BUSI770 DB2 Koah

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Discussion Board 2: Setting Direction School of DBA: Human Resources, Liberty University Author Note I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Email:
Introduction Discussion Thread: Setting Direction, Advantages / Disadvantages, and Decision Models According to Gamble et al. (2021), crafting and executing strategy is at the heart and soul of managing a business enterprise. The strategic management process consists of five interrelated and integrated stages. This discussion will cover the first stage, emphasizing one of its fundamental elements, the strategic vision at the core of management direction-setting duties. The strategic thinking process, which Karami & Gorzynski (2022) characterized as emergent, complex, interconnected, and informal and embedded within pivotal places alongside governance, strategic planning, and other vital processes, will be covered. Process: Setting the Company's Direction with Strategy Gamble et al. (2021) clarified that crafting and executing a company's strategy is an ongoing continuous process consisting of five integrated stages (p.15). The very first stage encompasses the development of a strategic vision that charts the company's long-term directions and a mission statement that describes the company's business and the set of core values to guide the pursuit of the strategic vision and mission. The focus of this section of our discussion is the setting of the direction, which is the role of the vision statement. Gamble et al. (2021) described this as "where we are going," the course or direction management has charted, and the company's future product-customer-market-technology focus (p.17). This definition aligned with many other stances in the literature on the concept. Many scholars argue that the company's vision statement is also what it desires to become in the future or the ideal state a company wishes to acquire (Fitzsimmons et al., 2022; Hinton, 2022). In other words, vision statements are forward-looking and describe the future expectation of a company that could be met if a company were to achieve its purpose (Fitzsimmons et al., 2022). Following a well-
chosen strategic vision, its diffusion across the organization so it becomes present in minds and drives any actions and activities. Gamble et al. (2021) contended that this communication step is putting in writing "where we are going and why," and the message should be engaging and convincing. Accordingly, Gochmann et al. (2022) affirmed that strategic vision communication could increase the motivation and performance of followers and is, therefore, an essential tool of effective leadership. Another critical aspect of the transmission of strategic vision is packaging the message. Gamble et al. (2021) suggested that expressing the essence of the vision in a slogan can prove more effective in conveying the vision of where the company is headed to the entire team. Similarly, while concluding that leaders continue to communicate a vague description of the future, Carton & Lucas (2018) acknowledged that leaders can promote effective individual and collective actions by conveying a vivid sense of what the future (vision) could look like. Strategic Thinking: Discussion of a Key Advantage or Disadvantage Rumelt (2011) makes sense of the hazy thinking that underlies too many strategies and offers a simple process for developing and implementing a robust and action-oriented strategy that will work in the real world. A leader's primary responsibility is to create and carry out a strategy. A sound strategy is an approach and precise response to the challenges that stand in the way of advancement. Power is harnessed and applied where it will significantly impact an intelligent strategy (Rumelt, 2011). One of the critical advantages of strategic thinking covered by Rumlet (2021) is that good strategies are empirical and pragmatic, and whatever grand notions a person may have cannot long survive scrutiny by the facts. The empirical and practical aspects require a learning process from which synthesis is generated. Similarly, following Henry Mintzberg's view on strategic thinking, Skov (2021) contended that strategy development must be an open-ended and engaging process involving knowledge and
input, not just 'hard' facts and numbers. Strategic thinking requires intuition and creativity and helps stimulate the development of new ideas and solutions. Skov (2021) agreed that Mintzberg sees strategy as an ongoing process, not just the usual step-by-step plans for the next strategy period. In its most extreme form, this type of strategy development is emergent (ad-hoc) rather than intended, as strategic planning is. Therefore, there are no exact procedures for strategic thinking, but various approaches are described in the literature (Skov, 2021). It is necessary to point out the sharp difference between strategic planning and the concept of strategic thinking. According to Mintzberg, encouraging strategic thinking results in better strategies. He thinks that managers who can think strategically can inspire their staff to develop creative solutions to problems. They view a company as it ought to be, not as it is. In this sense, strategic planning can be a precursor to an organization's structure. Strategic thinking skills are essential for staying competitive in a challenging, global world (Ershadi & Rouhollah Eskandari Dehdazzi, 2019) Decision Model The rapid change in the organization's environment, induced mainly through technological innovations and strong movement toward environmental issues, prompts an increased complexity in crafting strategies to gain a competitive advantage. Any logical thought process includes some conceptual framing. Conceptual frameworks are mental images that organize experience so that we can understand it. Even if philosophers and cognitive scientists give these concepts much thought, few of us do, regardless of how often we employ a particular framework (Gray, 2021). Selecting a decision model should primarily be guided by many elements, such as the intended result, the context in which the decision should be made, and the expected outcome.
