organizational unit and functional strategies discussion

Answer question and response:

Discussion Question:

Corporate strategies most often use “high-level” statements and goal/objective definitions and tend to remain within “generalities.” The difficult part is to break these into practical action plans. Should the breakdown of “high-level” strategies to practical action plans be done by top-level management or by each level’s own managers? Explain your opinion in two or three paragraphs. As required for all discussion questions, your response(s) must be referenced and supported with peer-review journals and quality academic materials.

Response:

The terms “High-Level” in the development of goal statements, in some instances referred to as mission statements, in important for the establishment of paths to reach the end goal. As discussed in the previous module, the top-level management may have a good understanding of the business aspects of the organization, but they may not be proficient in all the various departments that make the organization run. Healthcare organizations are a perfect example of this. With as diverse as a healthcare industry is, from the various health professionals, to support services such as supply and inventory management to the technical support for biotechnology and information management it is important to note that these areas are each generally managed by subject matter experts in their field. Each department working in tandem, plays a pivotal role in the success of the organizations.

When a goal statement is created, the idea is generally to provide a unifying concept that all departments can focus on. “ The mission statement is considered as an energy source, a guide in decision‐making and to influence the managers’ behavior.”(Vandijck,2007). Navy Medicine in a similar fashion to many other healthcare organizations has focused on the concept of the “High Reliability Organization”. There are several policies created by top-level management that impact decision making at the lowest levels. This generally provides a structure to process, however there is enough vagueness in the processes to allow for some deviation specific to the organizations that operated in geographically diverse locals.

This is an important concept as allowing this flexibility empowers low-level personnel to make decisions that impact the performance of an organizations. Empowering staff, creates a sense of value in those making the decisions and a study in allowing low level judges to make decisions “found powerful judges more responsive to organizational goals in setting priorities and using information about the organization than powerless judges.”(Overbeck, 2006). These concepts have become more engrained in business and organizational management, and is more evident in process improvement programs that often call on a sharing of ideas in order to find new ways of improving organizational performance and success.

References

Overbeck, J. R., & Park, B. (2006). Powerful perceivers, powerless objects: Flexibility of powerholders’ social attention. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 99(2), 227-243.

Vandijck, D., Desmidt, S., & Buelens, M. (2007). Relevance of mission statements in Flemish not‐for‐profit healthcare organizations. Journal of Nursing Management, 15(2), 131-141.

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