Analysis of Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management - Polaris

This report analyzes contemporary issues in strategic management using Polaris Industry as a case study. It examines the company's organizational culture through the cultural web model, detailing how stories, rituals, symbols, organizational structure, control systems, and power structures affect strategic choices and implementation. The report further evaluates three international strategy approaches—multi-domestic, transnational, and global—discussing their suitability for Polaris Industry's global expansion goals. The analysis highlights the importance of aligning organizational culture and international strategies to achieve competitive advantage and overall business success. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

Contemporary Issues in
Strategic Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................1
Using the cultural web describe the organisational culture of company as well as discuss every
element of cultural web and describe how each factors affected implementation of company's
strategic choices...........................................................................................................................1
Organisational culture .................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 2 ..................................................................................................................................2
Evaluate 3 possible international strategy approaches as well as discuss in detail which
strategy is needed to achieve this.................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management refers to the process of formulating procedures, setting goals as
well as objectives to make a business or company more competitive. Strategic management
assists organisation to develop their resources and staff members in order to achieve
predetermined goals. It includes setting objectives, analysis, formulation of strategy,
implementation of strategies as well as monitoring to gain competitive advantages over
competitors. Strategic management gives overall guidance and direction through developing
polices and plans designed to accomplish goals as well as then assigning resources to execute the
plans (Ciesiołkiewicz, 2020). There are also many problems which the management have to
faced while formulating strategies such as system design, sustainability, globalisation, ineffective
communication and ethical conduct. To define the concept of contemporary issues in strategic
management the selected business is POLARIS INDUSTRY which is growing motorcycle
business. It was founded in 1954 by Alan Hetteen and has around 7000 employees in all
branches across the world.
This report highlights organisational culture, cultural web and its aspects as well as how
these aspect impacted strategic choices and implementation of company. Further, it defines
international strategy approaches and selection of strategy which is most suitable for company.
QUESTION 1
Using the cultural web describe the organisational culture of company as well as discuss every
element of cultural web and describe how each factors affected implementation of
company's strategic choices
Organisational culture
Organisational culture has been determined as collection of values, practices and
expectations which inform and guide the actions or behaviour of all employees in a company.
Organisational cultural of POLARIS INDUSTRY is stable and liberal as they allow their
employees to participate and contribute in the success of company by creating and thinking
innovations. Management of POLARIS INDUSTR provides better working environment as well
as opportunities for their future development so they feel motivated and confident in order to
achieve company goals more efficiently. They allow employees to take challenges and
participate in challenging projects as well as roles with an delegated level of responsibility and
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authority in their active working environment. They believed that employees are most valuable
assets which contribute their full efforts in the success of company. As they make best quality
products as well as experiences for the customers (Dingle and Mallen, eds., 2020). Also, it has
great workforce retention and employees seem to be happy with the culture of organisation.
Management of company provides security, safety and healthy working environment by
introducing new candidate with old employees and try to make them comfortable by effective
communication as well as give them a chance to familiar with environment and working with in
their company. So they coordinate with each other by putting more efforts to complete tasks as a
whole team in order to get completive advantages. The vision of the company is to fuel the
passion of workers, riders and many supporter across the world by offering high quality vehicles,
innovation, goods, services addition to better experiences which improve their living standard or
lives.
Cultural web model
Cultural web refers to business tool which is used by management to formulate the
culture of a business. As it is way of understating and seeing the different determinants which
affect the culture of organisation. It includes 6 elements which helps the management of
POLARIS INDUSTRY in order to make effective strategics and keep their work environment
better, so the employees feels motivation and conduct their practices with full efforts towards the
achievement of organisation objectives (Draebye, 2018). These 6 elements are stories, rituals or
routines, symbols, organisational structure, control systems and power structure which enables
manager to see the wider picture of their organisation culture. By using this model, professionals
of POLARIS INDUSTRY get to know what is beneficial or working and not as well as areas
which needs to be transformed in order to achieve greater success in future. Cultural web model
in context to POLARIS INDUSTRY are as follows- Stories- It refers to the stories of past events which the people inside and outside in an
organisation talked about constantly. These stories are told in canteen, in the hallways
and in smoking area by old employees to newcomers about the successes, heroes,
failures, villains of a business. As these stories disclose more about values which apply
with in a company (Dragoi, Constantinescu and Preda, 2018). When the HR manager of
POLARIS INDUSTRY appoints new people in their organisation, old employees share
their experiences and make them comfortable by motivating them and told them about
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the achievement of company as it is known as world largest manufacturer of
snowmobiles. This can impact as staff members give their best efforts in order to
generate new innovation to add the values of their customer base. Rituals and routines- It refers to the events of a administrations in that they underline
what is truly valued and important for them as well as how the management keep it
effectively. In POLARIS INDUSTRY, it is actions and behaviour of employees on daily
basis which identifies what is expected to occur in particular situations as well as what is
valuable by top managers (Falkheimer and Sandberg, 2018). This can influence the
discipline and engagement of employees as they discuss their task and especially the way
for which they cut the cost. Symbols- It refers to the visual and recognisable representations of business consisting
logos, formal or informal dress codes as well as how lavish offices are. In POLARIS
INDUSTRY symbols are about their corporate identity, company cars, functions, logo,
use of language, and dress code which define the formal and informal culture (Greve,
2021). Logo of company is very attractive and company follow formal dress code to
make uniformity among employees. This can influence the decision of management to
expand their operations by adopting same policies of new comers in another branch. Organisational structure- It consists both hierarchical structure outlined by chart of
organisation as well as unwritten and informal lines of influences and power which show
whose efforts are more valued. In POLARIS INDUSTRY, the company follows
functional structure which defines connection between employees from the multiple
layers in structure of business. As they allow employees to share their ideas and take risk
to generate some thing innovation which helps the company to grow (Keding, 2021).
