Current Themes and Future Directions

Discuss about the Current Themes and Future Directions.

Introduction

This is a report, which depicts the strategic performance of any organization that helps in improving the performance of the organization. The strategic performance measurement can be dysfunctional and functional for any given organization. The strategic performance measurement will help the organization to achieve the strategic objectives of the organization. Strategic performance management will have a positive impact on the performance of the organization. The report will analyze the difference between the operational and strategic performance. The report will also examine the relevance and importance of the globalization in the strategic performance management (Collins and Ruefli 2012). There is significant relationship between the organizational strategy and structure; the report will illustrate this relation critically. The report will conclude by portraying two approaches of performance management. Globalization has been the major contributor in changing the management system of the organization. This is also the case for the performance system. The performance management system has evolved rapidly and globalization is one of the essential reasons for this change.

There are many multi-dimensional approaches to measuring strategic performance.  The challenges in measuring strategic performance in the words of Walsh et, al., are to “transform the critical elements of a firm’s competitive strategy and change agenda into a measurement system.”  In other words, an organization needs to develop comprehensive measurement criteria and tools even though it is not always possible to measure strategic performance precisely.  Many times, in the past it has only been when a dimension has been recognised as being critically important that comprehensive and ultimately useful measurement designs have been developed.  In times of constant change, you need to be ready to not only tackle these measurement challenges but also change or adapt your measures as the business and the global environment change. The software that is used in the operational performance management will integrate the data from all the organizational sources in to suitable data, which will can be used to derive meaningful performance. However, the basic difference lies in the fact that strategic performance management deals with the workforce of the organization whereas all the business units are monitored and measured by the operational management performance techniques (Redding and Layland 2015).

Strategic performance management (SPM) is the means for the implementation and formulation of the strategy of the organization.  Strategic performance measurement will communicate the corporate priorities and key objectives. It will also provide alignment for the strategy, support the organizational processes in order to make improvements and facilitate increase in the use of innovation. It consists of performance indicator tools which are used to analyse the performance of the organization and at the same time can be sued as a communication tool (Walsh, Lok and Jones 2006). Strategic performance will set the boundaries and limits so that all the aspects in the organization can be retrained. This is used for the identification of new opportunities in the market and improve the learning of the organization, it can be financial and non-financial. SPM will utilize all the data form the past performance of the organization in order to predict the future possibilities and the strategies that has to be executed by the organization in order to maintain their sustainability in the market.

The operational management system is a process, which uses information technology tools to unify all the business units by creating meaningful data. The operation management system consists of key indicators and quality standard procedures, which will analyze the performance of each of the units, which will include planning of business, engagement of users, financial monitoring, monitoring the service plan and external monitoring. This shows that the operation performance management monitors all the essential management functions in order to identify the performance level (Dora et al. 2013). Measurement can draw attention to situations, events and changes under appropriate conditions.  Measurement involves creating a representation of an object, process or event in a meaningful way.  Often organizations seek to measure performance using accounting techniques, including quantitative measures such as dollars or numbers (Walsh, Lok and Jones 2006).  However, in the context of business performance, numbers and dollars do not always tell the whole story, so measurement needs to draw attention to key aspects of business and it needs to do so in ways that are relevant, valid, reliable and cost effective.  

Thus, it can be seen that strategic performance management deals with the performance of the organization. This is done with the help of the performance management tools, which is used to identify the current opportunities and predict the future opportunities which can be utilized by the organization (Wang et al. 2016). This will eventually help to achieve the short term and the long-term goal of the organization. Operational performance deals with the overall process and procedures of the organizations and monitors all the units so that they keep improving the business model of the organization. Thus, it can be said that the strategic performance management monitors only the human resource of the organization whereas operational performance management monitors all the business units to manage quality and performance of the organization.

Relevance and importance of globalization

Globalization has changed the overall workforce environment in all the multinational organizations. The workforce of the organization has become more diverse and so the performance management techniques have evolved. The performance management techniques are constantly evolving depending upon the need of the organization. The market of the human resources has changed due to the factors such as globalization (Crane and Matten 2016). The workforce of an organization will provide the organization with competitive advantage and effect other factors such as profitability and employee performance. Globalization has made it possible that all the major organization are able to access the modern technology in the market and make use of information technology to create human resource information system. This has provided the organization with the opportunity to monitor the performance of the employees in a better and effective manner. The organizations in the market are making use of this technologies and data to analyse the performance of the employees. The analysis will provide insights on the business and will be able to predict the future human resource needs of the organization. The organizations that are able to predict the needs of their workforce will eventually gain competitive advantage in the market (Yang, Lu and Jiang 2017). Globalization has been able to create technologies that are cost effective which is the biggest change the workforce environment has seen. Thus, it can be said that globalization has had a great impact on the workforce environment. The performance of the organization is measured by collecting, analysing and reporting information about the workforce of the organization. This data is easily obtained due to the modern software that are being used by the organizations in the market.

