The Strategy and Change Interface

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The Strategy and Change Interface
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Introduction
The modern business environment is facing serious challenges because of the dynamic
global economy which requires these businesses to have the flexibility and high productivity to
thrive. For organizations to attain the required effectiveness and efficiency, they have to
strategically change their structure. Businesses can achieve this if they retain the best of
traditional structures they embrace new structures which can add value to the business and
leverage human capital. The business environment of today requires businesses and
organizations to go through changes frequently for them to gain a competitive advantage over
their market rivals. Factors such as changing technology and market globalization force
organizations to change their systems for them to survive the competitive market. Sometimes
such changes may be minor such as the installation of software while sometimes a company may
undergo major changes such as restructuring a marketing strategy or company transformation
amidst serious competition.
Strategy implementation is a fundamental tool in management with many dimensional
concepts that have been defined differently with different authors. While different scholars have
defined strategy implementation differently, there is a general agreement amongst most scholars
that it is about matching the resources and skills of an organization with the environmental
opportunities as well as managing risks that it is facing with purposes of accomplishing the goals
of the organization (Morgan, Katsikeas and Vorhies, 2012, pp.271). Strategy implementation
should be geared towards providing guidance as well as directing activities within an
organization. Because strategic decisions affect the manner in which businesses respond to their
environment, it is important for a company to make strategic decisions and focus its strategy to
its environmental function (Salih and Doll, 2013, pp.32). For most organizations, the strategy is

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aimed at providing directional cues to the organization so that it can attain its goals while
responding to environmental threats and opportunities.
For most companies, implementation of the strategy is enigma which helps to actualize
organizational change and ensure that the transition process is smooth so that the organization
does not lose focus because of the changes (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014, n.d.). The
relationship between organizational change and strategy implementation is evident in the fact the
organizational change depends on strategy implementation to attain success. On the same foot,
strategy implementation depends on organizational changes to attain success. For the successful
implementation of strategy, an organization requires energy, stamina, and patience from the
managers.
For successful strategy implementation in most companies, innovation, and improvement
of customer services are usually key areas that are considered to attract the target market.
Further, creating change in organizational structure and acquisition of required skills have also
been considered helpful in actualizing strategy implementation (Bisbe and Barrubés, 2012,
pp.923). Given the need to change organizational structures, it is not always easy to implement
the strategy. Research conducted by Oneal has indicated that structural change in any
organization greatly affects the employee networks. Successful strategy implementation is
usually thought to be a critical move in the realization of the organizational goals. This applies
to both the public and private sector.
An emergent strategy refers to an unplanned strategy which comes when there are
unexpected challenges and opportunities. Emergent strategy requires an organization to learn
what can practically work (Yang, 2012, pp.765). Organizations sometimes prefer to mix

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strategies that are both deliberate and emergent with an aim of helping an organization to take
charge of its course while encouraging the process of learning (Carlopio and Harvey, 2012,
pp.96). Sometimes organizations may apply umbrella strategies meaning that they can decide to
use broad outlines. Many authors on strategy have indicated that the process of strategy in most
cases is planned and ordered than assumed. Strategic management requires management of idea
as well as practical operations. In the case of emergent strategy, the implementation process
incorporates practical operations that can help actualize the strategy.
O’Neal observed that the concept of strategy implementation requires a proper model
with detailed steps. However, Chris argues that while there is a need for appropriate models for
the implementation process, more than 50% of the strategy does not get implemented (Chen, Pan
and Ouyang, 2014, pp.273). This means that a problem exists somewhere between the planning
and the implementation of the strategy. Sesti argued that sometimes the employees do not have
sufficient knowledge about the strategy of the company. Strategists often use difficult
terminologies to describe the significance of strategy implementation. For instance, Hu use
terminologies like killers’ confrontation and engagement. Many strategists have raised concerns
over what they believe are problems between performance and strategy. One of the majorly cited
problems in the gap between the strategy crafting and the implementation or performance is an
organizational structure (Njagi and Kombo, 2014, pp.64). This means that within the structures
and systems of operations, there is no clear definitions or strict rules that can aid performance or
implementation of the strategy. This means that whereas there can be great strategies crafted for
the sake of the organizational success, there are weak systems and structures which fail to
support the strategies put in place. For that reason. O’Neal suggests that in order to implement a
strategy, there is a need for the organization to integrate the strategy with the management