Strategic Planning, Training and

Organizational Development

Kamal Uddin Ahmed Ph.D.

NSU, EMBA, HRM 603 Friday, 17 Feb’ 2023

 Planning
• Understanding the value of having a
plan of action before starting a project.
• additional time for planning at the
beginning of a project
• Save time, prevent mistakes and
ensure all important steps.
• The cornerstone for quality programs
"plan‑do‑check" cycle.
• Large organization or single
department, planning is a key to
organizational success.
 Strategic planning
• development of long-term objectives and
plans for pursuing an organization’s
mission.
• provides direction to all units of an
organization.
• HRD department reference the strategic
plan to determine priorities for developing
employee KSAs.
 Mutual support
• Functional areas provide valuable
input to shape the development of
Strategy.
• Though HR and HRD function both
directed by organizational strategies,
they should also help shape their
content.
 Strategy development
• Planning of strategy occurs throughout the
organization, with each higher level of the
organization providing direction to the lower
levels.
• Strategic plan development process is similar
whether strategy is developed for entire
organization or for some subunit.
• Differs in the type of information collected and
analyzed to develop strategy and level of details
provided in directing actions.
 Strategic coordination

• Strategy provides direction to the individual units

• Units develop objectives to accomplish strategy.
• To accomplish objectives units develop their own
strategies/tactics.
• Individuals within unit are given objectives to achieve
unit objectives through chosen tactics.
• When viewed from the HR unit, the strategy provides
general direction that leads to the objectives for HR.
• These objectives require supporting tactics.
• Tactics lead individuals to achieve a set of objectives.
• This way, plans provide direction to fulfill organization's
mission and are developed and coordinated throughout
the organization.
Linkages among Strategy, Tactics
and Objectives

Competitive Tactical Activities

Strategy :

• Mission Unit
• Opportunities
Unit Strategies Employee
• Threats Objectives and Tactics Objectives
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

Implementation, Evaluation, and Feedback

 HRD in Strategic planning

• Is HRD needed to be involved in shaping strategy?

• One reason : strategies depended heavily on the
competencies of upper Management.
• Without knowing current capabilities of individuals,
company does not know whether it has the
capabilities to implement the strategy successfully.
• HRD can and should be involved with strategic
planning at three levels: organizational strategy, HR
strategy (tactics), and HRD strategy (more tactics).
 HRD - case

• At organizational level, HRD can contribute to

shape organization's competitive strategy.
• Divisional staff’s ability to carry out strategy is
seen as an important issue.
• Org can decide to go ahead with their
strategy, but would they be better served by
adopting a strategy that matched more
closely the KSAs of their staff ?
• Have they identified right people for key
positions to get them in place.
• If not enough people with desired
competencies – alternatives ?
• Hire people from outside?
• Train high potential insiders?
• Answers to these questions help
to define objectives and tactics
used in pursuing organization's
competitive Strategy.
 HR strategy
• Second strategic role for HRD : influencing
organization's HR strategy.
• HR strategy - one level below organization's
competitive strategy - set of tactics HR will use
to support competitive strategy.
• HR strategy appears to be one of promoting
from within and “moving the right people into the
right positions”.
• Assumes enough of "right" people will be
available to fill all positions and that these
people can be identified.
 HR strategy
• HR function needs to create a succession
planning process and a corresponding
executive development program for those
identified as successors.
• Before committing to this strategy, HRD
manager needs to be consulted to determine
probable cost and time parameters of such a
program.
• This HR program will depend on a human
resource information system (HRIS) that
provides accurate and meaningful data
necessary for HR planning.
• Strategic planning and strategy implementation
involve change.
• HRD must understand change process,
• It involves principles and concepts of OD.
• OD uses the research base and techniques
related to organizational improvement and
managing change.
• When organization's objectives and strategies
change, KSAs required of employees change
as well.
• It is not enough simply to provide new KSAs.
Organization's systems and procedures must
change to support use of the new KSAs if
desired the change in performance is to occur.
 Manage change
• What types of systems and procedures
must change if the strategies are to be
successful?
• The reward system? The HRD process?
• The field of OD provides processes for
identifying when systems and procedures
need to change and how to manage the
change.
 Strategic Planning Process

