In order to have full access of this Article, please email us on thedocumentco@hotmail.co.uk
Introduction
Planned and Emergent Approaches to Strategy, The comprehensive study of strategy involves both challenges and prospects of opportunities. No one actually knows what this phenomenon is and most of the time any activity undertaken by an organization is considered to be a planned strategy (Bamford, Forrester, 2003). Indeed, the understanding and learning of planned strategy is ruled by a number of practical and theoretical concern, it can certainly be stated as the fortitude of rudimentary and long term goals of an organization along with the implementation of course of actions for the distribution of assets essential to attain the desired goals (Leitner, 2014).
Planned Approaches and Their Related Assumptions
Planning is an ongoing process of an organization. Data which is collected from the surveys are used for the purpose of planning and is considered as a method to devise the detailed methods for arranging and doing something. In order to achieve different purposes, diverse planned approaches are designed and adopted (Golembiewski, 1979). Some of the planned approaches embrace reactive, inactive, proactive and proactive approaches. Reactive approaches are basically a dynamic effort to turn back clock into past. The past, no matter how bad, is still considered to be of most preference than present-day for improved future development. The desire to return to good old days make an organization to undo the changes made recently in order to prevent their future achievements. Inactive approaches attempt to prevent the current planning and strategies which is worthy for both present and future goal achieving. In such approaches, present is considered of more importance than past, no matter how many issues are involved. Proactive approaches is an effort to forecast the future and then to plot accordingly for the projected future (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, 2008). For this purpose, use of advanced technology is considered to be the driving force which will bring better outcomes than the past and present both. This planning process is used to position an enterprise to take much advantage of the changes happening around them. Finally, the proactive methods include scheming of an anticipated future and then production and formation of conducts which will bring the commanded modification. In such approaches future is of preferred state but the organization is completely able to have control over the related consequences. Through all these planned approaches, the planners and managers actively shape the company’s future and try to get ahead of the events that are not in their control (Palmer, Dunford, 2008). Still there is not just a single or perfect strategic program for a planning process to be used the same way all the time but any organization can customize the best related approaches that suit the working and culture of its members along with the current situations of enterprise and the purpose behind planning. Conventional strategic planning approaches, issue based planned approaches, organic planned approaches and real time strategic planned approaches are also considered as a model of strategic planning and are therefore ideal for all those organizations that have enough number of resources to peruse their ambitus and visionary goals (Rutter, 2006).
In the field of strategic planning, numerous norms are made during the groundwork of plans which must be accredited and the discussions neighboring these assumptions must be viewed as crucial fundamentals in the accountability of the policy makers (Golembiewski, 1979). In undertaking so, the mangers, strategy making officers, and employees, all have to lift up their standards to a level which is analogous to those implemented in arena of business. The reality, in fact is that these planned approaches assumptions form an indistinguishable and fundamental basis of the premeditated plan and therefore it underpins everything that is contained therein. It reflects the visions, strategic maps, performance objectives and project selections which consequently follow. The major issue in the field of strategic planning is that the assumptions which have been prepared are certainly not evidently highlighted or documented, as a result of which they are hardly analyzed or defied the way they should be (Primrose, Bowler, Leonard, 1995). These strategic assumptions are the expectations that are apprehended by a company’s verdict makers when they shape a strategy plan. All premeditated campaigns should be assembled upon legalized, grounded and acknowledged set of assumptions because the strategic plan and its effectiveness are directly proportional to the strategic assumption on which it is made. There are about 12 to 15 strategic assumptions upon which an organization aims to form the strategic plan and business of their company (Bright, Godwin, 2010).
There are various types of assumptions that act as a declaration about individualities of the forthcoming that motivates the contemporary operations plans of an association. They include implicit and explicit assumptions. Explicit assumptions are the norms that are completely socialized or are communicated without any implication or vagueness while implicit assumptions are not stated and may go unobserved or ignored because if such assumptions prove to be incorrect in the future outcomes, damage to a company’s projects will be hard to recompense.
Accurate assumptions underpins and strengthen a strategic plan by making it more reliable and reducing the chances of failure by highlighting a company’s odds of success and accomplishments. An accurate and critical assumption while making a planned strategic approach acts as a foundation of a business. Due to this reason, making a business related strategy is directly proportional to this foundation in order to maximize the success factor of an enterprise to two folds. Making accurate and genuine assumptions during strategic planning may be very difficult but an assumption based planning in any project management and processing will undoubtedly help a company to deal with uncertainties and unwanted circumstances. Most of business planning methods has stated that an enterprise must write down their financial assumptions at the end of their planning so they can actively plan and monitor the validation of their planned approaches (Rutter, 2006).
