ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE DIMENSION IN IMPLEMENTATION

BY

TANKO AHMED fwcSenior Fellow (Security & Strategic Studies)

Research Directorate, NIPSS, Kuru – Jos, NIGERIA‘

A Paper Presented to Participants of the NIPSS Policy, Strategy and Leadership Course No. 21

(4th – 29th April 2016)

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

Work in Progress

Prologue

• Strategy implementation has resource management as its pivotal challenge where planning assumptions meet situational realities.

• This paper discusses organizational and resource dimension in strategy implementation.

• It defines and describes the often neglected dynamic, iterative and complex nature of implementation process in the difficult terrain of organizational goals actualization.

Some Observations on Literature and Theory

• Literature in management studies often under conceptualizes ‘implementation’ as plain ‘execution’ process which is inadequate in strategic context.

• Theories of strategy accommodate integrative framework in managerial decisions and actions.

Investigation and Simulation

• The paper investigates into literature deficit to equip middle and higher executives with strategic aptitude in handling strategy implementation in organization.

• A simulation exercise is designed for senior executives to practice on the application of strategy implementation in real world situations.

Captions

• “It is a bad plan that admits of no modification” – Publius Syrus (n.d.)

• “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work” – Peter Drucker (n.d.)

INTRODUCTIONStrategy implementation has resource management as its pivotal challenge – Anonymous

Background

• The effective realization of any plan or strategy depends on how available resources are perceived, harnessed and allocated to relevant components by the various levels of organizational leadership.

• Strategy implementation is the realization of formulated strategies for attainment of set goals involving all levels of the leadership cadre.

Organizational Strategic Leadership Levels• Strategic leadership cuts across the top,

middle and lower of strategy for the purpose of formulation, translation and execution.

• Decisions and actions usually follow preliminary strategic thinking and formulated plan for tasks charged to the entire leadership cadre or core group of organizations.

Concept and Practice

• Challenges facing organizational leadership in strategy implementation often hinge on the concept and practice in which the various levels of organizational leadership think and perform in different ways.

• These operational dimensions tend to translate and apply the implementation process differently therefore affecting entire organizational resource management.

Problem Statement

• The strategic management process and strategy formulation remain useless without putting them into use, strategy implementation is therefore an essential part of the entire strategic cycle.

• Strategy implementation bears the critical stage of complex cross-functional relationships of organizational components found in the strategic management process.

• This paper investigates organizational and resource dimensions in implementation within the strategic management process to enhance understanding across the various levels of leadership.

Points of Inquiry

The paper sets out with the following points of inquiry:

To conceptualize strategy organization and its various components and functional relationships;

To discuss and correlate organizational and resource dimensions in strategy implementation;

To establish strategy implementation as pivotal point of the strategic management process;

To explain the conduct of strategy implementation as tool for organizational leadership; and

To draw conclusion and suggest the way forward for success and survival of organizations.

CONCEPTUAL DISCOURSE

Organization

• An organization is a planned, coordinated, purposeful and collective action aimed at common goals and objectives.

• It is an enduring arrangement of elements whose actions are determined by rules for fulfillment of tasks through a system of coordinated division of labour.

• In this wise, all levels of organizational leadership carry the responsibility for the running of organizations where they belong.

Organizational Leadership

Organizational leadership is the management staff that provides inspiration, objectives, operational oversight and other administrative services to the organization often seen in Mission and Vision Statements (BusinessDictionary.com).

Organizational Resource

• The resources available to an organization, real or perceived, often reflected in planning or strategy formulation.

• These resources are calculated and measured according to use and subsequent outcome of investment.

• For example organizations often capture their resources at management level where all dimensions are avail for purpose of planning.

Resource Dimension

• Resources are measured and managed under main categories of human, financial, technological, environmental and natural resources.

• In most organizations, these various resource categories often determine functional structures.

• For example, organizations are structured into human resource, finance and works departments, depending on mission set.

Resource Management

• Resource refers to organizational inputs in terms of human, financial, technological and natural aspects deployed and manipulated for the purpose of attaining set goals and objectives.

• Management is the process of coordinating efforts of people in the use of other resources to accomplish goals and objectives by efficient and effective means.

• Resource management is the efficient and effective deployment and allocation of resources when and where they are needed.

Organizational Strategy

• Strategy is that which top management does that is of great importance to the organisation.

• It refers to basic directional decisions on the purposes and missions of the organisation.

• Organizational Strategy answers the question “What are the ends we seek and how should we achieve them?”

Strategy Implementation• Implementation is the process of carrying out, fulfilling,

realization or execution of a task, an application or a plan.

• Strategy implementation is the second stage task after strategy formulation, involving the application or execution of plans through series of decisions and actions in pursue of set goals or objectives.

• Brinkschroder (2014) put this task on the shoulders of organizational leadership for communication of mission, allocation of tasks and resources and coordination of cross-functional relationships.

ORGANIZATIONAL DIMENSION IN STRATEGY

IMPLEMENTATION

Challenges of Organizational Dimension

• Challenges facing organizational leadership in strategy implementation often hinge on concept and practice in which the exercise is performed outside strategic context (Crosby, 1996).

• Managerial approach to implementation is static and inadequate due to narrow definition and ‘straight jacket’ methodology.

• An earlier study (Dess, 2006) has established that consensus on objective or methods and collaboration across levels of leadership or management team members positively relates to organizational performance.

Implementation and Performance

• For effective implementation of strategy, organizational leadership should know which lever to pull and which button to press in order to improve overall performance.

• It is critical for organizational leadership at all levels to possess the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility and empowers others to create strategic change.

RESOURCE DIMENSION IN STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

Resource Dimension as Critical to Implementation

• Strategy implementation is “the match an organization makes between its internal resources and skills and the opportunities and risks created by its external environment” (Grant, 2001, p. 114).

• The resource dimension of organization is critical to the attainment of set goals or mission.

• Without resources, there will be no implementation process

CONCLUSION

• Strategy implementation poses the toughest challenges to leadership as its philosophy and practice are uplifted, expanded and embolden organizations to venture into systematic planning and execution, hitherto known only to the military in the past.

• Organizational leadership at all levels should aspire not only to acquire knowledge and skills but also expand strategic faculties as agents of change.

• It is strongly recommended that Participants of the NIPSS-PSLC course should cultivate and absorb the attributes of strategic thinking and action for strategy implementation.

COURSE EXERCISE PAPER 3 PLSC NO. 21-2016

COURSE EXERCISE NO. 3-2016

Groups of Course Participants are to prepare Strategy Implementation Schedule for the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies from the amended Mission and Vision of previous Exercise.

Reference Brinkschroder, N. (2014). Strategy implementation: Key factors, challenges and

solutions. A Presentation at the 4th IBA Bachelor Thesis Conference, November 6th. University of Twente, Faculty of Management and Governance, Enschede, The Netherlands.

BusinessDictionary.com http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/-organizational-leadership.html

Crosby, B. L. (1996). Organizational dimension to the implementation of policy change, IPC Monograph, No. 2, September.

Dess, G. G. (2006). Consensus on strategy formulation and organizational performance: Competitors in a fragmented industry. Strategic Management Journal, November 8. DOI: 10.1002/smj.4250080305

Drucker, P. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved April 7, 2016, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/peterdruck131070.html

Grant, R. M. (2001). The resourced-base theory of competitive advantage: Implications for strategy formulation. California Management Review, Spring

Publilius Syrus. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved April 7, 2016, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/publiliuss131420.html