Review Of Research Papers Regarding Challenges Of Effective Strategic Management

Abstract

Everybody now a days is running behind to set-up an organization for earning profit but no body is clearly familiar with the challenges that he/she has to face in future while managing his/her organization. The main reason behind writing this paper is to highlight about the challenges of effective strategic management in different organizations or companies.

No doubt it's one of the hot topics of the century to keep an eye on. Like-wise there are bundle of articles on internet about the terrific challenges that strategists face during making strategies for their organization. As we all know that the world is becoming more global day by day and this rapid growing change has several negative as well as positive impacts on management system within organizations. Who had just thought that Chinese movies and brands will spread out in Hollywood (Schwenker, B, Wulf, T, (Eds), 2013).

It's a sad truth that prediction about an event that will happen in future is the most difficult task for every person not only for strategists. It can be any situation like political, economical and environmental etc but it's not easy to predict such signals. Like-wise we can't predict about terrorist attacks which arises anywhere at any time. Some thoughts says that terrorism is also a big barrier in making strategies for the strategists (John H-Grant, 2007).

As we all are familiar with the pandemic situation (COVID-19) which spreaded in the whole world and forced every country to change its policies like economical and political etc. If the economic and political solutions will change then definitely the strategic management system in organizations of such country will also be changed. There will be changing in the work process of organizations that have been used so far (M. Nowicka-Skowron, J. Stachowicz, 2021).

Despite having positive aspects like unity of purpose and efficient communication the managers or strategists of family businesses face several challenges like the mindset of the new generation and the level of competency in them. Due to this diversity there are more chances of conflicts (A. F. Aysan et al (eds), Turkish economy, 2018).

Introduction

It's true that management is the building block of every organization to put it in the list of top profit earning organizations. Without an effective strategic management no any company can be in the path of development. It's really important to make effective strategies for fruitful outcomes and long-term wins of the organization.

Furthermore if the strategic management plans of an organization are better then definitely it will develope day by day, by providing great profit. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the development of any organization depends on its management system. So, there is directly proportional relationship between management system of an organization and organization's development ratio.

As we already have discussed the importance of effective strategic management above, now we will discuss why it's important to highlight the topic? As we all know that without having knowledge about the problem we cannot get into it. If any body wants to do something then he/she have to know about the related problems first. After having a clear Introduction information about the problem it will be easy for the person to face or fix them.

There are several challenges or obstacles that effect the strategy implementation process. After studying about such obstacles or challenges of effective strategic management the question arises in mind is that does these obstacles relate to each other or not?

The most common obstacles or challenges of effective strategic management are; lack of information, lack of well trained staff, missing database, globalization, economic and political changes, pandemic situation, sole proprietorship, conflicts in family businesses and uncertainty etc. There is the possibility of relationship between these obstacles (e.g; Beer and Eisenstat, 2000).

Review

The topic is on top of the internet now a days and I have found bundle of challenges that impact on strategic management from within as well as out of the organization. So, I only go through the challenges which are extracted by different researcher and mentioned in their articles.

Globalization and management system of organizations

It's true that globalization is on its peak now a days and will further increase in coming decades. It is one of the big challenges for strategists to make strategies for the environment full of diversity. It's known that everybody has different needs and thoughts and it really becomes huge challenge for a strategist to think and act on the behalf of all those different needs and thoughts. Likewise it's really difficult for strategists to handle different needs and fulfill them accurately by taking care of cultural differences.

Besides globalization is an obstacle or challenge for strategists but on the other hand it has positive impacts also on the organization. If companies cope with the globalization then it provides awesome benefits like recognition of company's brand in the whole world. More likely, no doubt Chinese brands have made it to Hollywood. The movie (Transformers) is full of product placement for Chinese firms. Companies make a big portion of their total revenue through foreign sales.

It's cleared that world has globalized today but what if a strategist is weak in the prediction of situation, people and culture? So, here comes the another obstacle or challenge.