This factor has great influenced as it helps them to pass necessary information about
merger, expansion and so on to each level of all branches effectively. Control systems- This aspects is pointing the method in which company is being
managed and controlled. It includes the rewards, quality systems and financial systems as
well as involving the method they are determined and divided with in business. As they
give recognitions, development opportunities and rewards to their talented employees
who done great job by analysing their performances with each other.
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 Power structures- It is directly associated to paradigm, as major and real power is in the
hand of top management which includes department head, executives, senior manager
and so on . All these people have more power and have large amount of influence on
operations, decisions and strategic direction (Ocvirk, Ocvirk and Berg, 2018). In
POLARIS INDUSTRY, main power to take major decisions are in the hand of top
management, CEO, directors and heads of various department. As they decided to merge
with another companies, expand their business in another nation as well as add more line
of products. As it influences that they made crucial decision easily by consulting with
heads of all department in every country to meet the vision of company.
All these factors affected the overall culture, performance and productivity of company
as if the management of POLARIS INDUSTRY make effective strategies by aligning each
elements together in same direction with their resources towards the achievement of organisation
goals. Cultural web can helps manager as it provide roadmap and vision related to many areas in
POLARIS INDUSTRY to bring effective or profitable changes in their corporate culture. Along
with that, company have very strong culture or liberal which helps them to meet their vision and
expectation of customers in order to get huge market share and customer base (Schühly, 2022).
If POLARIS INDUSTRY have adopted weak or rigid culture then they have to face failure and
many problems related to employees working, retention and many more which affect the overall
growth of the company.
QUESTION 2
Evaluate 3 possible international strategy approaches as well as discuss in detail which strategy
is needed to achieve this
International strategy refers to the approaches which most the organisations take with
international expansion, importing or exporting products and services while managing a head
office in host country. It includes 3 approaches such as multi domestic, transnational and global
strategy which the manager can use in order to expand their business operations globally. The 3
possible international strategy approaches in context to POLARIS INDUSTRY are shown
below-
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Multi domestic-It refers to a marketing strategy by which many organisations try to accomplish
maximum stratification by focusing on commercial and advertisement efforts to meet the
requirements of people in a country which have different taste, desires and preferences.
Management of POLARIS INDUSTRY can use this strategy by adding more features in their
products and services. As it enables them to compete severally in many domestic market. In
POLARIS INDUSTRY it can benefit company to launch new variety of product in many country
like India, Japan, US as per the needs of customers of that country in order to gain more
publicity, customer base, brand value and market share. Drawback of this strategy is different
culture, taste and preferences may increase the cost of POLARIS INDUSTRY and also there is
chances to derail their marketing efforts due to different customers trends in each country
(Stoyanova, 2018). Management can find difficulties to research new marketers and gain trust of
people which leads to waste their huge time or money.
Transnational- It is the combination of multi domestic strategy and standardised strategy as well
as it is a plan of action where a organisation decides to operates its operations and functions
outside its domestic boundaries. As this strategy is focused on overseas assets and operations as
well as connecting them to each country in which business operates. It is useful for POLARIS
INDUSTRY when they deals with significant cost burden from global competitors but have 6to
offers goods and services which meet local customers demands. The demerits of this strategy for
POLARIS INDUSTRY as it is very difficult to manage due to they needs to meet economies of
scale by standardisation but they have to be negotiable to react to conditions (Suhail, 2018). It
can benefit POLARIS INDUSTRY as they operate and have head office in their main country
and expand their business operations and assets in many more countries. It identifies the levels of
local responsiveness and global integrations for their famous brand. They can use this strategy to
achieve their goals as they maintained same policies, procedure and have uniform technologies
as well as have sufficient capability to adapt to situations of every international operations.
