STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: STAFFING AND
DIRECTING
STAFFING:
Hiring new people with new skills, firing people with
inappropriate skills, and/or training existing employees to
learn new skills.
Staffing follows strategy:
Training and development
 Firms with training programs 19% higher
productivity
 Reduction in scrap
 Overall cost savings
Matching the manager to the strategy
 Executive type - executives with a particular mix of
skills and experiences
Executive Types:
– Dynamic industry expert
– Analytical portfolio manager
– Cautious profit planner
– Turnaround specialist
– Professional liquidator
MATCHING CHIEF EXECUTIVE “TYPES” WITH
STRATEGY
The different chief executive types with the different
strategies - first one for a corporation following a
concentration strategy emphasizing the vertical or
horizontal growth would probably want an aggressive new
chief executive with great deal of experience in that
particular industry therefore they need a dynamic industry
expert. Next one a diversification strategy in contrast might
call for someone with an analytical mind who is highly
knowledgeable in other industries and can manage diverse
product lines.
So, if this is the case then they need an analytical portfolio
manager. meanwhile a corporation choosing to follow a
stability strategy would probably want as its chief executive
officer a cautious profit planner. a cautious profit planner is
a person with a conservative style, a production or
engineering background and experience with controlling
budgets, capital expenditures, inventories, and
standardization procedures.
So, for weak companies in a relatively attractive industry
they tend to turn to a type of challenge-oriented executive
known as the turnaround specialist to save the company.
and last one if a company cannot be saved a professional
liquidator might be called on by a bankruptcy court to close
the firm and liquidate its assets.
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
Executive Succession:
 Process of replacing a key top manager.
Executive Succession: Succession planning
 Boards help CEO develop succession plan
 Identify succession candidates below top layer
 Measuring internal candidates against external
candidates
 Appropriate financial incentives
Identifying Abilities & Potential:
- Establish a sound performance appraisal system
- Assessment centers
Used to evaluate a person’s suitability for an advanced
position.
- Job rotation
Used to ensure that employees are gaining the appropriate
mix of experiences to prepare them for future
responsibilities.
Problems in Retrenchment:
– Downsizing (“rightsizing”)
• Planned elimination of positions
or jobs
• Used in retrenchment strategies
Guidelines for Downsizing:
– Eliminate unnecessary work vs. making
across-the-board cuts
– Contract out work for efficiencies
– Plan for long-run efficiencies
– Communicate reasons for action
– Invest in the remaining employees
– Develop valued-added jobs to balance out
job elimination
International issues in staffing:
– Considerable planning
– Can be very costly
– Cultural differences must be considered
– Experience through international
assignments
International issues in staffing:
– Effective management of foreign
assignments:
• Focus on transferring knowledge
and developing global leadership
 • Foreign assignments to people
with technical skills matched or
exceeded by cross-cultural
abilities
• Deliberate repatriation at end of
assignment with career guidance
and jobs

Strategy-Culture Compatibility:
– Consider the following:
• Is the planned strategy
compatible with the firm’s
current culture?
• Can the culture be easily
modified to make it more
compatible with new strategy?
• Is management willing to make
major organizational changes? In managing the culture of an acquired firm, as seen in the
• Is management committed to illustration, in the vertical axis, we have the perception of
implementing the strategy? the attractiveness of the acquirer. So, the perception could
be not all attractive or it could be very attractive. Now on
the horizontal axis, we have how much members of the
acquired firm value the preservation of their own culture.

So, we have two options, it could be very much or not at all.

So as seen in the illustration, we have four ways on how to
manage different cultures. The first one is the integration.

So, in the integration, if the perception of the attractiveness

of the acquirer is very attractive, and at the same time, the
members of the acquired firm, they value very much the
preservation of their culture, then the integration is
adopted. So, integration, this involves a relatively balanced
give and take of cultural managerial practices between the
merger partners, and no strong imposition of cultural
change on either company. So, it merges the two cultures in
such a way that the separate cultures of both firms are
preserved in the resulting culture.

Managing different cultures: Okay, next one, we have the assimilation. So, in the
– Integration assimilation, in terms of the perception of the
– Assimilation attractiveness, it's still very attractive, but then the
– Separation members of the acquired firm, they do not value at all the
– Deculturation preservation of their own culture. So, in the assimilation,
therefore, it involves the domination of one organization
over the other.

Now take note, the domination is not forced, but it is

welcomed by the members of the acquired firm, who may
feel for many reasons that their culture and managerial
practices have not produced a success. Okay, the third one,
in the separation, the perception is not at all attractive, but
then of course, in terms of how members of the acquired
firm value the preservation of their own culture, it's still
very much. So we have the separation.

The separation is characterized by a separation of the two

companies' cultures. They are structurally separated
without cultural exchange. Okay, the last one, of course,
negative ang pareho, not at all attractive, and they do not And the last one, we have the long-term orientation. This is
value the preservation. the extent to which the society is oriented toward the long
versus the short term.
In the deculturation, it involves the disintegration of one
company's culture, this time resulting from unwanted and
extreme pressure from the other to impose its culture and
practices. Now this is the most common and most
destructive method of dealing with two different cultures.

DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURE

Power distance: how much they love power.
Uncertainty avoidance: ambiguous situations or routine.
Individualism-collectivism
Masculinity –femininity: is the extent to which society is
oriented toward money and things (masculine) or toward
people (feminine).
Long-term orientation: oriented toward the long versus the
short-term.

In the dimensions of national culture, we have the power

distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, collectivism.
We also have the masculinity, the femininity, and the long-
term orientation. The first one which is the power distance,
and this is the extent to which a society accepts an unequal
distribution of power in organizations.
One example of power distance in social research is
comparing income inequality. In some places, the power
distance of income inequality is low. This means that there
is a small spread between the richest and the poorest of the
people.
The next one, we have the uncertainty avoidance. So, this is
the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain
and ambiguous situations. Uncertainty avoidance reflects
the degree at which a society or members of a society
tolerate, cope, or with combat unpredictability, otherwise
known as the unknown.
So, it describes individuals' reaction to ambiguity. The third
one, we have the individualism and collectivism. So, this is
the extent to which a society values individual freedom and
independence of action, compared with a tight social
framework and loyalty in the group.
So, individualism, they value personal independence. With
individualist cultures, people are more likely to see
themselves as separate from others, or define themselves
based on their personal traits, and see their characteristics
as relatively stable and changing. On the other hand,
collectivism values personal interdependence.
So, in collectivist cultures, people are more likely to see
themselves as connected to others, define themselves in
terms of relationships with others, and see their
characteristics as more likely to change across different
contexts. Next one, we have the masculinity and femininity.
So, this is the extent to which a society is oriented towards
money and things for the masculine, or towards people for
the feminine.
Action Planning:
– Action Plan
• States what actions are going to be taken, by
whom, during what time frame, and with what
expected results.
Action Plan Elements
• List specific actions.
• List dates to begin and end each action.
• Name person responsible for each action.
• Name person responsible for monitoring timelines
and effectiveness of each action.
• Estimate expected financial and physical
consequences of each action.
• Develop contingency plans.
Importance of Action plans
• Serve as a link between strategy formulation and
evaluation and control
• Specifies what needs to be done differently from
current operations
• Evaluation and control processes appraise
performance and identify remedial actions
Management by Objectives (MBO)- encourages
participative decision making through shared goal
setting and performance assessment based on
achieving stated objectives
• Establishing and communicating organizational
objectives
• Setting individual objectives
• Developing an action plan to achieve objectives
• Performance review (periodic and annual)