These strategic assumptions may fortify a business by facilitating the analysis of a business plan of an organization through financial institutions, venture capitalists and angel stockholders. Through these assumptions, the risks of making a corrupt venture can be condensed to many folds if the stockholders have strong understanding of strategic conventions in an organization’s management (Golembiewski, 1993). Assumptions are the representative of shared values, interests and visualizations of a management team and therefore they demand inclusion of a strategic plan that can also an enterprise to expose, challenge and apprehend the shared norms. Assumptions help a company’s management to exit a planning process by guiding them through a much more demanding strategic planning process. Development and debating of assumptions is a perfect way to achieve buy-in commitment in an organization since declarations and justification of assumptions over which a plan is prepared can be difficult for a manager to execute his or her views. If the employee built-in has greater probabilities, the execution of the strategic plans will be easy to apply. This way, managers and stakeholders of a company do not have to waste their time, money and efforts to try implement the plans that have little chances of producing promised results.
Though these assumptions are not always justifiable and sometimes, these assumptions may be a necessary evil in your strategic planning. Given the fact that we must rely on these assumptions to put a planned approach together, it should also be considered that a certain amount of risk is always present. Defending an assumption can be a little hard as a huge number of facts are not always accessible to justify and support the company’s beliefs. It doesn’t means that these assumptions are not true but it may emphasize the challenges that are present in planning (Primrose, Bowler, Leonard, 1995).
How Emergent Approaches to Strategy Differ From Planned Approaches to Strategy
The basic scope of corporate strategy is in continuous battling with the perineal issues regarding determination of overall purpose and scope of an enterprise. When seen through present point of view, the specification of long term goals and objectives are adding worth to a business and is coping up with suspicions of modern times. There are different approaches to change and managing change i.e. planned approaches to change and emergent approaches to change. As they both are the principle theories for strategic management, they both must always be examined with experience of an increasingly self-motivated, highly economical and global business environment (Bamford, Forrester, 2003).
Planned approaches are a universal and deterministic technique where a balanced and long term strategy is shaped by the analysis of an association, its general presentation and its external environment individualities.
A planned approach to strategy clearly forces the difference between the present and desired state and is also a mean to reach a desired company’s state. Planned change management practice undertakes smooth transformation from existing state to the preferred state without causing any significant disruption from internal or external factors (Luiking, Bras, Van Linge, Grypdonck, 2010). The techniques which are used under these processes include Porter’s heavily organized Five Forces Model for the analyzation of an industry along with Value Chain Analysis which enlightens the existing capabilities of an organization for gaining competitive advantages.
This approach and its related assumptions make it possible for an organization to organize all the complicated activities and experience a greater degree of control over different units of a corporate. By implication of these methodologies, planning process of an organization results in well-defined long term achieved goals and gives clearer boundaries for its primary business, retail services and international subdivisions. Planned approaches and its related assumptions enable a company to have consistent growth and gain profit in all business arenas. Strategy formation has put a lot of weight on capabilities of planned approaches and therefore they are considered to be a secure basis over which a firm can easily define itself and make efforts to heighten its position, particularly in times of hasty and turbulent changes (Golembiewski, 1993). A lot of companies have successfully met the needs of an evolving market by using the fundamental technological strengths of planned approaches and assumption on which they rely.
From a contemporary point of view, many researchers have stated that the planned models comprises of a variety of assumptions that cannot be sustained in today’s world of business. A logical approach can be implied here that development of a strategic approach is not always thoughtful and that they are realized according to the needs and plans of an organization.
However, various empirical researches have discounted these statements and have highlighted the fact that strategy is only ten to thirty percent of the envisioned approach which are majorly due to random situations such as introduction of new guidelines and technologies that may commonly act to force the original strategy off its course (Luiking, Bras, Van Linge, Grypdonck, 2010).
The planned approaches to strategy and planning may fall short when it has to allow any academic component to be engaged into the strategy. This way planned approaches can limit the abilities of an organization to respond compliantly in today’s fast changing environment. It may also focus in a narrow minded manner in reference to established areas of business due to which hindrances may produce and can significantly cause serious transformational changes where reinvention is needed. Further criticism over planned approaches and its assumptions is that they also fail to compliment various modern organizational cultures where employees and workers working on a low level are involved if serious decisions have to be taken (Palmer, Dunford, 2008). Such arrangements are frequently found in small or medium sized businesses, as a result of which creative abilities of an organization are compromised and dissonance of the employees may be observed because these are the levels where work processes must be completely understood.
While there is much to quote about significance and risks of planned approaches, the best strategic movement for today’s fast growing environment is the one that’s essentially combative and is a strategy which allows CEO and managers of an enterprise to make opportunities come to them. Such strategies are called as emergent approaches to strategy, the one consistently reacting to the fast pacing business changes in today’s life. Emergent approaches are different from planned strategy in a number of ways and are also preferred over them because emergent customs are the development of a strategy over time as intentions may accommodate to the changing realities. Emergent techniques are better than..
Recent Comments