Student Details ( Student should fill the content)
Name Somesh Withanage
Batch Number 105
Student ID
Cardiff Met ID:st20224577 ICBTID:CL/CARDIFFMB/23/529
Scheduled unit details
Unit code MBA 7002
Unit title Strategic Management Assignment
Assignment Details
Nature of the Assessment Assignment 2 _WRIT 1 (Examination converted to an
assignment)
Topic of the Case Study GIVEN
Learning Outcomes covered YES
Word count 2432 words
Due date / Time 28 July 2022
Declaration
I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other person’s work or ideas have been used
without acknowledgement. Except where I have clearly stated that I have used some of this material
elsewhere, I have not presented it for examination / assessment in any other course or unit at this or any
other institution
Signature Somesh Withanage Date 20/08/2022
Result (Assessor use only)
Marks by 1st Name & Signature of the 1st Agreed
Assessor Assessor Mark
Marks by IV: Name & Signature of the IV
For Office use only (hard copy assignments)
Receipt Received by
date
Assignment Type & Title:
For student use: Critical feedback on the individual progression towards achieving the assignment
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outcomes
For 1st Assessor use: Assessment feedback
Strengths
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Task 01
(a)
The rapid growth of globalization and changing economic environment, the competition
between competitive enterprises has increased. Due to that market shares have been going
sinking which means organizations should be more concerned about the strategic position
in order to capture the market share (Riasat et al.,2015). Strategic Position defines about
the choices that organization makes reference to value and how that value will be created
in a different way than its competitors. Organization could develop their strategic position
as a building association based on product of its competitive edge and existing strength.
With an effective strategic positioning, brands could be successfully positioned at
consumer mind. Positioning is an asset for the organization that towards gain sustainable
competitive advantage.
Strategic Choice simply define as; the decision that determines the future strategy of the
organization (Harney,2016). Which further explains, the power holders of the organization
decide upon ways of strategic actions. This theory includes both internal and external
factors. For internal factors management style and human resource function has strategic
influence whereas external factors include the role of networks and institutional contexts
which framing the extent of strategic choice. Feasibility, prudence, consensus and
acceptability are the parameters of strategic choice.
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Figure 1: Strategic Choice Cycle
Strategic Action describes the day-to-day operational activities of outside of an
organization which helps to achieve its strategy (Springer,2008). That outsider activities
includes enhance the performance process which might be restricting firm’s delivery of
services, instituting change and create capabilities in order to do innovations. Before
implementing strategic action, firm should ensure that the action is aligned with their
desired goals and objectives.
In order to make solid decisions, the clear understanding of internal and external
environmental factors would be easy for the organizational management. The strengths
and weaknesses of the organization which refers to an internal analysis has a significant
impact on entire business plan. In here, Strategic Positioning and Strategic Choice based on
above factors. Hence, the firm must ensure the below criteria’s;
- A desired goal should be implemented
- An appropriate framework should be selected
- Data should be assessed and thereafter the plan should be formed based on that
In order to evaluate the opportunities and Threats which mean the outside of the
organization, external factors should be considered. Therefore, to gain the overall idea of
internal and external factors, the management carry out SWOT Analysis. Organization
should be able to identify their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats as well
as they should be able to compare them with their rivals. This analysis helps to identify the
factors that affect the business and mostly would help to make strategic decisions to carry
out the action plan.
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Task 01 (b)
Strategic capability refers to a firm’s superior resources and competitive advantage (s)
which surpass those of competitors. It focuses on the organization's assets, resources, skills
and market position, projecting how well it will be able to employ strategies. Created
through the integration of diverse skills, resources, and developing a strong market
position.
Competition is a “Natural” phenomenon in the contemporary business world. The company
which has one or more distinctive advantages over the competitors and ability to sustain
the advantages wins. Competitive advantage refers to the unique advantages a company
has in terms of products and services which helps the company has to perform better than
its competitors.
The unmatchable advantages a company has on its own to compete in a market effectively
provides the company an added advantage to the business. Various strategic positions of an
organization give various competitive advantages to the company.
There are different competitive advantages in terms of cost structure, product offerings,
distribution network and also customer support. But ultimately the advantage comes from
cost or from the differentiation which gives a company an edge over its rivals and an ability
to generate greater value for the firm and its shareholdersBelow diagram illustrates how
an organization achieves the competitive advantage over cost and differentiation.
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Amazon is one great example for achieving competitive advantage through cost leadership
and apple is one of the best examples for achieving competitive advantage over the
differentiation focus.
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Task 02
(a)
Mission of an organization is the reason for its existence and the purpose of the
organization towards its stakeholders. It is also a declaration of organization’s purpose.
