Mng91220 | Strategic Management | Assessment Answers

Scenario

You are working as a senior manager in a small or medium sized health or social care organisation, with roles and responsibilities to develop, manage and manage effective and efficient business and organisational strategy with your team members and senior officers/directors to comply with performance to applicable standards, legal requirements, the organisational objectives to gain competitive advantages. You are given a task to write a piece of paper to develop a business strategy and a plan of your company’s product and services to offer customers at the global level to compete competitors.

Task 1:

Identify various aspects of management in the health and social care organisation.

Explain why strategic management has become crucial in today’s dynamic health care and social care environment

Identify the roles of leadership in the in setting the organisational strategy

Task 2:

Conduct an analysis of the general and industry external environments and internal environments for health and social care organisation

Identify the significance of the external environmental analysis

Analyse how competitively relevant strengths and weaknesses can be used to suggest appropriate strategic actions

Task 3:

Develop strategic and business plans for health and social care organisation.

Identify best strategic choice after strategic analysis to implement strategy

Develop a business plan based on current market situations

Implement the best strategic choice that is suitable for present environment of and social care organisation

Strategic Management and Changes in Healthcare

Healthcare industry has experienced various changes and improvements in the recent past.  The ecological advances in the health sector have created a conducive atmosphere where the patients receive treatments with confidence. Its implementation is a collective effort that involves all the health sectors working hand in hand to achieve a common goal which is customer satisfaction. According to Baird, Davidson, and Mathiassen (2017, p. 670), a healthcare environment is considered therapeutic when it encourages treatment of the physical body through clinical excellence. When the healthcare environment supports the patient, his or her family as well the staff in their psycho-social and spiritual needs then it can be considered a good situation (Kamra, Singh, & Kumar De 2016, p. 1018). Finally, a good healthcare environment impacts positively on the patient’s clinical outcomes and staff effectiveness.

Strategic management in an organization involves a step by step process undertaken by an organizations management aimed at improving production and service delivery to meet customer satisfaction (Bengtsson, Kasperowski, Ring, & Kjellgren 2014, p. 290). This stepwise process starts with an analysis of the business environment to note the organization’s position in the industry. After coming to terms with the reality concerning how the company performs in the industry, the next move is to identify the shortcomings caused by the production process and the external factors. The company then comes up with the strategic plan on how to correct the weaknesses of the existing system after which the implementations of the drawn strategy takes place.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

Makes the company proactive 

Strategic planning enables the organizations to have a rough idea of the future and the targeted goals therefore prepare and start working on them. Through strategic planning, the company can foresee impending negative occurrences in the company thereby avoiding it or reducing its impacts. The strategic plan allows organizations to predict their future and to prepare accordingly (Baird, Davidson, & Mathiassen 2017, p. 678). The proper strategic plan helps in being proactive to situations that arise in the day to day operations of the company. Being active helps in better preparations for an upcoming issue in the business environment given that the challenges are anticipated.

Gives a Direction

Strategic plans show the company the way and direction to take in their production process. Through Strategic planning a company knows the objectives and goals to be achieved; this fact enables the organization to identify the production channel taken to achieve those objectives (Damert, & Baumgartner 2018, p. 480). The plan gives the foundation upon which the company must develop. This foundation helps in having some clue on the direction of the production process, evaluation of success, payment of employees, and identifying the limits.

Improves the Efficiency in Production Process

A strategic plan provides management with the roadmap to align the organization’s functional activities to achieve set goals (Gabryelczyk, & Roztocki 2018, p. 240). It guides management discussions and decision making in determining resource and budget requirements to accomplish set objectives -- thus increasing operational efficiency.

Helps Increase Market Coverage and Revenue

A well designed and implemented strategic plan makes the management understand their market, the consumer behavior, emerging trends in the industry as well as new ideas in the production process. As illustrated by Groomes, DAG, Shoemaker, Vandergoot, and Collins (2015, p. 43). These pieces of information and insights on the production process and consumer behavior enable the company to increase productivity and expand their market coverage. 