Globalization has provided the organization with lot of opportunities in the market which will help in improving the performance of the organization. This has also increased the level of competition among the companies due to the availability of the resources. It has also helped the organization in expanding their business in the international market. This shows that globalization has broadened the horizon of the market. This is one of the major factors for the development of the human resources in the organization (Hotho, Lyles and Easterby?Smith 2015). The organization are making use of this technologies to increase the engagement of the employees. The organization are using two-way communication channel to communicate their goals and objectives to the employees. This has helped to motivate the employees who are performing in a better way as they are clear about the expectations of the organizations from their employees. This has also helped the workforce to align their personal goals to that of their respective organizations.

Globalization has made the availability of technology very easy and this has impacted the performance management and enterprise performance. The organization in the modern day are using these technologies to analyze the performance of the employees as well as the organization. The organizations are using the business analytical system to predict the needs of the workforce which will help to improve their sustainability in the market. Data warehousing is one is one of the most significant contribution of the globalization which has made the process of assessment of the employees relatively easy (Rowlands and Iles 2017). This has reduced the overall cost of the organization and at the same time has helped to save a lot of time. The organizations have been able to make changes to the performance appraisal systems which using new sets of parameters to evaluate the performance of the individual. This has helped to realize the hidden facts in the organizational workforce and thus, it can be seen that the overall workforce scenario has changed significantly. The performance techniques and software have changed significantly and tools for measuring the performance of the enterprise have also changed significantly.

Linkage between strategy and organizational structure

The strategy of an organization is the plan for the overall business of the organization and shows how the organization will effectively utilize their resources. Thus, it can be said the strategy is the mans of reaching the goals and the objectives of the organization. Organization structure can be portrayed as the way in which the pieces of the organization can be fit together internally to create an effective environment (Burke 2017). In order to reach the goals and the objectives the organizational structure and strategy will have to be woven together in an effective manner. Organizational structure in a simple way can be defined as the hierarchy of the organization and can be sued to assign task to the individuals in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. The primary objective of the strategy of the organization is to maintain the sustainability and gain competitive advantage in the market. The structure of the organization will make sure that the workforce is in alignment with the goals and objectives of the organization. This will help to avoid confusion in the workforce of the organization and increase the overall productivity of the organization. This also reduces the chances of task overlap and helps to save a lot of money for the organization (Schein 2017).

Organizational structure and strategy are related because the strategy of the organization will help to create the structure of the organization. The analysis of the strategy will help to identify the exact structure that is required for the organization and this will help to create an effective business model for the organization. The changes in the structure will help in improving the efficiency of the organization, promoting team work, elimination and creation of new departments and organizational synergy. The strategy of the organization will determine the changes that has to be made in to the organizational structure which will help them to maintain their sustainability and improve their margin of profit (Ashkenas et al. 2015). Th relationship between strategy and strategy becomes clearer when the strategy of the organization has been placed. The first thing an organization need to do is to identify the goals and objective it wishes to achieve. This will be the basis on which the organization will have to define the strategy. This strategy will used be to design the organizational structure which should be in alignment to the goals and objectives of the organization. Strategy and structure of the organization also helps to identify the tone of the organization which can be formal or informal. The organization will determine all the actions of the organization and it is not simply the hierarchy chart of the organization. Structure of the includes all the processes, procedures, people, technology and culture which defines the organization (Scott and Davis 2015). This means that the overall process of the organization is explained with the help- of the structure of the organization. It is important to integrate the structure of the organization with strategy so it eases the process and helps to achieve the desired target of the stakeholders of the organization. Structure will support the strategy of the organization and so if the organization is changing the strategy it will have to change the structure of the organization so that both are in alignment with each other (Cummings and Worley 2014).

Structure will be followed by the strategy of the organization and so the change in the strategy of the organization means that there will be change in the structure of the organization. Coca Cola is an organization which is using multiple structure in their organization and have multiple strategies. Coca Cola have different strategies for different regions which means that the Coca Cola will have to different structure in different countries. Thus, it can be seen from the above facts that the strategy and structure are both correlated and change in one will impact the other. Structure and Strategy are used to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization so if an organization has a diversified portfolio and has a structure that is functional means that that the organization will not be able to effectively fulfil the goals of the organization. The changes in the structure will help in improving the efficiency of the organization, promoting team work, elimination and creation of new departments and organizational synergy.   

