Challenges and opportunities of corporate strategy implementation in the South African telecommunications sector
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Despite the substantial research conducted in the field of strategic planning, strategic management and strategic implementation, limited research dedicated to the telecommunications industry exists.
The telecommunications industry enables connectivity, which is unique as it’s acts as a business enabler which most industries rely on to conduct their businesses in an efficient and effective manner. A telco also employs a variety of skillset’s ranging from highly technical Engineers to highly commercial Accountants and Customer Care agents which all need to operate as a collective for the business to function optimally.
With this background, the main research question is as follows; with the downward cascading
of organisational strategy being a common approach to create awareness throughout the
organisation, why are there still huge pockets of an organisation who are not aware of the
organisation’s strategy?
The research commences with a literature review which investigates the existing academic research findings within the field of organisational strategy and applies the Mintzberg 5 P’s concept which explores different lenses to view strategy to gain competitive advantage. Utilising a qualitative research approach, by interviewing 12 research participants from the telecommunications industry as well as research survey completed by 45 further participants to supplement the research. It was found that employees have absolute trust in the Board of Directors to formulate the strategy of the telco. It was further found that the Board is largely inaccessible to the middle and junior levels of the organisation but more accessible to senior managers. This causes a communication barrier as many great innovations would not reach the correct audience
Description
A research article submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, Johannesburg 2023
Keywords
Strategic planning, Strategic management, Strategic implementation, Telecommunications industry, UCTD
Citation
Kubheka, Saadiqah. (2023). Challenges and opportunities of corporate strategy implementation in the South African telecommunications sector [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40413