BCG, which is predominately used in marketing to understand the product line in the competitive market (Harris et al., 2022), could also be adopted and adapted in many other contexts. This was developed in 1970 by the Boston Consulting Group to access the value of investments in the company's portfolio and classify the investment four types based on their values (Krogerus et al., 2018). For instance, a government contractor with multiple business lines could classify these lines of business in categories the BCG model offers. This categorization would make informal some strategic thinking and refining the direction the company set initially. The simplicity and adaptability of this tool are some of its strengths. In a strategic thinking context, one could face juggling several projects simultaneously and be qualified as a slasher. According to Krogerus et al. (2018), the term "slasher" is coined by Marci Alboher and describes people who cannot answer the question, "And what do you do for a living?" Classifying multiple projects according to cost and time is essential to balance them. The project portfolio matrix can be used to identify the two axes of objectives achieved and the amount learned. Reject projects if there is something to learn from them and they correspond to your vision. You have hit the jackpot if you understand something and achieve your vision (Krogerus et al., 2018). Conclusion Determining a company's course in the business environment depends on the strategy. Understanding the main benefits and drawbacks of the many options is crucial when assessing strategic decisions. Decision models continue influencing strategy creation and should be evaluated as alternative options are considered. Additionally, an organization's functions should involve strategic thinking or planning. This could be associated with the communications aspect of the organization's vision and understanding each function's role in the process. For
instance, accounting functions produce reports representing the past and the current situation, but the visioning aspect of managerial work can present some strategic foresight (Aaltola, 2019). References
References Aaltola, P. (2019). Strategic thinking and accounting: potentials and pitfalls from a managerial perspective. Journal of Management Control, 30 (3), 323- 351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00285-w Links to an external site. Carton, A. M., & Lucas, B. J. (2018). How Can Leaders Overcome the Blurry Vision Bias? Identifying an Antidote to the Paradox of Vision Communication. Academy of Management Journal, 61 (6), 2106-2129. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0375 Links to an external site. Cokins, G. (2020). THE STRATEGY MAP AND ITS BALANCED SCORECARD. Edpacs, 61 (3), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07366981.2020.1750799 Links to an external site. Ershadi, M. J., & Rouhollah Eskandari Dehdazzi. (2019). Investigating the role of strategic thinking in establishing organizational excellence model: A moderating role of organizational forgetting. TQM Journal, 31 (4), 620-640. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM- 05-2018-0062 Links to an external site. Fitzsimmons, A. B., Qin, Y. S., & Heffron, E. R. (2022). Purpose vs. mission vs. vision: persuasive appeals and components in corporate statements. Journal of Communication Management (London, England), 26 (2), 207-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-09- 2021-0108 Links to an external site. Gamble, J. E., Thompson, A. A., & Peteraf, M. A. (Eds.). (2021). Essentials of Strategic Management: The Quest for Competitive Advantage (7th edition ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Gochmann, V., Stam, D., & Shemla, M. (2022). The boundaries of vision communication—The effects of vision-task goal-alignment on leaders' effectiveness. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 52 (5), 263-276. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12855 Links to an external site. Gray, D. (2021). What Makes Successful Frameworks Rise Above the Rest. MIT Sloan Management Review, 62 (4), 1-6. Harris, B., Alderman, L., Harris, B., & Alderman, L. (2022). Performance through the lens of evaluation: How to stretch evaluative thinking with strategic decision-making tools . Australasian Evaluation Society]. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X221120293 Links to an external site. Hinton, K. E. (2022). Components of a Strategic Plan: Align Institutional Mission, Vision, and Values through the Strategic Planning Process. Planning for Higher Education, 50 (4), 30- 33. Karami, A., & Gorzynski, R. A. (2022). Connection to nature and sustainability in small‐ and medium‐sized environmental organizations: A dynamic strategic thinking approach. Business Strategy and the Environment, 31 (1), 371- 389. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2898 Links to an external site. Krogerus, M., Tschäppeler, R., & Piening, J. (2018). The decision book: fifty models for strategic thinking (New, fully revised ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good strategy, bad strategy: the difference and why it matters . Crown Business. Skov, F. (2021). Science maps for exploration, navigation, and reflection-A graphic approach to strategic thinking. PloS One, 16 (12), e0262081. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262081 Links to an external site.
