Lecture no 4

Strategic Management, Internal Scanning and Analysis

Todays exercise: HBR activity/discussion/guideline/what
need to be done.bring your F ortune/HBR resource to class
Some questions from lecture,
Q-1
In what ways may a corporation's structure and culture act as internal
strengths or weaknesses?
Q-2
What are the pros and cons of management's using the experience curve to
determine strategy?
Q-3
How might a firm's management decide whether it should continue to invest
in current known technology or in new, but untested, technology? What
factors might encourage or discourage such a shift?
Q-4
What kind of internal factors help managers determine whether a firm should
emphasize the production and sales of a large number of low-priced products
or a small number of high-priced products?
Q-5
Why should information systems be included in the analysis of a
corporation's strengths and weaknesses?

STRATEGIC EXERCISE (due on 16 March)

A-What is the corporate culture of your university? Interview a
long-time employee and find some tangible items that illustrate the
culture of your university.
This exercise is a good way to apply the concepts of organizational analysis
to an organization all of you (the students) are part of. Given that most
people tend to take the corporate culture of their organization for granted,
you (students) should find this exercise to be quite educational (and
hopefully interesting). Usually, you have some general idea about what the
culture of your university may be - but this view tends to be based on your
own short-term experiences. You really need to interview in some depth a
long-time employee to identify enduring cultural characteristics. Make
sure you interview someone who has been with the organization at least five
to ten years. Remember, there are three continuing parts of any college or
university
(administrative officials,
secretaries (supporting staff), and faculty)
and they all may view some things quite differently, yet share the same
experience. The key is to identify the culture all of them share in
common.
To make sure that the assignment is focused on the issue, ask the following 4
questions to whoever you interview,
1-The culture conveys a sense of identity for employees.
2-Culture helps generate employees commitment to something
greater than themselves.
3-Culture adds to the stability of the organization as a social
system.
4-Culture serves as a frame of reference for employees to use to
make sense out of organizational activities and to use as a guide for
appropriate behavior.
The interviews would be of 6 different persons in 3 categories.
Two groups would interview two different secretaries (support staff),
Two groups would interview an administrator,

and two groups would interview a faculty member.

The submitted report should identify,
To whom you talked and how long the person has been a member of the
organization. Each group will present its answer to all of the four questions.
You would also mention in your written report,
Do administrators, secretaries, and faculty members agree on the culture?
Is there a common culture?
Try to assess the overall value of the culture to the college or university.
Is the culture a corporate strength or weakness?
Does the culture support or hinder strategic change?
Is the corporate culture a strategic factor in terms of its impact on the longterm performance of the organization?
If there anything about the culture that the class would like to see changed?
Why?
After all groups have presented their concept of the culture, the class will
evaluate from one (low) to ten (high) the two distinct attributes of culture
mentioned here. Which of the four functions of culture does the culture
fulfill?