Uncertainty (Weak Predictions)

Inability of an individual to predict something accurately should be uncertainty and it's one of the terrific challenges for the strategists. If the perception level of a strategist is weak then definitely he/she cannot make valuable decisions for the organization as well as for the society. The increasing uncertainty leads to weak management strategies and results are fall of organization.

• In 1876 the financial services company Western Union believed that telephone would never replace telegraph. Today the number of cell phone subscription alone is about six billion.
• French Marshall Ferdinand Foch (Famous military theorist and supreme commander of allied armies) said in 1911 that airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
• Wilhelm || (Germany's last kaiser) stated in 1905 that he believe in horse, Automobile are a passing phenomenon.

So, it's a big challenge for managers to create perceptions about environment, people and culture while making strategic plans. Sometimes even people can't predict about the thinking of their families. It's possible to have different mindsets and thoughts of same family.

Family business conflicts

Family businesses regarded as backbone of economy. It provides bundle of jobs as well as creates huge wealth. In 2014 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) constituted 99.8% of all enterprises in Turkey. It provided 73.5% of all jobs and more than half of all wages. The investments made was 55% and all of these companies are owned and managed by families.

Despite having positive aspects of unity of purpose, decision making and efficiency in communication etc, family businesses also have negative sides including family conflicts, incompetent members of next generation and different mindsets in new generation. It becomes a challenge for the strategists to manage different point of views. Every new generation is coming with a different mindset so, it becomes an obstacle for an old manager to corporate with such diverse thoughts.

If thoughts of members in a family will different then there will be conflicts within the family which can demolish the strategies and whole business. Such conflicts may appear in the form of attacks and wars in future.

Terrorist attacks

As terrorism is the main reason behind a sad generation, it's also one of the terrific challenges for strategists to look upon while managing their organization. If a country is facing terrorist attacks then definitely it will be difficult for a manager to run his/her organization in such situations.

Terrorism may leads to missing data from the organizations that would face substantial difficulties. It will be the situation where terrorist stole the data or destroy the whole organization. For taking next step it will be a big challenge for a manager to make plans about the organization without having a single piece of paper. Companies try to develop strategies for bottom of the (socioeconomic) pyramid communities, where basic data regarding income and costs are missing.

Likewise terrorism cause economical and social change which becomes the cause of strategic problems because changing in the economy and society leads to change in the strategy of managers. At such situation strategists have to burn their readymade strategies and try to make new ones according to the situation. Strategists should always be ready for unpredictable phenomenon like COVID-19.

Pandemic situation

The pandemic situation is also an obstacle for strategists because situations like these has a terrific impact on the whole country like terrorist attacks that we have discussed above. Furthermore the solutions in economic and political system will be changed because of pandemic situation.

If there is a change in economic and political policies then strategists must have to change their management policies and plans by looking at the current situation. Moreover a success management depends in interacting and configuration of various factors including internal and external, visiting and interact with people within the society as well as within market.

As we have seen the situation during COVID-19 that almost every organization was closed, people were bound to live in their homes and the market was shut down. At that moment it was a big challenge for strategists or managers to make effective strategies for managing their companies, because they could not interact with people face to face.

The IT professionals at that time took a beneficial step by providing online platforms for organizations and almost all strategists add this valuable plan in their strategies for running their organizations or for doing business. In contrast failed states have left their citizens without basic internet security and therefore organizations have lost property rights and related contract enforcement abilities.

Conclusion

It's concluded that no any organization as well as any country will be in the path of development without having effective strategic management system in organizations. If an organization face the challenges of effective strategic management and make better strategies then definitely the organization will develope day by day and due to this people of society will move to standard lives, gradually the whole country will develope.

This leads to the question that what's the critical importance of effective strategic management for our society? Because it almost relates to the topic and also it's important to be known to understand the topic more critically.

For managing organizations effectively the strategists not only have to face the above mentioned challenges but their behavior should also be awesome. Serious behavior of strategists leads wonderful social and physical ecosystem. But the question arises here is that what type of behavior should a strategist have for developing his/her organization?