Annotated Bibliography Karami, A., & Gorzynski, R. A. (2022). Connection to nature and sustainability in small‐ and medium‐sized environmental organizations: A dynamic strategic thinking approach. Business Strategy and the Environment, 31 (1), 371- 389. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2898 Links to an external site. Summary of Key Points In this paper, the authors look at how and why a connection with nature contributes to the ability of participant organizations to move beyond a predominantly Cartesian mindset to a broader, more holistic perspective on strategic thinking, which incorporates a diverse range of sensibilities or multiple intelligences encompassing a diverse range of human capabilities of perceiving and understanding the world: mind, heart, body, spirit, or a mixture of cognitive and more intuitive thinking processes. Participant organizations recognize that strategic thinking and effective strategic planning are required for organizational survival and sustainability because stakeholders have different mindsets. The participant organizations need to talk to each set of stakeholders in the language they best understand. The strategic thinking process of the participating organizations is strongly linked to organizational purpose and shared values and beliefs. It is underpinned by the participants' strong personal, yet shared, connection to the natural world. The findings indicate that the strategic thinking process is emergent, complex, interconnected, and informal and is embedded within pivotal places alongside governance, strategic planning, and other vital processes. The authors argued that the core purpose and deeply held values, linked to a solid connection to the natural world, drive the strategic processes.
Evaluation of the Quality of the Publication This paper explores the connection of small- and medium-sized environmental organizations with the natural world, why and how this relationship influences strategic thinking, and how it enables organizations to leverage limited resources. It adopts an interpretivism research philosophy, using an inductive, ethnographic approach to interpret deep, rich layers of meaning within participant data. The findings suggest that a connection to nature underpins all aspects of the strategic processes within participant organizations and is fundamentally important to decision-making at all strategic and implementational levels. Evaluation of the Quality of the Author(s) The authors have published multiple peer-reviewed articles relevant to strategy in various scholarly journals since 2004. Where this fits into the discussion This article fits into the framework of the concept of strategic thinking. The managerial contribution of the research is contained within the critical insights into how the strategic process works in practice, which includes the importance that participants place on intrinsic as well as extrinsic value, the role of specificity in the connection process, which brings a universal sense of meaning to the participants, the link to broader societal values that integrate nature and people and the importance that being outsiders plays in forging the determination, commitment, and drive of the participants. This article could prove its value to organizations crafting strategies to gain competitive advantages.
Aaltola, P. (2019). Strategic thinking and accounting: potentials and pitfalls from a managerial perspective. Journal of Management Control, 30 (3), 323- 351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00285-w Links to an external site. Summary of Key Points This study explores the strategic thinking of managers from an accounting perspective. Building on interview data from managers working with strategic roles in various organizations offers an understanding of the experienced potentials and pitfalls of accounting in strategic thinking. The results are elaborated into a framework presenting the dual nature of accounting in strategic contexts. This study suggests that the benefits and pitfalls of accounting for strategic thinking constitute a paradoxical duality, which cannot be fully solved but must be addressed by practicing managers. The observed role of accounting in managers' strategic thinking also offers implications for organizational management control. Evaluation of the Quality of the Publication This article is peer-reviewed, which confers some credibility to the content. The author has supported his study with substantial references. The date of publication, within five years range, validates the currency. We have drawn from the managerial implication of the article the purpose and the audience. This study highlights the importance of managers seeing accounting in strategic thinking as a paradox, as it represents contradictory yet interrelated elements. By applying paradoxical thinking, managers can make latent opposing forces more explicit, creating a more robust context for creative, strategic thinking. This is especially important in this age when unintended consequences of accounting and management control can lead to cautious short-sightedness. The
framework outlined in this study can inform strategic development activities in companies by utilizing an accounting perspective in the process. Evaluation of the Quality of the Author(s) The author published four articles in the business field and co-authored one. While these articles are limited, it doesn't remove the soundness of his view on the topic of our discussion. Where this fits into the discussion Despite these limitations, this work has the potential to make an essential contribution to understanding accounting in strategic thinking. The article would support the notion of strategic thinking as it offers some practical, real-world applications, specifically how it connects strategy with other functions of the organization.
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