Increases the Business lifespan.

It should be understood that businesses have seasons, in that a company may boom now but end up in severe debts in a few months. This reality affects the life businesses noting that serious liabilities can cut the business life short. A business venture with well designed and implemented strategies do have focus, clear business path and can have some idea of what to expect in future (Kamra, Singh, & Kumar De 2016, p. 1015). The anticipation of challenges helps the firm prepare well and avoid life-threatening problems. Studies have shown that a company may boom today but fail to exist shortly, owing to the unexpected significant challenges. However, with well laid down business strategy, the firm can foresee the next difficulty, prepare well and reduce its impacts on the life of the company. The management and leaders in an organization play an important role from the designing to the implementation of a given business strategy in the firm.

Roles of Leaders in Setting the Strategy

Communicating Plans

Proper implementation of a business strategy starts with setting goals and passing the ideologies to the rest of the employees within the company and any other individual who takes part in the process. Effective communication means that the listeners understand and comprehend the ideas such that they can implement the method with minimal supervision (Kangovi, Mitra, Grande, Hairong Huo, Smith, & Long 2017, p. 1666). The information should be passed in small chunks that make it easy to internalize and the language used should be as simple as possible to make sure even the less skilled workers involved can understand. Carry out some tests to make sure the team understands the whole idea.  After the group has understood and internalized purpose, all steps involved and ideologies behind the business strategy, the management give the team the necessary resources for implementation.

Giving Out Assignments

The concerned leaders need to test the understanding of the team regarding the new business strategy to be implemented. Such test helps in selecting the mini leaders who lead the rest but report to the overall leader (Liu 2018, p. 630). The mini leaders should be aggressive, enthusiastic and people-oriented employees who have proper communication and interpersonal skills. 

Monitoring Execution

The leaders need to monitor the execution of the implementation process in every bit, asking questions in cases where the employees may be more skilled than him or her. He or she should receive a report on the progress of the process on some predefined periods to reduce the damage in case there is an improper activity (Melander 2018, p . 680). The leader should be a flexible person and able to make necessary adjustments in cases where the original plan does not achieve its purpose. The whole process needs to be documented for future referrals. The leader needs to participate in the process to avoid micromanaging the team as this would change his or her mind.

Encouraging Staff

It should be noted that the staffs tend following what their leader does regardless of the behavior is rational or irrational. The leader needs to be in the best mood throughout the operation, and the right attitude as the employees may copy. A leader needs to encourage the other members of the team by leading by example (Melo, Caribé, Ribeiro, Sousa, Monteiro, & de Paiva 2016, p. 1210). The encouragement should be a consistent role model in both action and words of mouth; stay on the task, work to solve problems and keep a schedule.  With this, the employees would emulate the leaders' behaviors even without lecturing them. Come up with a culture that encourages the employees for good work, either by words or through incentives to achieve more.

Business environment

A business environment refers to the external factors that are beyond the control of the business but affect the operations of the company. Such factors include politics, natural occurrences, economic crisis and booms as well as the government policies and institutions that control the actions of the business either directly or indirectly (Merlino, Petit, Weisser, & Bowen 2015, p. 308). The word environment may also mean the surrounding atmosphere and conditions that promote or threaten the business existence. It is advisable that the management should understand the external situation in the industry before even establishing the business. These external factors that influence the activities within the organization but are not controlled by the organization’s management are a social environment, political conditions, technological environment, government regulations and policies, accounting agencies like accounting standard board, resources in the economy and cultural context and demographics of people. These factors can be divided into two categories.

Directly Interactive Factors

This type of the external environment includes those factors whose impacts affect the operations of the company directly, such that any slight changes in them affect the company.  This category of directly interactive environmental forces includes owners, customers, suppliers, competitors, employees and employee unions. According to Pettigrew, Forman, Pistell, and Nembhard (2015, p. 70), it can be noted that the effects of these factors are directly on the business. For instance, a decision by the company owners to sell one of the company branches to a business rival has a great effect on the operations of the company, but the managers of the company have no say about it. If a competitor decides to lower his or her prices of her commodities which are a direct substitute for our products, the decision affects our company as the customers may make rational decisions and start buying the rival products. In this case, the company is affected, but the management does not have powers to confront the rival to increase his or her prices. 

