The term Strategy is derived from Greek word ‘stratos’ which was used by army as sort of future planning for success by the higher level. The strategy is originally related to military campaigns as an art of planning, operating and directing military operations during war. The organisations started using the word strategy after the second world war when the army chiefs from both the sides of Atlantic came together to analyse some of the successful fundamentals of the war which can be applied in business.
Traditionally a strategy is be developed by senior management and it is passed on to all the levels. Like successful sports coaches, top directors of the business should have the right capability at the right time to implement strategies. Like rely race where there are four legs, there are four different levels in most of the organizations: senior level, middle level, low level and non management level. Just like a victorious rely team where they pass their baton carefully and successfully the strategy has to be passed like baton from senior level to non management level.
The senior level and the middle level management should be very clear in defining and implementing the strategy. When there is too little involvement from the senior level or when communicating the strategy takes too long, the result can be confusion which can lead to miscommunication of the strategy, and ultimately a failure of the strategy to be implemented.
Strategy is developed by any organization to achieve its long term or short term goals. “The success of any strategy begins with skilful recruitment and human resources policies and work through internal debate and effective communication.” We analyse strategy as the organizations plan to improve competencies and abilities, through which the organization achieve its goals. Sharing the organizations strategies to employees in a convincing and attracting way is a key to success. At the end of the day employees who know about the strategies will work towards a common goal. This will have a progressive effect on the front line employees and will improve the efficiency of a company.
As in the Lewis Carol’s poem, if employees are not clear about the company strategies or the reasons behind those strategies they don’t conjugate their efforts to make the strategy successful. The employees should understand the strategy and internalise it. When the employees know where they are exactly heading to they feel more confident and satisfied. Strategy is defined as “plans, programmes and intentions to develop the human capability of an organization to meet its future needs of its external and internal environment” . Effective strategy communication to the employees is vital to any successful organization. Earlier research suggests that organizations with clear and formalized strategies explained and made available to the employees are more successful than those where strategic goals are not known by the employees. . Strategy should be aligned with all the departments like financial, operational, marketing and human resources.
The strategy is created and implemented in different ways and that there should be clear role in achieving organizations goal. When it comes to business terms the strategy shows the future of the organizations, showing us products and the services we will take to the particular markets. There is little research suggests on implementing and measuring company strategy. The concern of how the different departments in an organisation understand and communicate its strategies shows the strength and success of the organisation.
Many studies relating to the importance of strategy implementation and communicating strategy to the employees in effective way is based on real time experiences. Study of successful and failed organisations and their way of approaching developing and implementing strategies have been used by the other researchers such as Bird Approach and Squirrel Approach. Fewer studies have been conducted through interview and questionnaires.
Rather they were conducted through scenarios and observations. Arguments show that the earlier studies have importance on how to develop strategy and not in the way of implementing the strategy. The Bird Approach means the company acts like a bird and tries to find a branch on the tree suitable for it to land because the decision is one cannot stand in the air forever. Such a decision is random, and because it’s random it’s risky. It’s like trying to find the best from what you have. The other approach is The Squirrel Approach. The Squirrel Approach is where the company has particular skills and strengths and that it builds on ignoring other aspects that might prove crucial for its survival. These approaches to strategy although rare are still happening in practice with disastrous results for the company.
Most of the authors have mentioned that employees understanding the company strategy are important for an organization but few authors have created some measures to implement and measure its performance. These differences have been created because of different backgrounds and the literature which lead to different definitions and the importance of implementing the strategy.
Within the literature review definitions related to effective strategy communication to the employees and the importance of employees understanding strategy have been considered, compared and contrasted as a means of informing this research and identifying different paths to follow. In gathering the definitions and articles various books and business database related to strategy alignment and strategy communication to the employees have been used. In carrying out this literature review, guidelines received in lectures and tutorials as well as in research textbooks have been followed. By analysing the above literature the author research stand on “How does understanding of company strategy improve company performance and job satisfaction?“