Human factors impeding strategy

Abstract

In the current global economy successful implementation of a formulated strategy is essential to gain competitive advantage. Success in business is manifested more in the ability to implement ideas and strategies rapidly and effectively than in planning itself. Previous studies have identified that for all the energy and resources invested in the pursuit of the perfect strategy, little effort is directed towards implementation. As a result most strategies stumble in the implementation phase, regardless of merit. Due to the importance of effective strategy implementation, this research attempted to identify the human impediments to strategy implementation. It was proposed that identification of the inhibitors would result in proactive management of these human factors and ultimately result in the successful implementation of a formulated strategy. This research reports a case study which focuses on a private hospital group: Life Healthcare. The first objective of this research was to identify the human impediments to successful strategy implementation in Life Healthcare by using the Delphi technique. The second objective was to compare the findings of this research with previously conducted research. The third objective was to rank the impediments identified in the study, in order of importance. Data was gathered from the management in two rounds of the study. The first round entailed the use of a single open-ended questionnaire. The feedback from round 1 was used to construct a structured questionnaire, which was Likert based. This structured questionnaire was utilized in the second round of the study. Six notional categories of impeding factors were identified; strategy-, management-, employee, implementation models, approach and strategic control-, organisational- and knowledge and information sharing factors. The research findings confirmed the existence of the aforementioned impediment factors in Life Healthcare, as well as supported the notional categories identified in the literature. - ii - These findings were interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications have been drawn. Employee factors, management factors, strategy factors and knowledge and information sharing factors were emphasized throughout the analysis of the findings. Conclusions and recommendations were drawn for Life Healthcare in light of these results.