The mission of an organization should support as a guide for the day-today operation as
well as the future decision making. In every decision an organization takes, strategy is at its
foundation. If the top management formulate the strategy without proper research on the
organization in a deep sense, it impacts productivity of each and every function. Strategy
can be dissected in,
Operational-level strategy – It is how to support the business-level strategy through the
internal functions such as finance, marketing, HR etc. These strategies are focused at
enhancing the productivity of each function to align each department strategy to the
business-level strategy. These are more operational level strategies and the internal
environment of the changes mostly affect them. It is important to have a core-relation with
each operation in order to make operational-strategies an impact on the business-
strategies.
Business level strategy – It is about how the business competes in the market and how to
gain a sustainable competitive advantage over the rivals. In order to understand this, it is
important to know the competitors in external environment through a framework like
Porter’s five forces model or even from a PESTEL analysis. Internal environment should be
analyzed through Value chain analysis to understand what is the competitive advantage.
The aim of business strategy should be to gain competitive advantage by offering a genuine
value for customers while being unique player in the market.
Corporate strategy - Management should not only consider how to gain competitive
advantage in the current market but also have to be optimistic and choose how they should
integrate to the corporate world. Example for a corporate strategy is mergers and
acquisitions. The top management can set up the strategy by forecasting but when they are
actually in business the impact of external and internal environment impact on the
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execution of the set strategy in action. Therefore, SWOT analysis for the internal
environment and the PESTEL analysis for the external environment is critical for strategy
formulation and execution.
Task 02
(b)
Change management is an approach to transition people, processes and resources to gain
better outcomes. In the fast-growing world continuous change and development is
essential for the organizations to become success and grow. Through successful change
management organizations adopt to the future and be ready for the challenges. Without
effective change management, transitions can be difficult and expensive in terms of
resources as well as time.
Most of the organizations as well as employees are resistant to change. Out of all the
resistant like the environment, technical aspects, the human resource is more likely to
resist. There may be many reasons for change resistance like fear, poor communication,
emotional response but in overall it happens because they are biologically wired to follow a
pattern and be predictable and the uncertainty can bring anxiety. Successfully managing
the human resistance for a change through below can help the effective change
management.
- Communication - Constant communication with the employees plays a key role in
this. Involve key stake holders in decision making and keep the employees from top
to bottom informed for them to be ready for the change.
- Listen - It is also valued to get employee’s views and ideas on the proposed change
can help the organization to manage the change effectively.
- Educate - Organizations always try to make things better for the stakeholders and
the employees are a one key stakeholder in any organization. Educate them on that
can help them ease their burden and fear.
- Support - There may be employees from various generations with different levels of
competencies. Provide ongoing support for the employees to adopt them to the
changes is important as well.
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The process in which organization encourages employees to adopt mindset and behaviors
that are consistent with values and goals of the organization is the culture change and it is
important to align the employee’s mindset and behaviors with strategies and vision of the
organization. In examples if two organizations merge, it is important to align both cultures
together for the business success. Culture changes are success and sustainable when they
are done at the right pace so that employees can adapt and adjust without being
disengaged.
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Task 03
(a)
Governing structure is the form of leadership exist in the organization. It can be the board
of directors, chief executive officer or a council. Every organization should have a hierarchy
which defines the authority and the delegation of authority. This can help the organization
in formulating the strategies and correct decision making in terms of resource allocation
and execution of the strategies.
Governing structure is the senior leadership of the organization and it should support the
business model. When formulating the governing structure, the internal and the external
environment factors should be considered.
Internal environment of organization is events, factors, people, systems, structures and
conditions inside the organization which are under the direct control of the organization
and they can directly influence the organizational activities and employee’s decisions,
behaviors and attitudes.
It is crucial for an organization to consider an organization’s external environmental
composed by factors such as customers, competition, economy, technology, political and
the legal environment. Even though these factors occur outside the organization, it can
have a direct impact on the organization and they are beyond the control of the
organization.
Few main critically important external environmental factors are,
- The economy – In a bad economy where there is high inflation, even a highly
profitable organization will struggle. Business should always align with the
economy to stay in the game.
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- Competition – Unless the business is monopoly, there will always be a competition.
Finding the competitive advantage over rivals will help the business to sustain.
- Politics and legal – Politics and legal can affect many businesses in huge ways and
industries like tobacco, pesticides have high risks with the law and constitutional
changes.
Task 03 (b)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethical behavior can do significant benefits to the
business.
