Discussion : "Foundations of Strategic Management" Please respond to the following:

Analyze the concepts of strategic planning and strategic management. Determine two fundamental differences between the concepts that you have analyzed, and provide one example of strategic management and one example of strategic planning as they relate to healthcare organizations.

Strategic management is the continuous planning, monitoring, analysis and assessment of all that is necessary for an organization to meet its goals and objectives.

It includes the collection of continuous activities and processes that an organization use to coordinate and direct resources and actions with vision, mission of the organization for better results. It involvesAnalyzing internal and external strengths and weaknesses; Formulating action plans; Executing action plans; Evaluating to what degree action plans have been successful and making changes when desired results are not being produced.

The strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to determine the vision, mission, goals and objectives of an organization. The strategic planning process includes establishing the sequence in which the goals and objectives should fall so that the organization is enabled to reach its vision.

It involves setting priorities, focusing energy and resources, strengthening operations, ensuring that employees and other stakeholders are working toward the common goals, establishing agreement around intended outcomes, and carrying out assessments and adjustments to the organization's direction in response to a changing environment.

Key differences between strategic planning and strategic management are:

Strategic planning is a future-oriented activity which tends to ascertain the organizational strategy and used to set priorities while strategic management is a series of decisions or moves taken by the organization management in relation to the formulation and execution of strategies to achieve organizational goals.

Strategic planning focuses on making optimal strategic decisions making it an analytical activity while strategic management is all about producing strategic results making it an action oriented activity.

Examples in Healthcare organizations:

The changing environmental conditions have led to not emergency of new diseases that need to be determined, machines for their treatment obtained and relevant personnel trained to combat the diseases and provide care.

Strategic planning would involve setting up goals and objectives to ensure the healthcare sector is able to solve these problems. It would include prioritizing the areas to be looked and probable actions to be undertaken.

Strategic Management would involve a long term processes of ensuring all the issues facing the sector at that time are addressed. It would involve monitoring, analysis and assessing the activities being undertaken to ensure they solve the problems appropriately. It would involve obtaining the most appropriate machines, ensuring the trained personnel are doing the right job to solve the problems and if any adjustments to training or machines need to be made and done.

Examine the concepts of analytical and emergent approaches to strategic management. Next, imagine that you are a hospital administrator.

Determine which of the two approaches--analytical or emergent--would be more effective in planning to expand services to surrounding communities. Provide an example of the type of information that would be necessary when using the approach that you have deemed to be more effective.

The emergent approach and the analytical model are the two main approaches to strategic management.

Emergent approach sees everything in constant dynamics, and therefore does not have a definite, set well-defined or final goal, rather it leaves the strategy open and enables to shape it constantly.

Emergent strategy is undertaken by an organization that analyzes its environment constantly and implements its strategy simultaneously. The main advantages of emergent approach are flexibility and speed of response to emerging strategic opportunities.

Analytical approach depends on the development of a logical sequenced of steps or process linear thinking. It uses the basic phases of strategic management, such analysis of environment, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategic control. It uses feedback to provide an opportunity to respond to sudden changes in the environment and modify the original strategy, to create updated strategy. However, it is rigid and inflexible.

When planning to expand services to the surrounding community, Emergent approach would be more effective. This is because health care systems and environment are dynamic and very competitive. The health care system would therefore require a flexible approach.

An information that could be necessary when using the approach is when determining the equipment to install at your new facilities. This is because technology is changing fast and improved equipment are on the market every now and again.

References

Harrison, J. S., & Thompson, S. M. (2015). Strategic management of healthcare organizations.

Lynch, R. (2018). Strategic Management. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.