Conclusion
DISPLAY 7.4 Simple Rules for SWOT Analysis
Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization.
Be clear about how the present organization differs from what might be possible in the future.
Be specific about what you want to accomplish.
Always apply SWOT in relation to your competitors.
Keep SWOT short and simple.
Remember that SWOT is subjective.
Source: Adapted from Marketing Teacher. (n.d.). SWOT analysis: Lesson. Retrieved November 16, 2015, from http://www.marketingteacher.com/wordpress/swot-analysis/
Balanced Scorecard
Balanced scorecard, developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in the early 1990s, is another tool that is highly assistive in strategic planning. Indeed, JaxWorks (2014) notes that the Harvard Business Review calls balanced scorecard one of the most significant ideas of the last 75 years.
Strategic planners using a balanced scorecard develop metrics (performance measurement indicators), collect data, and analyze that data from four organizational perspectives: financial, customers, internal business processes (or simply processes), and learning and growth. These measures align individual, departmental, and organizational goals and identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives (JaxWorks, 2014). Because all of the measures are considered to be related, and because all of the measures are assumed to eventually lead to outcomes, an overemphasis on financial measures is avoided. The scorecard then is “balanced” in that outcomes are in balance.
Balanced scorecards also allow organizations to align their strategic activities with the strategic plan. The best balanced scorecards are not a static set of measurements but instead reflect the dynamic nature of the organizational environment. Because the balanced scorecard is able to translate strategy into action, it is an effective tool for translating an organization’s strategic vision into clear and realistic objectives.
Strategic Planning as a Management Process
Although SWOT and balanced scorecard are different, they are also similar in that they can help organizations assess what they do well and what they need to do to continue to be effective and financially sound. Many other strategic planning tools exist as well, although they are not discussed in this text. Regardless of the tool(s) used, strategic planning as a management process generally includes the following steps:
1. Clearly define the purpose of the organization.
2. Establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with the mission of the organization.
3. Identify the organization’s external constituencies or stakeholders and then determine their assessment of the organization’s purposes and operations.
4. Clearly communicate the goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
5. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
6. Develop strategies to achieve the goals.
7. Ensure that the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources.
8. Provide a base from which progress can be measured.
9. Provide a mechanism for informed change as needed.
10. Build a consensus about where the organization is going.
It should be noted, though, that some critics argue that strategic planning is rarely this linear. Nor is it static.
Strategic planning instead involves various actions and reactions that are partially planned and partially unplanned. Hernandez (2015) agrees, noting that strategic plans are living, breathing documents and as such must be adaptable and flexible so they can respond to changes in both internal and external environments.
In addition, Hernandez (2015) notes that having a new strategic plan means new priorities and new activities across the organization. Every activity (other than the most functional) then must be reviewed against its relevance to the new strategy.
Who Should Be Involved in Strategic Planning?
Long-range planning for health-care organizations historically has been accomplished by top-level managers and the board of directors, with limited input from middle-level managers. To give the strategic plan meaning
and to implement it successfully, input from subordinates from all organizational levels may be solicited.
There is increasing recognition, however, of the importance of subordinate input from all levels of the
organization to give the strategic plan meaning and to increase the likelihood of its successful implementation.
The first-level manager is generally more involved in long-range planning at the unit level. However, because the organization’s strategic plans affect unit planning, managers at all levels must be informed of organizational long-range plans so that all planning is coordinated.
All organizations should establish annual strategic planning conferences, involving all departments and levels of the hierarchy; this action should promote increased effectiveness of nursing staff; better
communication between all levels of personnel; a cooperative spirit relative to solving problems; and a pervasive feeling that the departments are unified, goal directed, and doing their part to help the organization accomplish its mission.
LEARNING EXERCISE
7.3
Making a Long-Term Plan
T
he human resource manager in the facility where you are a supervisor has just completed a survey of the potential retirement plans of the nursing staff and found that within 5 years, 45% of the staff will probably be retiring. You know that past and present available statistics show that you normally replace 10% to 15%of your staff each year with new hires. You are concerned, as you do not know how you will be able to handle this new increase in your need for staff.
A S S I G N M E N T:
Make a 5-year, long-term plan that will increase the likelihood of you being able to meet this new demand. Remember that other units within your facility and other health-care organizations in your region may also be facing the same problem.
Organizational Planning: The Planning Hierarchy
There are many types of planning; in most organizations, these plans form a hierarchy, with the plans at the top influencing all the plans that follow. As depicted in the pyramid in Figure 7.1, the hierarchy broadens at lower levels, representing an increase in the number of planning components. In addition, planning
components at the top of the hierarchy are more general, and lower components are more specific.
Vision and Mission Statements
Vision statements are used to describe future goals or aims of an organization. It is a description in words that conjures up a picture for all group members of what they want to accomplish together. It is critical, then, that organization leaders recognize that the organization will never be greater than the vision that guides it. An appropriate vision statement for a hospital is shown in Display 7.5.