The idea that business enterprises have some responsibilities to society beyond that of
making profits for shareholders has been around for centuries (Barry, 2000). It is one of
the core beliefs is that business organizations have a social and ethical responsibility
(Carroll, 1989). Even though the CSR is one most important aspect of business, most of the
companies consider it as a cost.
Ethics are codes of values and principles that govern the action of a person, or a group of
people regarding what is right versus what is wrong. Therefore, ethics set standards as to
what is good or bad in organizational conduct and decision making (Sexty, 2011).
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The businesses which have a long term strategy and focus on a long term sustainability in the
market and in business, it always focus on being ethical and engage in CSR initiatives which
supports the businesses to grow.
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Task 04
(a)
The effectiveness of leadership and teamwork directly affects an organization's capacity to fulfill
its mission. To ensure that everyone in the team is moving in the same direction and pursuing the
same objective, team must exercise leadership. Having a clear vision for the team is a sign of
good leadership.
Members are feeling pressure to think and act in ways that are at conflict with how they feel they
should in order to be productive in organizations with passive/defensive cultures. People are
encouraged to avoid interpersonal disagreement and to satisfy others, including leaders.A
workplace with contented workers promotes higher levels of engagement and production, as well
as a healthy bottom line. However, workplace negativity can negatively impact culture. Here are
some pointers for handling difficult conversations. There are communicate and collaborate,
determine if there’s an underlying, bigger issue, be specific about the changes you want to see,
up your training skills.
Negative attitudes and behaviors can have negative impacts on other people, such as decreased
productivity, increased absence rates, decreased team cohesion, and low morale.Competition is
viewed as a motivator that encourages workers to provide their best efforts in order to increase
productivity in a workplace where there is a positive attitude. The most effective leaders are
aware that changing unfavorable employee attitudes can improve performance by motivating
team members to see solutions where they previously only saw issues. While the rare chance to
let off steam might help employees get back to work and stop toxic behavior, managers must
take the initiative to create a positive work atmosphere. Unchecked cynical actions can degrade a
work environment's culture and harm the morale and output of the members.
(b)
Merge and Acquisitions can lead to value creation, market access expansion, and the
establishment of a global footprint. Deals can be beneficial for the companies involved, but many
mergers have led to reduced value for shareholders. Cultural mismatch is one reason that failed
business deals are regularly mentioned. Employees may experience separation, lack of support,
and uncertainty about the future as a result of mergers. Any deal's benefits could be reduced by
this uncertainty, and it might even fail. Acquirers must prioritize cultural factors early on for a
deal to be successful. Companies should work to create a new company culture that is based on a
set of common values, presumptions, and beliefs.
However, the processes associated with M& A have some problems:
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Clashes between cultures, as there is always a chance that the cultures of the acquired
company and the acquiring corporation will merge or that there will be bumper crops;
Failure to realize economies of scale or synergies.
Corporate reorganizations occur once a strategy to maintain or strengthen a company's
competitive advantages, in terms of cost structure and product differentiation, is put into action.
Reassignments are a way for a company or group of companies to reach a goal that has been set
in advance. This objective could be the expansion of the business, gaining an edge over
competitors with current or future products, or risk mitigation. Therefore, mergers and
acquisitions through reorganization may have numerous motives, among which include the
following.
Market share to obtain.
Search for economies of scale and synergies.
Surplus funds.
Lower financial cost.
The resolve theories of the cultural differences in merge and acquisitions are
Make culture a key module of the change management work stream.
Classify who "owns" profitable culture and have them report to senior management
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References
Riasat, F, Nisan, Q, Haider, S, Gill, S, Khadim, M, and Noreen S., 2015. Relationship Among
Strategic Positioning, Strategic Customer Relationship Management and Organization’s
Performance, International Journal of Management Research and Emerging Sciences,
Volume 5, pp. 47-63.
Harney, B., 2016. Strategic choice; An Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, pp.
414-415.
Springer, C., 2008. Strategic Management in Action, (Online) Available at
https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/sea_fac_articles/336 (Accessed 17 August 2022).
Eajournals.org. 2022. .
Barry, N., 2022. Do Corporations Have Any Responsibility Beyond Making a Profit?.
Marketsandmorality.com.
Google Books. 2022. Business & Society.
Sexty, R. (2011). Canadian business and society: Ethics and responsibilities (2nd Ed.).
Toronto. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Michael Timms. 2022. How To Cure a Passive-Aggressive Culture - Michael Timms.
Theijbmt.com. 2022. The International Journal of Business Management and
Technology.
Www2.deloitte.com. 2022. .
Financier Worldwide. 2022. Cultural issues in M&A — Financier Worldwide.
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Culture Partners. 2022. How Do Leaders Shift Negative Employee Attitudes?.
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