Essay Assignment
1. In order to properly implement a strategic plan, organizations use structure, various control systems (budgets, variance analysis, policies and procedures, company rules), and culture.
Let us revisit General Mills and determine the relative effectiveness of the company's strategic controls. Choose two implementation controls, and discuss whether or not you believe the controls you've selected effectively support the company's strategic choices. Be sure to defend your answer (critical thinking is required)!
2. Culture must fit with an organization's strategic choices. Poor alignment between culture and strategic choice is a sure-fire way to doom any strategic choice.
Of course, some organizational theorists would assert that an organization's culture cannot be "managed" in the truest sense of how one "manages" the processes and activities and things that exist within an organization. David Campbell (2000, p. 28) says that an organization
Is being constructed continuously on a daily, even momentary [italics added], basis through individual interactions with others. The organization never settles into an entity or a thing that can be labelled and described, because it is constantly changing, or reinventing itself, through the interactions going on within it. [At the same time, an organization] does have a certain character to it, such that, like driving on the motorway, not just anything goes (p. x).
Do you agree or disagree with the above? That is, can culture really be "managed"? What might this interpretation mean in the context of our current discussion related to "strategic controls"?
A few comments on the above: Many individuals believe that, while the notion of "culture" can be defined, no single individual (irrespective of his/her legitimate power) is capable of single-handedly moving an organization's culture in one direction or another. These individuals suggest that the sheer number of formal and informal groups, structures, tasks, functional operations, and individual interactions that exist and occur within organizations (even moderate-sized ones) render the "management" of culture impossible (consider the potential number - and combination - of individual to individual, individual to group, and group to group interactions that are likely to occur within an organization at each and every moment (and then, there are endless numbers of contacts / interactions with external stakeholders as well). The possibilities are seemingly infinite -- or at least they are indefinite. In this view, an organization's culture is abstract, fragmentary, fluid -- and even relative and momentary - how can such a thing be "managed" in the same sense that we "manage" people and organizational processes?
3. Address the following: What concepts were most interesting to you? ("Strategic Management Process/Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives", "The External Environment, Internal Profile, and SWOT", "Strategic Choices", "Strategy Implementation and Strategic Controls") What concepts and ideas will be most useful to you? What actions will you take in the future to improve yourself and your abilities in these two areas?
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.