Definition of Management Strategy

How do we define the management strategy?

The most common definition of management strategy can be: Management strategy is a future oriented conception in which the relationship between the industry and the environment (pattern for adapting to the environment) is described and it forms the guiding principles for the people in the industry for decision making.
It is obvious that the state of affairs with regard to the management strategy like the number of years for which the strategy has been planned, how minutely it has been described and for what level of people it forms the guiding principles etc., varies from industry to industry. However, it plays a fixed role towards the behaviour of each industry. Let us now try to understand the major role of management strategy.

Two strategy

The problem of management strategy cannot be divided into formulation of strategy and the implementation of strategy, in the present day industry, Particularly in the large industry, the formulation day strategy is no more the job of only one group of people, who were called as the strategy making staff. As the diversification of jobs progresses and the operations also becomes more complicated, it is certainly not an easy task to form a system where necessary information for strategy formulation can be provided to the top management so that the top management can accordingly take the suitable measures on the basis of this information in a smooth manner. In this way, it can be considered that the formulation of strategy takes birth from the cooperative and joint working of all the members which constitute the organization in the industry.

The concept of management strategy is being used at least with two meanings. One is the strategy which results from the concrete behaviour. It points out to the chain of behaviours which are actually implemented. The people outside the organization can normally understand the strategy of this type. Another type of strategy is the conception for the future. This concerns the broader plan related to the future of the industry as well as its operations.

These two types of strategies may not necessarily always match. The actual world is full of unnecessary that the conceptions are implemented in the same form always. However, it is also true that the two types of strategies are mutually linked to each other. There is always some sort of conception in the background of any behavioural action. Further, various unforeseen matters and the new ideas also come into existence in natural manner and are linked to the behavoiur.

The worthiness of management strategy is ultimately evaluated on the basis of result of a chain of actions. Therefore, it may, probably not be proper to evaluate the conceptual strategy on the face of it alone. However, the conceptual strategy plays a very important role in the organization

The concept provides a chance to guide the behaviour. Because of the existence of the concept, the behaviours change or new behaviours come into existence. Further, when all the people in an organization believe in the common concept, the behaviour as decided by different departments and the behaviour as decided at the time of any difference of opinion has a multiplying effect. In fact, it may be appreciated that the conceptual strategy is basically responsible for introducing, coordinating and synchronising the behaviour in the organization. The term management strategy, in this tutorial, refers to the conceptual strategy.

Social change and the management strategy

In today’s society, various organisations like industry, hospitals and Government offices etc. are performing the activities with specific purposes. One has to adapt to the surrounding environment for the continuous sustenance of the organisational set up. However, the change in the present day social environment is very severe and is full of uncertainly.

The long existence of the organisation itself as well as their further expansion cannot be accomplished just through the daily routine type decision making under such a state of affairs. In fact, it has become important to detect the opportunities and the threats from the changes and develop the capability to handle these opportunities and threats. Management strategy forms the key for such capabilities.

Management strategy is applicable not only to the industry, it has become equally important for the Government offices, hospitals and schools. However, most of the study which has been carried out with regard to the management strategy deals with analysis of industry. Industry has to face very severe competition on day-to-day basis and the standards regarding the evaluation of its results are also very clearly defined. The study of management strategy in relation to industry has also grown equally.