Advanced Research in Economic and Management Sciences (AREMS) Vol.10 March 2013
ISSN: 2322-2360
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The Importance of Government Strategic Management
Esmaeil Naderi
payame noor University Of Golestan
Abstract- Effective managers recognize the role that strategic
management plays in their organization’s performance. Throughout this
chapter, students discover that good strategies can lead to high
organizational performance. Managers must carefully consider their
organization’s internal and external environments as they develop strategic
plans. They should have a systematic means of analyzing the environment,
assessing their organization’s strengths and weaknesses, identifying
opportunities that would give the organization a competitive advantage, and
incorporating these findings into their planning. The value of thinking
strategically has an important impact on organization performance.
Keywords: Government, Strategic Management, Organization.
Introduction
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the
efforts of people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources
efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or
directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort
for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and
manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural
resources.
Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human
action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This
view opens the opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a prerequisite to attempting to manage others.
In for-profit work, management has as its primary function the satisfaction of a range of
stakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued
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products at a reasonable cost (for customers), and providing rewarding employment
opportunities for employees. In nonprofit management, add the importance of keeping the
faith of donors. In most models of management and governance, shareholders vote for the
board of directors, and the board then hires senior management. Some organizations have
experimented with other methods (such as employee-voting models) of selecting or
reviewing managers, but this is rare (Gomez-Mejia, et al., 2008).
In the public sector of countries constituted as representative democracies, voters elect
politicians to public office. Such politicians hire many managers and administrators, and in
some countries like the United States political appointees lose their jobs on the election of a
new president/governor/mayor.
Difficulties arise in tracing the history of management. Some see it (by definition) as a
late modern (in the sense of late modernity) conceptualization. On those terms it cannot have
a pre-modern history, only harbingers (such as stewards). Others, however, detect
management-like-thought back to Sumerian traders and to the builders of the pyramids of
ancient
Egypt.
Slave-owners
through
the
centuries
faced
the
problems
of
exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes unenthusiastic or recalcitrant workforce,
but many pre-industrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the
issues of management systematically. However, innovations such as the spread of Arabic
numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry book-keeping (1494)
provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.
Given the scale of most commercial operations and the lack of mechanized recordkeeping and recording before the industrial revolution, it made sense for most owners of
enterprises in those times to carry out management functions by and for themselves. But with
growing size and complexity of organizations, the split between owners (individuals,
industrial dynasties or groups of shareholders) and day-to-day managers (independent
specialists in planning and control) gradually became more common.
Most organizations have three management levels: first-level, middle-level, and top-level
managers.[citation needed] These managers are classified in a hierarchy of authority, and
perform different tasks. In many organizations, the number of managers in every level
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Advanced Research in Economic and Management Sciences (AREMS) Vol.10 March 2013
ISSN: 2322-2360
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resembles a pyramid. Each level is explained below in specifications of their different
responsibilities and likely job titles. (Juneja et al., 2011)
Strategic management
Strategic management analyzes the major initiatives taken by a company's top
management on behalf of owners, involving resources and performance in internal and
external environments ( Nag, Hambrick, Chen, 2007). It entails specifying the organization's
mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans, often in terms of projects and
programs, which are designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to
implement the policies and plans, projects and programs. A balanced scorecard is often used
to evaluate the overall performance of the business and its progress towards objectives.
Recent studies and leading management theorists have advocated that strategy needs to start
with stakeholders expectations and use a modified balanced scorecard which includes all
stakeholders.
Strategic management is a level of managerial activity below setting goals and above
tactics. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely
related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is useful
to talk about "strategic consistency" between the organization and its environment or
"strategic consistency." According to Arieu (2007), "there is strategic consistency when the
actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in
turn are with the market and the context." Strategic management includes the management
team and possibly the Board of Directors and other stakeholders.
"Strategic management is an ongoing process that evaluates and controls the business and
the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and
strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy
annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it
has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new
technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or
political environment." (Lamb, Robert, Boyden, 1984) Strategic Management can also be
defined as "the identification of the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to
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Advanced Research in Economic and Management Sciences (AREMS) Vol.10 March 2013
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achieve the purpose. It is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determine the long
term performance of a business enterprise. It involves formulating and implementing
strategies that will help in aligning the organization and its environment to achieve
organisational goals."
Strategic management can depend upon the size of an organization, and the proclivity to
change of its business environment. These points are highlighted below:

A global/transnational organization may employ a more structured strategic
management model, due to its size, scope of operations, and need to encompass
stakeholder views and requirements.

An SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) may employ an entrepreneurial
approach. This is due to its comparatively smaller size and scope of operations, as
well as possessing fewer resources. An SME's CEO (or general top management) may
simply outline a mission, and pursue all activities under that mission.

Whittington (2001) highlighted four approaches to strategic management.
These are Classical, Processual, Evolutionary and Systemic approaches.

Mintzberg stated there are prescriptive (what should be) and descriptive (what
is) approaches. Prescriptive schools are "one size fits all" approaches that designate
"best practice" while descriptive schools describe how strategy is implemented in
specific contexts.
No single strategic managerial method dominates, and remains a subjective and contextdependent process. In 2010, IBM released a study summarizing three conclusions of 1500
CEOs around the world: 1) complexity is escalating, 2) enterprises are not equipped to cope
with this complexity, and 3) creativity is now the single most important leadership
competency. IBM said that it is needed in all aspects of leadership, including strategic
thinking and planning.
Similarly, Mckeown argued that over-reliance on any particular approach to strategy is
dangerous and that multiple methods can be used to combine the creativity and analytics to
create an "approach to shaping the future", that is difficult to copy (Mckeown, Max, 2012).
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Government is a complex business requiring high quality decisions.
A critical determinant of successful government is the ability to make good decisions, and
manage their implementation. Modern government is complex. It requires thousands of
decisions to be taken and acted upon each day. The compound effect of these decisions is
enormous, due to the size and pervasiveness of government.
Making governance more effective challenges the role of government.
In government as in business, one of the greatest benefits arising from the adoption of a
strategic approach to decision-making is the premium it places on identifying and
strengthening core competence. It leads to a disturbing question: what is government good
for? In the initial period of reform, the question was posed in the negative: what is
government not good for, and therefore should no longer do? Now we are better placed to
identify the important and unique job that government has to do, and has to be good at doing.
Aberbach and Rockman propose that government’s essential competence lies in its ability to:
- make quality long-term decisions;
- create and distribute knowledge;
- implement decisions effectively; and
- mediate amongst competing interests.
Strategic government also means good government, since the quality of government will
increasingly determine international competitive advantage. In the words of one commentator
looking to the requirements for national success in the next century: While efficiency is a
necessary condition of wider prosperity and influence, it is not sufficient. Enduring prosperity
requires societies that are safe, ordered and honest.
Social Management
Social Managers are leaders and leading employees in social organizations. They have to
– as in other organizations – use economic means and human resources in the most efficient
and satisfactory way. Most Social Managers have for the most part a professional
qualification as a social pedagogue, social worker, nurse, doctor, business administrator,
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accountant, finance expert or lawyer. To fulfil their professional duty they often lack key
management capabilities that could supplement and consolidate their acquired professional
training and education.
Social Managers possess specialized leadership and management skills covering all areas
of management, social policy, social services, as well as many aspects of law. The Social
Management pursues the goal of connecting social objectives with principles of efficiency in
management. The aim is to increase the potential and actual career changes of practicing
social administrators (government offices related to the social sector, education and health
care sector, public or private housing estates, social service organizations, etc.), social
workers, kindergarten and school teachers, psychologists, nurses, doctors, even police
officers, and all other professionals who are working in the social service sector.
Social Managers will work in private as well as public social organizations, such as: 1.
Elderly homes, care homes, counselling centers, youth centers, re-socialisation centers,
children homes, orphanages, 2. kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, universities,
educational institutions for social professions, education centres, 3. hospitals, clinics,
rehabilitation centers, wellness centers, recreational centers, 4. government offices related to
education, health care, housing, social services, social assistance ("welfare benefits"),
employment services, social insurance, social development, crime prevention and policing,
etc., as well as 5. Welfare and social service related companies(Karl-Heinz et al., 2011).
References
1. Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008). Management:
People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill.
p. 19. ISBN 978-0-07-302743-2.
2. Juneja hu Juneja, FirstHimanshu, and Prachi Juneja. (2011) "Management."
Management Study Guide. WebCraft Pvt Ltd, 2011. Web. 17 Mar 2011.
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3. Karl-Heinz
Boeßenecker
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5. Mckeown, Max, (2012).The Strategy Book, FT Prentice Hall, 2012.
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