It is important
for organizations to have comprehensive goals and objectives that describe
the reasons behind their existence. However, having a clear list of goals is not
enough without developing methods that govern the entire business operations toward
achieving established goals. These methods are identified by the term strategy.
Strategy is a plan of how to utilize available resources to ensure achieving
success in the future (Karloef & Loevingsson, 2005). To
create an effective strategy, managers should have a clear approach on how to
come up with the one that goes hand in hand with the established goals.
According to Kenny
(2014), there are three steps for developing a strategy. The first step is to determine
the stakeholder that will highly contribute on achieving established goals more
than others. For instance, Kenny (2014) mentioned in his article, the Whole
Food Market Inc. recognized that employees are the key for its success. Locke,
Latham and Erez (cited in Tegarden, Sarason, Chilfers, & Hatfield, 2005)
demonstrated that the involvement of employees in strategy planning will
motivate the employees to work hard for achieving organization goals. The second step is
to clarify what the organization is waiting from its stakeholders and decide
what needs to be done to ensure receiving the desired feedback from its stakeholders.
The third step is considering the expectations of the stakeholders. Based on
Kenny's article (2014), this will be achieved by developing strategic factors
that illustrate what is needed to be done to feed stakeholders appetite. Although
the author has explained effective steps to create a strategy, his approach
suffers from some serious limitations.
The main problem
with this approach is that it fails to take into account the conflict that
might arise between each stakeholder's interest and the organization interest
as well. It is important to acknowledge the way to deal and balance all
stakeholders' interest to ensure consistency and achieve the desired goals ("Balancing
stakeholder needs," n.d).
References
Balancing stakeholder needs. (n.d). Business case studies Web site. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/shell/balancing-stakeholder-needs/#axzz3U68narMO
Karlof, B., & Lovingsson, F.
(2005). A to Z of management concepts and models. London, GBR: Thorogood
Publishing.
Kenny, G. (2014). Harvard Business
Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/11/a-list-of-goals-is-not-a-strategy
Tegarden, L. F., Sarason, Y., Childers, J. S., &
Hatfield, D. E. (2005). The engagement of employees in the strategy process and
firm performance: The role of strategic goals and environment. Journal of
Business Strategies, 22(2),
75-99.
