Southern Company Case Study
The effectiveness of the role played by strategic leaders in the formation of the performance management strategy
The Southern Company strategic leaders demonstrated their exceptional competence and skills in formulating the organisation performance strategy. The organisation strategic leaders were able to develop reliable and ambitious strategic mission and vision. In the policy formulation process, the organisation’s mission was also at the centre of the Southern Company performance strategy. The Southern Company strategic leaders also ensured that all players in the company were actively involved in the strategy formulation process. The strategy vision was tied with the organisation values and culture. The adoption of a realistic and appropriate strategy mission and vision played a critical role in ensuring that the organisation attains it intend objective (Hsieh, & Yik, 2005).
Furthermore, the Southern Company strategic leaders adopted a success objectives and goals for the organisation. The strategy goal was to ensure that the organisation recruit competence and talented professionals who will support the business in attaining the set immediate and long-term objectives. Therefore, the strategy mission did not only turn out as a success idea but magic that could significantly improve the organisation’s profitability. The company strategic leaders also ensured that all actors were committed towards achieving the set strategic goals and objectives. The Southern Company strategic leaders were as well effective in designing a realistic and cost effective performance management strategy. The organisation leaders demonstrate their competence in leadership by highlighting some of the most useful means of utilising the available resources in improving the organisation performance. Although at the initial stage the strategy appeared complicated and challenging, the leaders managed to describe to all stakeholders the most productive means of implementing the plan.
The strategic leaders were in the forefront in ensuring that the set strategy was implemented efficiently. In an ideal situation, the primary role of strategic leaders in any business setting is to ensure that the chosen strategy is effective within the set timeframe. The organisation leaders were also able to create an environment that supported successful implementation of the proposed strategy. With an aim of assessing the outcome of the strategy, the business strategy leaders adopted an effective evaluation strategy. The evaluation initiative involved the assessment the impact of the strategy on the organisation profitability
Five points criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of talent management strategy
In evaluating the effectiveness of Southern Company talent management strategy, the leader will examine the accuracy of the strategy. The leaders will scrutinize whether the initiative has attained its objective metric (Useem, 2001). Individual objective metric helps in defining the role and responsibility of all actors in an organisation. Secondly, the strategic leaders will assess the authority of the talent strategy. In most instances, talent is presumed to be an afterthought that supports individual skills and competence. Therefore, the evaluation process will examine whether the talent development has attained its intended goals.
The organisation leaders will also examine the objectivity of the strategy. In assessing the plan objectivity, leaders will aim at understanding whether the plan has attained its intended objective. The assessment of the currency of the strategy will also be of the essence in facilitating the formulation of appropriate intervention measures in future (Thompson & Strickland, 2003). In evaluating the currency of the plan, the organisation will seek to identify whether the plan was effective within the stipulated deadline. Finally, the organisation leaders will use the available evaluation tool in evaluating the scope and the coverage of the plan. In this step, leaders will aim at examining the impact of the plan in meeting the interest of all individuals. The evaluation on the coverage will also be useful in examining the impact of the initiative to the organisation profitability. In their evaluation process, the organisation leaders aim at interviewing all involved actors in the organisation. The organisation evaluation team will also collect the relevant information from the business records. Observation will be of the essence in collecting accurate information regarding the outcome of the plan (Charan, Drotter & Noel, 2001).
Critique of the component of talent management strategy and effective ways of attaining effective results
The act of evaluating individual social and personal background is not one of the most effective means of understanding individual characters and talent. In most instances, individual changes their behaviours in references to emerging social and economic environment. Instead, the tragic leaders would have subjected their employees into the business activities in order to examine their potential talents and competences. Reliance on information from external might not offer the required outcome. Recommendations from other leaders might be biased to meet individuals’ interests. Furthermore, recruit might lack sufficient information useful in accessing their talents and skills. To attain the best outcome, the organisation strategic leaders need to undertake their own investigations before arriving into a constructive conclusion (Lynch, 2006). The identification of individual career path may also be ineffective in presenting individual skills and talents. Studies from various scholars affirm that individual career development is enhanced by various factors including support mechanism, working environment, teamwork in an organisation as well as individual ability to learn new skills. Furthermore, individuals who will produce the required information might be inaccurate forcing the intervention initiative to ineffective. Therefore, to come up with a reliable conclusion on individual talents and skill, organisation leaders should engage in detailed consultation with all players in order to understand one’s potential skills and talent. The involvement of an individual in demanding work will also help in identifying a reliable means of improving employees’ talent (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2007)
Functional expertise component of the strategy
To recruit the most qualified individuals to take the business leadership and management position, the Southern Company has adopted a strategy that has key functional expertise. At the initial stage, the Southern Company executive managers undertook a systematic review on the personal education and personal background. The information on individual personal background was to help the company understand one’s cultural background. In modern society, the knowledge on the employee’s background is vital in ensuring there is diversity among the organisation workforce. The assessment of employee’s educational background will assist the business executive director in understanding the education skills and competence of its customer.
The strategy also has a component that accesses applicant major accomplishment. The knowledge on the successor past accomplishment will assist the organisation in selecting an individual with the required experience on the new position. The component will as well assist the company in selecting an individual who have successfully applied the acquired skills and competent. Furthermore, the knowledge on the individual accomplishment will be vital in helping Southern Company understand some of the most effective material and non-material motivation initiative. The component from external leadership competency evaluation will also serve a critical role in facilitating the adoption of the most effective means of evaluating the performance of its employees. The adoption of reliable evaluation mechanism will be of the essence in facilitating accurate and cost effective assessment and evaluation strategy.
The information on external leadership competency assessment will help in the evaluation of the skills that are critical for a successful leader in modern complicated economy. The assessment and acknowledgment of some of the main growth and development needs will serve a critical role in the formulation of productive development strategy. The understanding on key development needs will also assist in identifying the frequency of conducting productive training programs in the organisation. The act of conducting detailed analysis with an aim of identifying the areas that require prompt and immediate rectification will also enhance the recruitment of competence professionals. The strategy has a component that help in the identification of some of the plans and actions that can improve workforce competence.
To succeed in modern competitive economy, Southern Company needs to come up with an initiative that would advance and accelerate employee’s growth and development. The component will be useful in understanding some of the most valuable assignment and moves that can develop employees’ competence. The knowledge on reliable means of advancing employees development will also be of the essence in developing action plans to improve the performance of the organisation employees. Therefore, the functional expertise components of the strategy will facilitate effective coaching among the organisation employees. Some of the strategy components will also be useful in enhancing continuous assessment of the organisation employees. Therefore, some of the vital component contained in the strategy will also enhance the formulation of the organisation education and training programs (Pearce, & Robinson, 2007).
References
Charan, R. Drotter S. & Noel, J. (2001). The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership-powered company. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. & Hoskisson, R.E. (2007). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization, 7th edition. Ohio: Thomson/South Western.
Hsieh, T-Y. & Yik, S.( 2005). Leadership as the starting point of strategy’, McKinsey Quarterly,1, 67–76.
Lynch, R.L. (2006). Corporate Strategy. London: Pitman.
Pearce, J.A. & Robinson, R.B. (2007). Formulation, Implementation and Control of Competitive Strategy, 9th edition. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Thompson, A.A. & Strickland, A.J. (2003). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Useem, M. (2001). Leading up: How to Lead your Boss so you Both Win. New York, NY: Crown Business.
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