divided and diverse (Bamberger and Meshoulam, 2014). Therefore, it’s not surprising at all when a comprehensive strategy or a single strategy experience difficulty during its implementation. A fu5her depictions of the differences of strategy implementation and strategy formulation are further highlighted by David (2013).
Table 1.1 Difference between Strategy Formulation and Implementation (David 2013)
Strategy implementation has no universally accepted definition but they all come down to a similar perspective which could result to basically defining strategy implementation as a wide scope of endeavors which center around the change of strategic expectations into actions. Moreover, strategy implementation could also be defined as the process by which business strategy formulated is incorporated in an organization business activity for the core purpose of achieving organizations goals and objectives in the long haul (Chang,2016).
strategy implementation has occasionally been ignored both by researchers and management have been narrowed down by several experts. the assumption of this filed being considered straightforward by the process has played a major role (Dayan, Heisig, & Matos, 2017). This is due to the fact that strategy formulation is considered to be more important since it’s somehow complex. Moreover, there is limited information or knowledge on its constitution and life cycle, in general, creating practical difficulties especially in mid-level management.
Reasons for Ignoring Strategy Implementation
in this section, 15 sources will be reviewed and their significant studies, their primary outcomes, hypothetical bases will be put in perspective. The literature review will be narrowed down to two core themes that will act as a basis of the paper ore research context in general, they are organizational levels and organizational types. Therefore, these two themes will lead to compiling of several factors that impact strategy implementation while discussing the various studies conducted on the same (Grant, 2016).
Research context
Organizational Levels
In this context there are 5 identifiable organizational levels , they include corporate level, , operational levels, mixed levels, strategic business unit and functional level. In relation to a corporate level, few studies have focused their research on its implementation. However, there is no limited research on strategic business units as its focused on by many researchers in the long run. According to Greer et al (2017), there are few studies focused on functional levels that mainly focus on the manufacturing strategies especially in the strategy implementation of project management for the core success of manufacturing strategic initiatives, moreover this an area of future research in the long haul. According to Padmanabhan(2018), few studies have also focused on the operational level but their strategy implementation is driven by two aspects which are product leadership and market focus initiatives. Mixed level studies consistently rely on studies done initially on other levels that might be merged such as corporate level and functional level, they can be considered as hybrid studies where the benefits of the two levels are merged to obtain a higher success of strategy implementation (Hitt, et al, 2013
Organizational types
It basically refers to the characteristic of an organization which could are either local or multinational and private or state-owned. Vast research has been done in relation to this context, in state-owned and privately owned company’s’ strategy implementation has been discussed in length in several studies but limited to state-owned moreover extensive research has also been done on multinational firms. According to Leonardi, (2015), all of the studies basically explore the reality of the nature of their market and business environments that would hinder or create a strong footing for strategy implementation. However, there are no strong footed studies that contrast and compare the similarities and differences of local or multinational and private or state-owned firms which creates a basis for future research in the field.
Literature Review
Results: six factors that influence strategic implementation
Strategy Formulation
In efficient strategy hinders an organization’s efforts from a consistency and efficient implementation. however Great execution can’t overcome the deficiencies of such strategies during their implementation process. According to Menon (2015), he concludes that the type of strategy that is created and the real procedure of strategy formulation, to be specific, how a strategy development process occurs and will the impact the influence the strategy implementation.
Relationships among different units/departments and different strategy levels
The success of strategy implementation is also highly influenced by the relationship among different units or operational departments in an organization as well as their different levels of strategy implementation. Moreover, a positive and efficient managements tea will come in handy in the strategy formulation as well as its implementation in the long run. This calls for a good and durable relationship among these levels of strategy implementation as it will bolster good communication yielding efficient results. (Hayati, Atefi, & Ahearne, 2017).
Implementation Tactics
According to Olson et al (2018), implementation tactics also impact strategy implementation in an organization, they significantly come in handy just before the execution stage where minor adjustment or modification are made to attain an increase inefficiency in the strategy implementation process. The management team and significant members of an organization who play a crucial role in strategy formulation and it implementation is heavily involved in relation to this context. Communication channels and relationship between the designated team and the workers should be efficient for the core purpose of achieving the goals and objectives of the firm through a perspective of effective strategy implementation tactics.
Executor
These are the crucial drivers of the strategy implementation. they are comprised of top, middle, non-management and lower in an organization. Individuals involved in the strategic process must be of high quality. According to Menon (2015) quality in relation to this context refers to the skill, knowledge and experience that the individuals involved have within a specific position or job category in an organization, top management refers to the senior level where crucial strategy formulation and methodologies for its implementation are derived in relation to the whole organization. He further states that midlevel or lower management constitutes of leader’s integral to a certain unit or departments and they are the key factors that will allow strategy implementation to be successful to the core of organizations who are the non-managements or workers. Therefore, there is need for successful communication among these levels of management as it will affect the quality and success of the implementation.
Research context
Communication
communication is a key part to the successful transformation and implementation of a formulated strategy into action with distinct transparency and efficient relationship between the designated team and other hierarchal strategy transformation teams such as non-management staffmembers.it allows a smooth transition from one stage to another and addressing concerns that may arise during the implementation process. A bad communication channels with an organization would negatively affect the implementation process depriving an organization of achieving their goals and objectives (Wheelen, et al 2017).
Administrative Systems
there are segments instruments of administration where business units can utilize in controlling the strategy implementation process, these segments are formalization centralization and incorporation., to make operational abilities of design, administrative theory and coordination, to help business strategy implementation. A few specialists have additionally centered around the control frameworks which are one of the imperative elements of managerial frameworks (Morden, 2016). .
Conclusion
In conclusion its evident from the literature review conducted in this paper that strategy implementation is a major factor to the success of an organization in achieving its goals and objectives in the long run despite the business environment or the market it is based in. Moreover, through the literature review conducted, there is a clear emphasis on the key context where the key theme is organizational level and organization structure which have been used to derive the six factors that influence strategic formulation, these factors have been discussed in length while reviewing research the various studies done by experts while contrasting of their different perspective of the same matter (Cândido& Santos, 2015). It is notable in this paper that there were a few areas that had barriers where the research and study conducted in their context is either limited or no research has been done that would allow a further expounding in regard to business strategy implementation perspective. This basically creates a footing where further or future research is to be conducted.
References
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