Essay Sample on Strategic Management: Achieving Goals & Objectives for Optimal Performance

Introduction

Strategic management is defined as the organization of essential resources of the company to achieve the set goals and objectives. The concept involves the systematic setting of objectives, examining the competitive position, assessing the internal structure, identifying effective strategies and making sure that the management of the organization implements the strategies recognized (Alam, J. 2018). The central purpose of strategic management is to identify how the company builds up in comparison to its competitors; the concept also evaluates the possible opportunities and threats that affect the organization. It helps to find out whether the opportunities and threats are caused by the competitors of the organization itself. In general, strategic management is implemented based on the organizational mission statement as well as the approaches put in place to achieve the set goals by efficient utilization of the available resources.

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Leadership refers to the capacity of an organization's management to establish and realize challenging goals, offer quick and sound decision when required, outdo the competitors and mobilize others to perform at their best level. It provides direction for the employees and the company by setting a positive example. The leader and the rest of the team usually have a defined understanding to govern the expected ability and articulate the goals and visions of the organization (Alam, J. 2018). Leadership is executed appropriately based on strategic planning and management to achieve long-term goals of the organization. Leadership is basically a skill which an individual can acquire through long-term experience. For instance, in Amazon, the sales assistant is promoted to a team leader after gaining the experience. The company does not appoint a team leader from scratch because leadership involves consistent learning through experience. While strategic management can be developed through training and courses offered at a specific level.

There exist a link between strategic management and leadership. For instance, strategic management relies on leadership to attain the target. An organization is determined to achieve its desirable tasks and targets because of leadership. Management helps to control resources and people within the organization based on outlined values and rules as leadership provides the required direction for the people. The link between strategic management and leadership can be clearly understood by the fact that they are both contributing to the success of a company. An organization cannot achieve long term satisfaction without having a good leadership structure. Combining effective leadership and good management, one is able to set desirable direction and allocate the available resources appropriately for the benefit of the organization. It helps to define the goals and targets for the organization and evaluate strategies that will be used to achieve them as required.

Impact of Management and Leadership Styles on Strategic Decisions

After examining the connection between strategic management and leadership, it is good to analyze their impacts on strategic decisions. I will use Amazon as my current workplace to demonstrate the role of leadership and strategic management and how they influence strategic decisions. I work at Amazon Inc. as a customer sales assistant, the department comprises of 30 employees and we work in shifts. I am currently serving in consumer electronics. The company is divided into various departments such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and e-commerce. The team leader is determined active and experienced to work in any of this department. This helps him to ensure that the customer sales assistants do perfect work. The team leader uses a strategic management approach to make sure that the staff executes their duties and roles based on the standards of the company. When a task is assigned to the group, the leader offers direction on how it should be undertaken and supervises the whole process to ensure that each staff member completes the work on time (Cloud, A. 2008).

The goal of Amazon is to offer quality services to the customers and become the number one online market in terms of sales as well as business size. The company has established policies to ensure customer assistants are assigned specific targets to achieve within a given time. For instance, I worked on a task where the management had given a certain target for the annual sales by limiting the number of resources. The management stated that 30 customer assistants working in consumer electronics should take a minimum time to complete their tasks and achieve the set annual sales. This served as the strategic management to boost the number of sales for the company and utilize the available resources effectively. The leadership part required that we complete the task in time, and we were guided on how to achieve the set time. This implies how strategic management and leadership can be utilized to influence decision making within the company (Pepitone, J. 2011).

Amazon Company's management planned to cut off overtime hours since the time was being utilized by employees to request for additional pay. The first action taken by the management was to stop people from asking for extra time to complete assigned tasks. Employees including myself were denied access to overtime, as a result, the leaders find it hard to supervise work completion within the allowed time. In our department, three people were allowed to work in one shift for the whole night. This was the role of strategic management to cut down the resources, that is, reducing the number of workers per shift.