• Some companies' approaches to HRD help

them achieve their objectives while the
approach of other hinders the achievement of
objectives.
• To understand why similar approaches to
HRD might lead one company, to be
successful and the other unsuccessful,
• or why different approaches by two,
companies can each be successful,
• must critically examine relationship of HRD
activities to the strategy of the company.
 Mission
• Why organization exists and
its commitments
• Focal point for strategy
development
• Outlines what the strategy is
designed to achieve
 Strategy
• How an organization is going about
accomplishing its mission.
• Attempt to optimize the match between
what is occurring or is projected to occur
in the external environment and the
organization’s internal operations
– Short and long term objectives,
– courses of action to achieve those and
– allocating resources to carry out actions.
 Competitive strategy

• Concerns positioning the company in

the marketplace
• Interrelated internal and external
choices made by the company to
improve or retain its competitive position
• Documented relationship to many
aspects of managerial and
organizational behavior
 Competitive strategy
• Market leader :
– Prospectors and innovators
– Find and exploit new pdts and mkt
opportunities
– Survey wide range of environmental
conditions, trends and events and
move quickly into windows of
opportunity
 Competitive strategy
• Market follower :
– analyzer and differentiator
– Minimizes risk and maximizes profit
opportunity by moving into a market after its
vitality is established by others
– Copying and improving upon pdts with an
established market
– Middle portion of the competitive strategy
continuum
 Competitive strategy
• Cost leader :
– Defender
– Low cost provider in the industry
– Success depends on pricing competitiveness
– Having a pdt that is acceptable to the mkt
– Produce a standardizised pdt or svc efficiently
by using economies of scale, low cost labour
– Introduce innovative pdtn methods
 Strategic contingencies
• Success of CS is contingent upon
demands of external environment and
factors internal to organization
• Strategy is the process of making internal
adjustments to accommodate the
demands of the external environment
while remaining true to the mission
• External strategy requires an internal
strategy to be developed and implemented
 Matching factors
• Internal strategy (IS) reflects how the org must
change in order to carry out the CS
• Key factor of IS
– Org Structure (div of labor, policy, procedure)
– Core technology (how pdts & svcs created)
Core tech is critical to implementing external strategy, it
can influence strategy that is adopted
When CS is not consistent with CT, one of these factors
must be changed
External and internal strategies are aligned to maximize
the match between environmental demands, CT & the
org structure
 Mission, Strategy, Technology,
Structure Relationship

Environment

External Internal

Strategy Strategy

Mission Technology Structure

 External Environment
• Elements outside the org that influences
org’s ability to achieve its mission
• Competitors, economy, societal norms and
values, laws and regulations, raw
materials, suppliers, technological
innovations
• A factor important for one org may not be
so for another, even if in same industry
 External Environment
• Orgs differ – mission, resources, operation
• Each org must examine env for threats and
opportunities
• Success of a CS can be significantly influenced
by the uncertainty of env
• Envl uncertainty : Complexity and Stability
• Complexity : number of factors in the env and
how interrelated they are
• Stability : rate at which key factors in the env.
Change. Rapid change – more unstable
 High Low

Moderate
High Low uncertainty
uncertainty

High Moderate
Low
uncertainty uncertainty

Factors influencing environmental uncertainty

 Environmental uncertainty
• More uncertain env – org must be flexible
and adaptable – Market leader strategy
• More certain env – less flexibility, so –
rigid operating method minimizes cost and
maximize profitability – cost leader
strategy
• Uncertain env favors decentralized DM
• Certain env- certain DM
 Core technology
• Technology – how work gets done in Org
• Core tech.-main activities associated with orgs pdts and
svcs
• Routine to Nonroutine technology
• Routine : Highly predictable, few problems, well
structured and well defined solutions if problem occur –
cost leader str
• Nonroutine : difficult to predict, problems occur
unexpectedly, solutions not readily available
– Employees need more DM capability, higher level KSAs –
Market Leader str : dev and pdn of new pdt is the key
– Software and computer chip manufacturers
 Organizational structure
• How a firm is organized, policies and procedures for
coordinating activities
• Utilized to carry out strategy
• Must be aligned to address both strategic envl factors
and the Core Technology
• Org Design : Mechanistic, Organic
– Mechanistic : rigid, highly defined tasks, detailed procedures,
vertical comm. Channel – routine technologies
– Organic : flexible rules, loosely defined procedure, highly reliant
on experts – non routine technology
• Decision autonomy : How much authority given
• Division of labour : the way work is divided :line and staff
Relationship between Competitive and Human Resource Strategy

External Environment

Competitive
Strategy

Corporate
Labor market Production Technology culture

Human
Resource
Strategy

Economic
Condition Labor Relations Climate Employee KSAs
Thanks
for your
patience