Assessment 3 Instructions: Directional Strategies Report
Write a directional strategies report (4-6 pages) that examines the alignment of a health care organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals. Include improvement recommendations that address gaps between where the organization is and where it wants to go.
Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
In your previous assessments, you examined how today’s health care organizations prepare themselves for the present and the future through strategic management. Specifically, you analyzed how a health care organization’s external and internal environments affect its operations. You also performed a TOWS analysis to help a health care organization identify strategic objectives to drive and improve all aspects of the company.
The next step is to consider the directional pathways health care organizations take to achieve their strategic objectives. Creating a strategic vision for a health care organization involves developing or revising the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements. Here is a summary of these three directional strategies:
- A mission statement captures the organization’s distinctive purpose or reason for being.
- A vision statement creates a mental picture of what leaders want the organization to achieve when accomplishing its purpose or mission.
- Value statements clarify how the organization will conduct its activities to achieve its mission and vision. They frequently reflect common morality and emphasize respect, integrity, trust, caring, and the pursuit of excellence.
In a first-in-class health care organization, these three directional strategies align with the company’s overarching goals. Once strategic leaders are confident the mission, vision, and values are well formulated, understood, and communicated, they then focus on the activities that will make the most progress toward accomplishing the organization’s mission and move it toward realizing its vision. These activities are called strategic goals.
This assessment provides an opportunity for you to create a directional strategies report. In this report, you will analyze the alignment of your health care organization’s current directional strategies (mission, vision, and value statements) with its strategic goals. You will make recommendations for improvement if you identify gaps between where your health care organization is and where it wants to go.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Competency 1: Analyze organizational structure, design, culture, and climate in relation to environmental forces.
- Analyze the effectiveness of a health care organization’s directional strategies.
- Identify gaps between effective directional strategies and an organization’s existing directional strategies.
- Competency 3: Recommend an organizational structure and design to optimize a strategic plan.
- Analyze the alignment between a health care organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals.
- Propose changes to the organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between the organization’s structure and strategic goals.
- Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly professional, and consistent with expectations for professionals in health care administration.
- Write a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional directional strategies report that includes conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.
- Follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references.
Note: Complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Preparation
Use Mission, Vision, and Values Analysis Questions [DOCX] to complete the assessment. The document identifies three questions about each directional strategy you need to consider as you are analyzing your organization’s fit with its directional strategy.
To prepare for the assessment, reexamine your TOWS matrix from Assessment 2, the analysis of your matrix, and the initial strategies you prepared as part of your draft strategic plan. Once you have reexamined your work, you will be ready to begin work on this assessment.
In addition, you may wish to review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you will be asked to complete.
Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion, of your draft directional strategies report to Smarthinking Tutoring for feedback before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan to use this free service, be mindful that the turnaround time to receive feedback is 24–48 hours.
Scenario
Your manager is pleased with the thorough and impressive work you have done to date. However, she notes that the TOWS matrix findings do not align with the organization’s directional strategies. The organization’s structure needs to align more closely with its strategic goals, so that the organization can be more efficient, competitive, and profitable. She asks for your help once again.
Her next task for you is to examine the organization’s current mission, vision, and value statements, and compare them to the TOWS matrix. She requests that you recommend revisions to the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements so that they more closely align with the organization’s strategic priorities.
Knowing your manager, you understand that she wants your directional strategies report to be insightful, substantive, and brief—all at the same time. You also know that your manager is a visual person. It will serve you well to include appropriate images and diagrams, such as your TOWS matrix, in your report to highlight key information.
Requirements
Write a directional strategies report that examines the alignment of a health care organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals.
Report Requirements
The requirements, outlined below, correspond to the grading criteria in the Directional Strategies Report Scoring Guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
- Analyze the effectiveness of the organization’s directional strategies.
- Use the linked document Mission, Vision, and Values Analysis Questions [DOCX] to determine how effectively the existing directional strategies currently fulfill the requirements of effective directional strategies.
- Identify gaps between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies.
- Analyze the alignment between the organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals.
- Examine the strategic fit.
- How well does the directional strategy fit the environment?
- How appropriate is the organization’s direction, given the environmental analysis you completed in Assessment 1?
- Which strategic goals make the most sense at this time? Growth? Maintaining the status quo? Or does contraction make the most sense right now?
- Examine the strategic fit.
