- 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.
SCORING GUIDE
Use the scoring guide to understand how your assessment will be evaluated.
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As a medical professor responsible for creating college assignments and providing feedback through examinations and assignments for medical college students, my expertise in analyzing organizational structure, design, culture and climate in relation to environmental forces will come in handy in designing a directional strategies report for a health care organization. The report will examine the alignment of the organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals, and provide recommendations to address gaps if any.
Analysis of the effectiveness of the organization’s directional strategies:
To determine how effectively the existing directional strategies currently fulfill the requirements of effective directional strategies, I used the Mission, Vision, and Values Analysis Questions document provided. The analysis of the mission statement revealed that it is clear and concise, captures the organization’s distinctive purpose and reason for being, and it aligns with the overall goals of the organization. However, the vision statement is not specific enough in terms of time frames and metrics, thus it may not create a clear mental picture of what the leaders want the organization to achieve. The value statements are lacking specificity and clarity in terms of how the organization conducts its activities to achieve its mission and vision. It is important to note that the organization’s existing directional strategies are not effective enough to fulfill the requirements of effective directional strategies.
Identification of gaps between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies:
Based on the analysis of the existing directional strategies, it is evident that there are gaps between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies. Specifically, the vision statement and value statements require improvement to be more specific and aligned with the overall goals of the organization.
Alignment between the organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals:
Through examination of the strategic fit, it was noted that the directional strategy of the organization is fit for the environment, but needs improvement. The organization’s direction is appropriate, given the environmental analysis conducted in Assessment 1. Strategic goals for growth, maintenance or contraction make sense depending on the analysis of the organization’s internal and external environment.
Proposed changes to the organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals:
To improve the alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals, changes need to be made to the mission, vision, and value statements. The vision statement needs to be more specific and include time frames and metrics. The value statements need to be more specific in terms of how the organization conducts its activities to achieve its mission and vision. Moreover, it is recommended that the organization creates departmental level mission, vision and value statements to ensure that each department is aligned with the overall goals of the organization.
Conclusion:
The directional strategies report analyzed the alignment of a health care organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals, and provided recommendations to address gaps between where the organization is and where it wants to go. In conclusion, changes need to be made to the mission, vision and value statements to improve their effectiveness and alignment with the overall goals of the organization, and departmental level mission, vision and value statements should be created to ensure that each department is aligned with the overall goals of the organization. These improvements will make the organization more efficient, competitive and profitable.
