Question 1
Organizational effectiveness is essentially critical to the success in any given economy. For achievement of sustainable and increased business results, what organizations need to do is to execute strategies and also engage their employees. The text discusses various types of strategic controls and their contributions to the organizational effectiveness.
Strategic surveillance is one of the controls. This control is designed so as to observe an extensive range of events both within and outside an organization that are actually likely to affect the track of an organization’s strategy. Therefore, this control helps the management in an organization to uncover crucial information that leads to development of an effective organization.
Implementation control is the other control. Implementation of a strategy in an organization usually takes place as series of steps, investments, activities and acts, which occur over a long period of time. This strategy helps the managers in an organization to mobilize resources, engage in special projects, and reassign or employ staff. All of these lead to an effective organization.
Question 2
The components of the general environment are the economy, socio-cultural, legal/political, and technological. It is fundamental for an organization to understand them because they all affect its operations. The organization cannot exist without these components and as a result of this, they normally have impacts on the day to day activities of a given organization.
Question 3
Similarities and differences exist between cost leadership strategy and focused cost leadership strategy. The two are used in an organization to describe how such organizations can establish their competitive advantage. Cost leadership strategy generally describes how an organization can establish competitive advantage. Therefore, it describes how an organization can achieve its objectives with lowest operation cost in the industry. On the other hand, focused cost leadership strategy needs competitive advantage that is based on the price in order to target a market that is narrow in nature. Therefore, the difference between these two is that cost leadership strategy is a strategy about operational costs while focused cost leadership strategy is based on the price.
In addition, there are similarities and differences between differentiation strategy and focused differentiation strategy. In these two strategies, the objective of an organization is to try to become attractive to its customers. In differentiation strategy an organization aims to develop and in addition market its unique products for diverse customer segments. On the other hand, in a focused differentiation strategy, the organization offers its unique features, which fulfill demands of a narrow market.
Question 4
Core competencies are essentially the combination of technical capacities and pooled knowledge, which allow businesses to be competitive in marketplace. On the other hand, distinctive competencies are unique to an organization. This competency enables production of unique value proposition in functions of businesses. The two lead to the competitive advantage through the use of technical capacities and the pooled knowledge by an organization.
Question 5
The recommended functional structures essentially vary between the differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy through the activities that business organizations engage in and the objectives that they pursue.
References
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2000). Strategic management and business policy: Entering 21st century global society. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hal