- Propose changes to the organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals.
- Recommend changes you think the organization needs to make to establish a foundation necessary for the organization’s current structure and strategies.
- Be sure to support your recommendations with references to current, scholarly, and authoritative sources.
- Write a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional directional strategies report that includes conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.
- Follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references.
Additional Requirements
- Formatting: Prepare your report using a familiar and appropriate document format used by health care organizations, such as a business report or a white paper.
- Length: 4–6 pages in length (double-spaced).
Proofread your document before you submit it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your report.
Supporting Evidence
Health care is an evidence-based field. Consequently, readers of your report will want to know the sources of your information, so be sure to include applicable, APA-formatted source citations and references.
Portfolio Prompt: You may choose to save your directional strategies report to your ePortfolio.
Resources: Strategic Planning and Mission, Vision, and Values
Strategic Planning and Mission, Vision, and Values
- Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). Strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- Chapter 5, “Directional Strategies,” pages 163–204.
- Kotalik, J., Covino, C., Doucette, N., Henderson, S., Langlois, M., McDaid, K., & Pedri, L. M. (2014). Framework for ethical decision-making based on mission, vision and values of the institution. HEC Forum, 26(2), 125–133.
- Kronenburg, M. A. (2014). Evaluating important healthcare management competency areas and preparation for healthcare reforms. International Journal of Business & Public Administration, 11(1), 31–40.
- Maritan, C. A., & Lee, G. K. (2017). Resource allocation and strategy. Journal of Management, 43(8), 2411–2420.
- Newhouse, J. J., & Balotsky, E. R. (2013). Factors motivating hospital CEOs to commit to ethical integration in their institutions: A quantitative analysis. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 10(2), 46–54.
- Scott, B. C. (2015). Hospital boards—Why quality and safety matter. Physician Leadership Journal, 2(1), 62–64.
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Resources: Directional Strategies for Strategic Planning
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Directional Strategies for Strategic Planning
- Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754–1788.
- Muhoro, N. (n.d.). Operational versus functional level strategy. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/operational-versus-…
- Johnson, S. (n.d.). The triangle of corporate strategy. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/triangle-corporate-…
- Kukreja, D. (2013). Strategic planning: A roadmap to success. Retrieved from http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/strateg…
- Parsons Miller, S. (n.d.). Directional strategies in the development of strategy for a healthcare organization. Retrieved from
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As a medical professor responsible for designing and conducting lectures, evaluating student performance, and providing feedback through examinations and assignments, one of the key areas of focus is strategic management for healthcare organizations. In this context, students are tasked with designing a directional strategies report that examines the alignment of a healthcare organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals. The report also includes improvement recommendations that address gaps between where the organization is currently and where it wants to be.
1. Analyze the effectiveness of the organization’s directional strategies.
The first step in analyzing the effectiveness of a healthcare organization’s directional strategies is to use the Mission, Vision, and Values Analysis Questions to determine how effectively the existing directional strategies currently fulfill the requirements of effective directional strategies. The analysis should identify whether the mission statement captures the organization’s distinctive purpose or reason for being, whether the vision statement creates a mental picture of what leaders want the organization to achieve when accomplishing its purpose or mission, and whether the value statements clarify how the organization will conduct its activities to achieve its mission and vision.
2. Identify gaps between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies.
Based on the analysis in step one, the report should identify any gaps that currently exist between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies. The gaps may relate to the effectiveness of the mission statement in capturing the organization’s purpose, the clarity of the vision statement, or the effectiveness of the value statements in guiding the organization’s activities.
3. Analyze the alignment between the organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals.
The report should examine the strategic fit between the directional strategy and the environment by analyzing how well the directional strategy fits within the environment. Additionally, the report should also assess the appropriateness of the organization’s direction, given the environmental analysis completed in Assessment 1. It should also identify which strategic goals make the most sense at this time, whether that be growth, maintaining the status quo, or contraction.
4. Propose changes to the organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals.
Based on the analysis in steps one to three, the report should recommend changes that the organization needs to make to establish a foundation necessary for its current structure and strategies. The report should be supported by current, scholarly, and authoritative sources.
5. Write a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional directional strategies report that includes conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.
Finally, the report should be written in a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional manner. The report should follow the APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. Additionally, the report should be between 4-6 pages in length, double-spaced, and proofread before submission to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of the report.