Two approaches in performance measurement

Performance management is related with the provision of information to the management that they require for making decisions, which includes technical decisions that are related with business and the decisions that are related with the people inside the business. The ability of quantifying or measuring the amount of any business’s success revolves around the capacity of answering two very critical questions. The two questions ask about the amount of revenue generated or the amount of value created, and how much did the creation of the value cost (Ciasullo et al. 2017).

Measurement of the performance of the employees of an organization is its ultimate backbone for organizational management. Business owners generally gauge the performances of their employees by means of assessment of the amount of contribution their employees are making towards the advancement of the business.  This measurement practice gets conveyed to the employee when they are under the purview of performance appraisal. Performance appraisal is referred to the assessment of the employees inside an organization, with provision of constructive feedback and the creation of a positive result of future performance (Leat, Williamson and Scaife 2014). Employee performance is founded on a number of different aspects which are as follows:

• Work profile
• Company polices
• Compensation
• Job Satisfaction
• Bonus System
• Technology
• Conducive Work Environment

These aspects have a different role to play in the determination of employee productivity and performance, and therefore the whole organizational development.

It is in the hands of the organization that they can make use of varied strategies and approaches in the direction of the objective of performance management of their employees. Two major approaches to this can be identified: Balanced and Sustainability Balanced Scorecards. For any tool to be actually of use in any business, it not just needs to measure strategic performance, but even needs becoming a tool for additional improvement in business performance. Implementation of any strategy contains different perspectives and its changing and the interconnectedness amongst these changes coming together for creating performance development and the additional value creation. Connections and dependencies among the different relevant features of business are basic for the efficient application of Balanced and Sustainability Balanced Scorecards. Connections and dependencies are after all the creators of value and improvement in performance is resultant in additional value creation. It is crucial that managers are mindful of the connections as they the ones using scorecards for measuring and managing strategic performance. The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard is an extension of the original Balanced Scorecard, which has been extended in practice for including social and environmental sustainability, therefore associating business strategies and economic performance to sustainability. The Balanced and Sustainability Balanced Scorecards have continued expanding and evolving with business in the current era of consistent change. The main idea behind these adaptations to the conventional scorecards is mainstreaming sustainability issues and making them just as vital for thinking of business managers as financial and economic performance. The Balanced Scorecard is a measurement tool that is used for measuring strategic performance. The Balanced Scorecard was first developed in 1996 by Kaplan and Norton. It was recognising the idea that measuring finance simply was not enough for measuring enterprise and organizational performance. The first generation of Balanced Scorecard was made for providing a series of wide range measures that includes both financial and non-financial aspects, and would be useful in measuring the overall health of the business. With time, as businesses started using this tool it was found that it lacked the capability of introducing major change. As both Kaplan and Norton recognised this shortcoming, they refined the Balanced Scorecard and the turned it into a framework that was necessary for the defining of strategy (Mitchell et al. 2013).

The other business methods that have concentration on different aspects of business strategy and performance can expect a good starting point in Balanced Scorecard. In this area on such modern innovation is the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC). Conventional Balanced Scorecard concentrates on the implementation of the strategy on an operational level, which takes into account the KPIs in four major areas - Finance, Education and Growth, Internal Business Processes, and Customers. Conversely, the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) is mainly focused on three different aspects: economy, ecology and society. The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard is a specific case for the conventional Balanced Scorecard. Instead of just doing an analysis of the main objectives of the company in typical operational areas, SBSC assists in the development of strategies that are related to the goals of social, financial and environmental aspects. The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard also assists in the formulation of the long term strategy for any organisation (Mitchell et al. 2013).

Conclusion

Coming to the conclusion of this report, it has been very well able to display the strategic performance of any organization that makes it possible for bringing improvement in the performance of the organization. Workforce really plays a crucial role in providing the organizations with competitive advantage. Utilization of this asset would able to boost the performance of any organization and the employees working in it. This report has also examined the relevance and importance of the globalization in strategic performance management. Significant association between organizational strategy and structure has been seen and discussed in an illustrative manner in this critical report. Giving importance to managing of employee performance, two approaches have been portrayed for use - comparative approach and result approach. It has found from the discussion that globalization has been the major contributor in changing the management system of the organization. This is also the case for the performance systems. The performance management system has evolved rapidly and globalization is one of the essential reasons for this change.

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