Global strategy- It refers to a strategy which a business develops and grows to expand its
operations in international market (Sukhobokov, Galimov and Zolotov, 2018). The main purpose
to adopt this strategy is to improve sales and revenue in the whole world. It also includes
international, multinational and standardisation strategies. As POLARIS INDUSTRY can use
this strategy to make minor changes in their product and services as per various market trends.
As they sell their motorcycle by adding some changes like in colour, designs and many more as
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per recent trends of that country in their similar product. It can benefit the POLARIS
INDUSTRY as they increase their sales of motorcycle by offering it in new market as they
expand their business in India and Japan as well as joint venturing their business with Eicher
motors to market their bikes in India. Also they can use this strategy to expand their business in
another country due to high demands of their advanced and innovative bikes globally. The
disadvantages of this strategies for POLARIS INDUSTRY as they must trained local employees
of particular country to adopt uniform policies of company which required huge time and cost.
Also they have to maintain proper details about each employees for every countries in order to
maintain coordination and provide information to them about each other for effective working in
all branches. Also, marketers of POLARIS INDUSTRY find difficulties to spread awareness
with similar content to attract large number of customers in different countries which have
different values and norms. As many countries do not allow some marketing and advertising so
to promote bikes marketers have to make content as per the rules of that particular country.
Most suitable strategy
In order to grow and meet the vision of company professionals and head executive of
POLARIS INDUSTRY can use transnational strategy to sell and offer their bikes or
motorcycle in many countries across the world. It is very beneficial to them because they
operates business in large scale and conduct their business practices in similar way in all the
offices of all country. Which enables them to conduct their operations in different country with
same process in order to maintain coordination among force of all branches. As they sell variety
of better quality and advanced bikes which has great demands among the people across the world
which facilities company to increase their sales in new country with same product and
procedures. They can achieve their objectives to increase their market share, customer base and
profitability by expanding their business in another country as well as also meet the demands of
customers in local area.
CONCLUSION
As per above presented information, it is concluded that contemporary strategic
management covers both modern view of innovative development in theory as well as traditional
frameworks to strategic thinking addition to applied principles of management. Organisational
culture defined as goals, values, ethics and expectation of both company or employees which
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dictate their behaviour or actions to achieve the organisation goals effectively. By using Web
cultural model management of company can expose cultural practices and assumptions as well as
set to activity allocating elements of organisation with one another addition to their current
strategy. The international strategies includes three approaches such as multi domestic, global
and transnational strategy which helps the company to increase their sales and customer base.
The transnational strategy is most effective strategy for big and multinational companies which
deals in particular type and luxurious product. As they already have great publicity of their brand
across the world so they easily operates their business in many countries by using this strategy.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Ciesiołkiewicz, K., 2020. Communicating Social Impact as a New Trend in Corporate
Reputation Management in the Light of Contemporary Political and Social
Challenges. Social Communication. 6(1). pp.61-72.
Dingle, G. and Mallen, C. eds., 2020. Sport and Environmental Sustainability: Research and
Strategic Management. Routledge.
Draebye, M., 2018. Strategic management in football organisations. In Routledge Handbook of
Football Business and Management (pp. 171-185). Routledge.
Dragoi, V. E., Constantinescu, L. M. and Preda, L. E., 2018. The need for strategic management
within the Romanian banking sector. Risk in Contemporary Economy, pp.7-14.
Falkheimer, J. and Sandberg, K. G., 2018. The art of strategic improvisation: A professional
concept for contemporary communication managers. Journal of Communication
Management.
Greve, H. R., 2021. The organizational view of strategic management (pp. 43-59). Oxford
University Press: New York, NY.
Keding, C., 2021. Understanding the interplay of artificial intelligence and strategic
management: four decades of research in review. Management Review Quarterly. 71(1).
pp.91-134.
Ocvirk, G., Ocvirk and Berg, 2018. Strategic Management of Market Niches. Springer Gabler.
Schühly, A. M., 2022. What Is Strategic Management and Why Do We Need It: Theoretical
Foundations of Strategic Management. In Cultural Influences on the Process of
Strategic Management (pp. 33-135). Springer, Cham.
Stoyanova, V., 2018. An Analysis of David J. Teece’s Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic
Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth. Macat Library.
Suhail, T. A., 2018. Case Study: The Influence of Strategic Management accounting on Iraqi
Service Companies' Performance. Advances in Management. 11(3). pp.16-24.
Sukhobokov, A. A., Galimov, R. Z. and Zolotov, A. A., 2018, August. A strategic management
system based on systemic learning algorithm. In Biologically Inspired Cognitive
Architectures Meeting (pp. 290-295). Springer, Cham.
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