Organizational Paradigms to the Implementation of Strategic Management Processes - Essay Example

This paper will discuss the relevance of the organizational paradigms to the implementation of strategic management processes.

Organizational Paradigms

            It is essential for modern-day organizations to take into account the understanding and interpretation of the concept of organizational paradigm. The word 'paradigm' pertains to the description of distinct thought patterns or concepts being applied. It refers to the exemplar or the pattern of any structure or object, which distinguishes the particular object from other objects.

            Through this term, it is understood that the term 'organizational paradigm' refers to the arrangement of the organizational structure and activities into such patterns that make it stand out from the other similar companies in the corporate world. All the paradigms of an organization are alive and possess their own weaknesses and strengths. Some of the traditional organization paradigms include circle, hierarchy, bureaucracy, and network paradigms (Hailin, 2009). All these paradigms involve various ways in which tasks are performed and people coordinate in the organizations. However, nowadays, these conventional paradigms have experienced a shift and are moving towards the integration of all these conventional paradigms in an organization.

            The 21st-century organizational paradigms guarantee speed and responsiveness instead of size and scale. They aim upon making the companies more proactive and entrepreneurial rather than reactive and risk-aversive; the organizations are controlled by vision and values rather than rules and hierarchies; the management is now more creative and intuitive instead of being rational and quantity-focused. The conventional organizations focused on their internal functions, while after experiencing the paradigm shifts, the organizations are now more focused on the competitive environments around them. They now create potential markets for the future instead of concentrating merely on the current market competition.

Organizational Paradigm and Strategic Management Process

            From the time period 1960s and to date, the corporate environment has altered and been modified to a large extent. Various driving forces such as increasing innovation in telecommunications, enhancing employee diversity, boosted public consciousness and globalization have made the organizations more socially responsible. Thus, they have adopted a ‘new paradigm’ whereby they are more flexible, sensitive, and adaptable to the expectations and demands of stakeholders. Therefore, in order to integrate the new shifts into their business processes and activities, the organizations have blended the paradigm shifts into their strategic management process (Hailin, 2009).

            The business organizations that are strategically managed tend to analyze the significant initiatives which are adopted by the top management and which involve the performance and resources in the external business environments. The entire process of strategic management entails formulating and implementing a mission, vision, objectives, the development of plans and policies, resource allocations, and programs and projects in the organization. Unlike the conventional planning processes, contemporary organizations now plan and develop their mission, vision, and objectives keeping in view the application of information technology resources, analysis of the external and internal corporate environments through Porter's framework, and taking into account different ways of customer satisfaction. While formulating their objectives, the companies keep the customers' requirements, needs, and wants at the forefront and aim to achieve those instead of merely developing plans for their own profitability and competitiveness. For example, Unilever has a mission and a vision to serve its customers by providing them with a healthy life and bright future through being a socially responsible and innovative business organization itself (Unilever, 2012). This indicates that the company has strategically managed itself and has successfully integrated its mission, vision, and values in line with the new organizational paradigms.

            Furthermore, the new paradigms and strategic management processes in a business organization are relevant to one another in every manner. While developing the strategic plans and policies, businesses reengineer their processes and methods in order to reinvent the organization and enhance its focus on the customers. This is known as the concept of business process reengineering, and a major element of the new organizational paradigm, which is an efficient tool utilized by the management to make it more market and customer-driven. Besides, information systems and knowledge management systems have been made a significant part of the strategic management plans when developing programs, policies, and projects (Alam, 2011). For instance, in big organizations such as Unilever and Reckitt, and Benckiser, the managers utilize IT for the purpose of communicating, collaborating, and keeping records of their short and long-term plans and policies. 

            The quality control methods and other innovative production processes are also handled through advanced business methods and processes. The conventional concepts of JIT inventory management and the TQM system for quality control are now efficiently managed through the integration of information technology. All these processes, being vital elements of the strategic management processes, are effectively and efficiently utilized in order to serve customers and the markets in a more sophisticated manner. Moreover, the leading contemporary organizations strive to keep themselves updated and follow a participative and democratic model of management and leadership. The new paradigm governs the organizations to make them move towards employee empowerment, worker participation in decision making, quick adaptability to change, increasing cooperation, decentralized operation structure, and harmonious working environment and organizational culture (Nag, Hambrick and Chen, 2007).

            Thus, the advancements in organizational management and business functions are the outcomes of the new organizational paradigm. The strategically managed business organizations of the present era have modified their conventional principles into modern techniques and procedures. Thus, in order to stand in the line of the leading global organizations, it is essential that the companies and the management integrate all the paradigm shifts into their strategic management processes.