Part 1
Strategic management refers to understanding the strategic position of an organization. The process of strategic management involves the methods to explore corporate strategies of organizations. Strategic management helps the organizations to examine the activities of top executives (Ketchen & Short, 2012). The concept of strategic management used in the organizations these days has borrowed various ideas from the strategic management of ancient times. In the classical military, all the major decisions were considered as strategic while the minor decisions were considered as tactical. In 1491 BC, a hierarchical delegation of authorities by Moses is the best example of ancient strategic management. Moses implemented their strategies by dividing all people into small structures for better implementation of strategies (Kreutzer & Rueede, 2019). Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War” described the business such as Gap inc. used the “win without fighting strategy”. With the use of this strategy, their main motive was to open their stores and to create their own space in the market as compared to other traditional brands in the market.
Traditional strategic management is based on three strategic approaches: design, planning and positioning approach. Although these approaches of strategic management are simple, yet these cannot be applied to every type of business. Managers need to understand the strategic aspects of these approaches to apply it to their business. The design approach in traditional strategic management is based on a top-bottom strategy (Mendes & Machado, 2015). All the major decisions under this approach are taken by higher authorities. Under the planning approach, all the strategic decisions are taken by a specialized team. This approach makes problem-solving and decision-making process easy for the organizations. Positioning approach is based on the strategy implementation by considering the overall position of the firm in the market. Various companies such as Walmart, IKEA and Southwest airlines have replaced their traditional approach with the modern approach of strategic management (Schnellbächer, Heidenreich, & Wald, 2019).
In modern times, strategic management in the organizations is based on the strategy implementation based on five Ps. These five Ps includes plan, ploy, position, pattern and perspective. The modern definition of strategic management includes the art of taking decisions regarding multiple activities in the organizations through scanning of the environment, formulation of the strategy, implementation of strategy, proper evaluation and control. The organizations focus on simplifying the dynamic and complex processes through strategic management. For example, BHEL uses strategic management techniques to reduce the complexity of long term plans (Jurksiene & Pundziene, 2016).
Part 2
The process of consolidation of classes will impact both internal and external stakeholders of the school. Stakeholders of the school are directly associated with the welfare and success of the school. Every stakeholder, through its crucial role, impacts the development of the overall educational empire (Breen & Jonsson, 2010). The main stakeholders of school are students, parents, educators, professionals and members of the administration. All these stakeholders play a significant role in the success of a school. If the school administration has planned to consolidate the classes, then there will be a high impact on all of the internal stakeholders. But the form of impact will depend upon the type of stakeholders (Campbell, Sinclair, & Browne, 2019). These stakeholders can be categorized into two categories: internal and external stakeholders.
- Students and their parents are considered as the external stakeholders of a school because they are consuming the services offered by the school.
- Educators, professions and members of the administration are known as internal stakeholders.
The plan of consolidation of classes by the school will impact both the stakeholders. Thus internal and external stakeholders both committees will be a part of the strategic management process of this school. It will cut the cost of the school that is paid in the form of wages to the teachers because some of the teachers will be shunted and on the other hand, it will impact the internal stakeholders (students) because it will lead to a large number of students in the classes which will further affect their study. The students will not be able to have one to one interaction with their teachers (Buchmann & Hannum, 2011). There will be less clarity of concept in the class and they will have to look for another option to make their concepts clear.
For this strategic management process of the consolidation of classrooms in the school, students, parents, educators, and members of the administration will act as partners. The major cost of this project will be bear by the external stakeholders. Consolidation of classrooms will impact the wages of teachers but it will not impact the cost bear by external stakeholders (Gorondutse & Hilman, 2019). They will pay the same amount as they were previously paying for the education of their children. This process will further impact the services offered to them.
School administrators, who are responsible for planning the overall curriculum, work as per the direction of teachers and professionals. The idea of consolidation of classrooms will hardly impact their performance. But external stakeholders can be the main victim of this consolidation of classes (Jabbour, 2019). The school needs to adopt strategic management approach before adopting this idea of consolidation so that the interests of both internal and external stakeholders can be kept. The school administration should inform the students as well as their parents before taking this action. Another victim of this act will be the teachers because the school would cut the wages of the teachers to cut the overall costs. On the other hand, it will be an opportunity for the school to merge the classes and to save from wages.
Optimal solution
The school management has come to this decision after environment scanning and strategy formulation process. They have observed the existing number of students in the classroom. Thus, while deciding the consolidation of classes, they should target only those classes which have less number of students. Consolidation of such classes will not impact the external stakeholders. They will not have any issue with this decision of the school. On the other hand, the school administration should also inform the teachers regarding this consolidation of classrooms. In spite of cutting wages of the existing teachers, they should shunt some extra teachers and should pay the same wage to the existing teachers.
References
Breen, R., & Jonsson, J. O. (2010). Inequality of Opportunity in Comparative Perspective: Recent Research on Educational Attainment and Social Mobility. Annual Review of Sociology, 31 (1), 223-243. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.31.041304.122232
Buchmann, C., & Hannum, E. (2011). Education and Stratification in Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Research. Annual Review of Sociology, 27 (1), 77-102. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.77
Campbell, N., Sinclair, G., & Browne, S. (2019). Preparing for a world without markets: legitimising strategies of preppers. Journal of Marketing Management, 35 (9), 798-813. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-09-2015-0088
Gorondutse, A., & Hilman, H. (2019). Does organizational culture matter in the relationship between trust and SMEs performance? Management Decision, 57 (7), 1638-1658. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2018-0557
Jabbour, A. L. (2019). Going in circles: new business models for efficiency and value.
Journal of Business Strategy, 40 (4), 26-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-05-2018-0092
Jurksiene, L., & Pundziene, A. (2016). The relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm competitive advantage. European Business Review, 28 (4), 431-448. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-09-2015-0088
Ketchen, D & Short, J. (2012) Strategic Management: Evaluation and Execution.
Kreutzer, K., & Rueede, D. (2019). Organizational identity consistency in a discontinuous corporate volunteering program. European Management Journal, 37 (4), 455-467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2018.12.003
Mendes, & Machado. (2015). Employees’ skills, manufacturing flexibility and performance: a structural equation modelling applied to the automotive industry. International Journal of Production Research, 53 (13), 4087-4101. https://doi.org 10.3233/WOR-2012-0735-4389
Schnellbächer, B., Heidenreich, S., & Wald, A. (2019). Antecedents and effects of individual ambidexterity – A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at the employee level. European Management Journal, 37 (4), 442-454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.02.002
Assignment on Strategic Management by Subject Academy
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