Indirectly interactive Factors

These are factors beyond the control of the company but do not affect the operations of the company directly. Such factors include the global and economic crisis, political and legal issues, socio-cultural practices as well as technological advancements (Baird, Davidson, & Mathiassen 2017, p. 70).  The rate at which they affect the company vary among themselves; some exhibit much influence than others on a given type of business

Socio-cultural Practices

These factors include the cultural beliefs and the social practices that influence the behaviors of consumers, households, and the entire community. For instance, a given culture may discourage consumption of some meals like pork (Ramaseshan, Ishak, & Kingshott 2013, p. 12). So before setting business in such a community, the managers should know that pork business may not succeed in the area.

Legal factors

Legal factors are well exhibited in the way changes in the laws in a given country affect the operations of a given business. For instance, move in a country's laws regarding the number of hours an employee should work in a week affects the employers (Spehar, Sjøvik, Karevold, Rosvold, & Frich 2017, p. 106). With a reduction in the number of hours, the management would be forced to hire more workers to handle the same work, or pay more to the existing workers regarding overtime to feel the same task.

Economic factors

Economic factors affect business operations in many ways such as the terms and conditions of the taxation system in a country. Govern expenditure affects the flow of money in the economy, and this influences how much money the consumers have at their disposal to purchase products; this, in turn, affects the general demand for the company's products (Rose, Murthy, Brooks, & Bryant 2017, p. 130). Other economic factors include exchange and interest rates and global economic factors like the infamous financial crisis that recently hit Europe

Technological factors

The ever-growing innovations in the production process in the industry affect businesses in that the management always wants to keep pace with the improved production that change comes with (VIJ & BEDI 2016, p. 1). Such technologies are expensive to acquire hence affect the financial flow and stability of the given company.

Ethical factors

A business entity always operates within some values and practices regarded as morally right in the society. For example, companies may shy away from trading with countries that are perceived not to uphold human rights (Merlino, Petit, Weisser, & Bowen 2015, p. 305). The knowledge of these external factors is key to the success of a business enterprise.

Internal Business Environment

These are factors that affect the operations of a given organization and are under the control of the company. These factors include the strategies used by management, the company rules and policies, motivation among employees. These internal factors can be rectified in different ways (Melander 2018, p. 680). For an instant, if it is noted that the company's challenges are deeply rooted in ineffective management, a business process re-engineering can be done.

Business Process Reengineering

This process includes a complete change in the structure of an organization with the aim of improving service delivery regarding quality, productivity, and cycle times (Vincent Guangsheng Huang 2018, p. 108). This action is necessary when there is a feeling that the management may be part of the causes of the challenges faced in the institution. From the case study, it is noted that the challenges faced by any healthcare Centre are not external but the lack of proper utilization of the available resources. Business process redesigning applies in this case in that the challenges are more of internal origin. The fact that the hospital's management does not make good use of the available resources makes it worth the overhaul. The hospital's management needs to be changed completely to avoid incompetency among the workers (Melander 2018, p. 680). It can be noted that some staff members have the habit of being lazy given that they have mastered the system and knew how to dodge the rules; such staff needs to be punished and transferred to other facilities with more strict management.

This process involves organizations rethinking how they carry out their operations to come up with a drastic change towards improving their production. The organization first starts with focusing on the objectives then come up with the best possible ways of achieving them. Business is a set of logically related activities done to make a predefined business result; the whole process can be changed in case it does not achieve the specified target (Wang, Wang, Zhu, & Li 2018, p. 380). Many rural based institutions suffer challenges that need an overhaul of the entire management system to rescue. This operation takes place steps as illustrated below.