How Leadership Styles Can Be Adapted to Different Situations

Leading from the front; this approach enables the leader to use his or her example in performance to influence the workers. For instance, at Amazon, our team leader is committed and determined to deliver high-quality services for the customers and the company. He always encourages us to perform to his standard in order to build a reputable profile for the company. It implies a transformational leadership style where the employees emulate the performance of the inspiring leader. In situations where the performance is at a low level, the leader should set a good example for the rest of the group members to emulate. For instance, if the customer complains about delays in shipping of the item ordered, the leader should take an initiative of identifying the cause of delay and provide an immediate solution. If the leader serves with his/her example, the rest of the members are able to copy the ways of doing things to avoid future problems (Deschamps, J. 2005).

Impact That Selected Theories of Management and Leadership to Have On Organizational Strategy

As mentioned earlier, leadership concept refers to the ability of a person to influence, guide, motivate and mobilize others to contribute to the success of the company or organization. Each organization uses unique leadership theories that are applicable to different situations. The leadership theories are classified in the form of universal and contingency, descriptive and prescriptive, leaders and followers' theory. These categories help to identify if the theory is applicable to followers or leaders which exhibit different characteristics and actions. Many of these theories relate more to leaders than followers. Descriptive theories outline the approach that a leader uses to carry out his/her routine work as the followers comply with what is said. Prescriptive theories state that a leader should participate fully in the routine work by putting more efforts to achieve the desirable outcomes, this can be realized through motivation. Contingency theories are applicable to limited situations faced by the leader in the organization while universal theories can be used in both descriptive and prescriptive circumstances. Leaders direct a certain group of individuals in order to realize or attain a common task for the company as well as promote essential skills. Leadership theories applicable to the organization include:

Behavioral Theories

In accordance with this theory, a leader is recognized because he/she possesses extra qualities and has the required experience of observation and teaching. The leader is expected to have unique behavior patterns that distinguish him/her from the rest of the team members. Employees within the organization are capable of identifying the nature of their leader by observing the behavior (Gill, R.. 2011). The type of leadership style defined by a leader is aligned to achieve the goals set by the organization. The impact of behavioral theory in management can be analyzed using my workplace Amazon. When the staff member reports late to work and does it intentionally, the manager will at first ignore and start to monitor him/her the following day. If the employee repeats the behavior, the manager or leader will warn him. Likewise, if a task is assigned to the worker, the leader or manager would not walk around to supervise of pressurizing the staff member. Instead, the manager would watch out keenly if the job is being done effectively or not and in the given time. Therefore, this implies that the manager expects each employee to perform the role assigned and work based on the required standards.

Contingency and Situational Theories

A leader is expected to exercise his/her actions according to the prevailing situation. This means that the leader can use various approaches that suit the situation at hand to find a solution or make a decision. For instance, if the circumstance requires an urgent base, a leader is allowed to use the autocratic leadership style to formulate a plan or decision. In the event where the situation needs diverse views or opinions then the leader can apply democratic leadership approach. In Amazon Inc, motivation is considered the most effective factor that influences the performance of employees. When a situation involving a shortage of staff members or stress, the manager would motivate other people within the company to fill the gaps and complete the tasks in time. In the event where one of the staff members appears to be exhausted and fails to perform tasks perfectly, the manager applies the behavioral theory by giving him/her the break.

Leadership Strategy That Supports Organizational Direction

Based on the above leadership and management theories, it is evident that Amazon Inc utilizes diverse theories in various situation to ensure that effective decisions are made. Teamwork and participatory theory is an effective leadership strategy that supports Amazon's direction towards enhancing its performance level. In this regards, all people within the organization are called upon to gather and give their opinions about how the company can achieve sustainable growth. The manager collects the suggestions and makes the final decision. As a result, this strategy helps to improve the communication between the manager and employees which has positive impacts on the overall performance of the company. Another strategy involves the use of team leader and behavioral approach in Amazon Inc. According to this strategy, the leader represents the entire organization and act as an example to the rest of the workers using a behavioral approach. When the employees notice that their manager or leader is committed to working more and better than them, they feel challenged and motivated. This eventually encourages them to put more efforts into their tasks and perform to the level of their manager.