Deck 10: Assessment of Nutrition and Digestive Function

Question 1

Why is it necessary for an organization to align its managers with the corporate strategy to ensure better organizational performance?

Answer 1

Research suggests that firms that align the profiles of their managers with the requirements of their strategies perform significantly better than firms where such an alignment is absent. The importance of strategy-manager match suggests that the range of decision-making options available to the organization is determined by a combination of environmental, organizational and leadership quality factors. The strategy-manager match can help the process of strategy formulation and implementation, because these are affected by the personalities of senior managers. This approach represents the organization's adaptation to the shifting requirements of the environment by an effective staffing policy based on a match between managers and strategies.

Question 2

How do timing tactics impact the strategy implementation efforts of a company?

Answer 2

A timing tactic deals with when a company implements a strategy. Some companies are first movers, or pioneers. By being first movers, companies are able to establish a reputation as an industry leader, move down the learning curve to assume the cost leader position, and earn temporarily high profits. Late movers may be able to imitate the technological advance of others, keep risks down by waiting until a new technological standard is established, and take advantage of market segmentation.

Question 3

How is an international staffing strategy different from a domestic one?

Answer 3

An international strategy needs to determine when, how, and where to send expatriates for overseas operations. Expatriate employees are frequently assigned key positions. The issues of compensation and other human resource management operations are quite different for international and domestic operations. The compensation of expatriate employees needs to be examined along with compensation of local workers and that of workers in the home country. Differences in compensation packages have significant implications on staffing success in international operations. All of the above make formulating international staffing strategy much more complicated than domestic staffing strategy.

Question 4

Does structure follow strategy or does strategy follow structure? Why?

Question 5

Is downsizing a good strategy for revamping an organization's competitiveness when it is facing major competitive threats in the market?

Question 6

What issues would you consider to be the most important for a company that is considering the use of a functional structure?

Question 7

Why are staffing decisions considered an important component of strategic planning and the management process? How is the strategy implementation process connected to the decisions resulting from a staffing strategy?

Question 8

Can organizations be controlled by culture? Explain.