Steps in Business Process Reengineering

Setting clear goals

The main aim of the process is to achieve a set of objectives which must be established and stated clearly. It is after setting the goals that the company will come up with the procedure on how to achieve them. Like in the case of rural Healthcare Centre, the primary objective is to improve the condition of the hospital and come up with the best way to adjust to the growing patients' population (Watkins 2016, p. 700). It is after the targets are set that the management would come up with the means and ways of achieving them.

Identify and prioritize the Business Process

The management involved in the Business process re-engineering at some Healthcare Centre need to know and understand the processes that are already in use to the hospital.  According to Wilkinson, Sager, Selig, Antonelli, Morton, Hirsch, Lee, Ortiz, Fox, Lupi, Acuff, and Wachman (2017, p. 225) the team needs to know the importance of every step in the process, prioritise them and draw a performance rate in achieving the objectives. It is at this point that the team would know which stages in the whole operation failed to make the required target and which adjustments are necessary.

Make data capture and processing a routine part of the work day

After the identification of business processes and prioritizing them, the management needs to follow the trend displayed by their operations. It is a continuous monitor and studying that helps in identifying the weaknesses and the loopholes that have led to the failure in achieving the desired objective (Gabryelczyk & Roztocki 2018, p. 250). Upon identification of the strengths and weaknesses of various processes in the production, the management comes up with the idea on which stages need to be adjusted and how the adjustment should be made. This process does not need to create an extra job; the management needs to follow the already running activities. The administration may use process flows to carry out this as it contains several options in doing this; these alternatives include Intelligent Character Recognition, Voice Capture, as well as Optimal Character Recognition

One workflow

In the process of implementing the Business Process Reengineering, the operations in the organization need to be done in one channel. The method of changing the services need to be done in the already existing system and no need to create a parallel system to handle the whole issue (Melander 2018, p. 230). It should be noted that the main aim of doing the overhaul in the management system is to improve the production system and increase customer service delivery. Introducing a different channel to implement the changes would lead to an increase in production cost, which is contrary, needs to be reduced.

This is a straightforward one. Give the people who perform processes the power to make decisions regarding them. If there are three levels of approval for a simple, everyday process, then ask yourself why. Strip away the unnecessary red tape and create a single approval system where possible.

Capture information once and at the source

During the implementation of the changes, the data on the trend production takes need to be noted to know whether there is any improvement or stagnation. The data capturing process and analysis, just like the implementation itself do not need a parallel structure to achieve; the system should be within the existing system (Melander 2018, p. 245). This is an easy way to limit the number of resources invested in the overhaul process; resources such as time, energy, and workforce required. Incorporating the new system with the original one gives the staff autonomy over their roles in the hospital, a fact that motivates them hence improve their productivity. Several previous studies indicate that workers feel more motivated when they have autonomy over their roles in the company than when the reverse takes place (Watkins 2016, p. 700). For the whole process to be successful, it should be clear, concise, and controlled. The process should be teamwork that pulls experts from different departments in the organization based on the reality, not ideologies but working to achieve the basic theory of the organization.

A step by step application of this Business Process Redesigning strategy helps the company solve both the internal and external environmental factors. When overhauled, the new management will have the obligations to follow the requirements of all the external environments.

List of Reference

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Bengtsson, U, Kasperowski, D, Ring, L & Kjellgren, K 2014, ‘Developing an interactive mobile phone self-report system for self-management of hypertension. Part 1: Patient and professional perspectives’, Blood Pressure, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 288–295, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=98146844&site=ehost-live>.

Damert, M & Baumgartner, RJ 2018, ‘External Pressures or Internal Governance – What Determines the Extent of Corporate Responses to Climate Change?’, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 473–488, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=130671783&site=ehost-live>.

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Groomes, DAG, Shoemaker, M, Vandergoot, D & Collins, SW 2015, ‘Excellence is within Your Reach: The Importance of Planning for Performance in the State-Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Program’, Journal of Rehabilitation, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 39–46, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=103541909&site=ehost-live>.

Kamra, V, Singh, H & Kumar De, K 2016, ‘Factors affecting patient satisfaction: an exploratory study for quality management in the health-care sector’, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, vol. 27, no. 9/10, pp. 1013–1027, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=117746816&site=ehost-live>.

Kangovi, S, Mitra, N, Grande, D, Hairong Huo, Smith, RA & Long, JA 2017, ‘Community Health Worker Support for Disadvantaged Patients With Multiple Chronic Diseases: A Randomized Clinical Trial’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 10, pp. 1660–1667, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=125180587&site=ehost-live>.

Liu, Y 2018, ‘Exploring the Relationship between External Positive–Negative Pressures and the Carbon Management Behaviour of Industrial Firms’, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 628–641, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=130671792&site=ehost-live>.

Melander, L 2018, ‘Customer and Supplier Collaboration in Green Product Innovation: External and Internal Capabilities’, Business Strategy & the Environment (John Wiley & Sons, Inc), vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 677–693, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=131620964&site=ehost-live>.

Melo, MC, Caribé, RM, Ribeiro, LS, Sousa, RBA, Monteiro, VED & de Paiva, W 2016, ‘Settlement behavior of municipal solid waste due to internal and external environmental factors in a lysimeter’, Journal of Environmental Science & Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances & Environmental Engineering, vol. 51, no. 14, pp. 1205–1215, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=119304101&site=ehost-live>.

Merlino, J, Petit, J, Weisser, L & Bowen, J 2015, ‘Leading with Lean: Getting the Outcomes we Need with the Funding we Have’, Psychiatric Quarterly, vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 301–310, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=109074787&site=ehost-live>.

Pettigrew, MM, Forman, HP, Pistell, AF & Nembhard, IM 2015, ‘Innovating in Health Care Management Education: Development of an Accelerated MBA and MPH Degree Program at Yale’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 105, pp. S68–S72, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=101119726&site=ehost-live>.

Ramaseshan, B, Ishak, A & Kingshott, RPJ 2013, ‘Interactive effects of marketing strategy formulation and implementation upon firm performance’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 29, no. 11–12, pp. 1224–1250, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=90675654&site=ehost-live>.

Rose, DA, Murthy, S, Brooks, J & Bryant, J 2017, ‘The Evolution of Public Health Emergency Management as a Field of Practice’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, pp. S126–S133, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=125092963&site=ehost-live>.

Spehar, I, Sjøvik, H, Karevold, KI, Rosvold, EO & Frich, JC 2017, ‘General practitioners’ views on leadership roles and challenges in primary health care: a qualitative study’, Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 105–110, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=121746195&site=ehost-live>.

VIJ, S & BEDI, HS 2016, ‘Effect of Organisational and Environmental Factors on Innovativeness and Business Performance Relationship’, International Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 1, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=113610452&site=ehost-live>.

Vincent Guangsheng Huang 2018, ‘Organisational change, ideologies and mega discourses: “De-SMOisation” of the third sector in authoritarian China’, Journal of Language & Politics, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 70–91, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=128141671&site=ehost-live>.

Wang, J, Wang, R, Zhu, Y & Li, J 2018, ‘Life cycle assessment and environmental cost accounting of coal-fired power generation in China’, Energy Policy, vol. 115, pp. 374–384, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=128184594&site=ehost-live>.

Watkins, KD 2016, ‘Faculty development to support interprofessional education in healthcare professions: A realist synthesis’, Journal of Interprofessional Care, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 695–701, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=119149356&site=ehost-live>.

Wilkinson, GW, Sager, A, Selig, S, Antonelli, R, Morton, S, Hirsch, G, Lee, CR, Ortiz, A, Fox, D, Lupi, MV, Acuff, C & Wachman, M 2017, ‘No Equity, No Triple Aim: Strategic Proposals to Advance Health Equity in a Volatile Policy Environment’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, pp. S223–S228, viewed 17 October 2018, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=126751762&site=ehost-live>.