Strategic Planning for Quality
Strategic Planning for Quality
Formulation of a successful strategic plan is a difficult task for any organization’s leadership. The process of implementation or turning the strategy into operational reality is even more difficult as Parsley & Corrigan (1999) point out. A key challenge to strategy implementation for organizations today is the implementation measures to make quality a major competitive edge. The process of successful implementation of strategic plan for quality is dependent on myriad of factors, some of which might facilitate the implementation process while others might hinder the process.
One of the key success factors is increased involvement in the provision of a service products or services. (Li1 et al, 2008) In a healthcare organization for instance, among the most common causes of unintended harm to patients globally are incidents of wrong medication by physicians. Thus, quality improvement in such organizations needs to include safer prescribing, dispensing and administering of medicines in order to improve consumer safety. Another critical factor to quality improvement is the process of recruitment and retention of professionals (Li1 et al, 2008). This is particularly crucial to achieving the desired objectives. In a health care organization, this includes continuous improvement of quality and safety of health care services. To achieve this, an organization’s human resource department should needs to be efficient in the process of allocating specific responsibilities to individuals based on their qualifications, training and experience.
One of the factors that may hinder successful achievement of the goal of quality is existence of a ‘blame’ culture within an organization (Hrebiniak, 2008). Errors in an organization occur as a result of and many contributing factors and the design or organizational system. It is thus vital for an organization to make necessary improvement to its system design and promote a ‘no blame’ culture in which people are more likely to report errors and expect constructive response. Finally, poor allocation of resources may hinder successful implementation of a strategic plan (Li1 et al, 2008). This involves wastage of resources, causing a reduction in the ‘value for money’ and reducing productivity for products or services. This needs to be solved by reducing wastage of resources such money, time and good will, among other resources. In summary, the above factors are essential in achieving the goal of quality during strategy implementation.
References
Hrebiniak, L., (2008), Making strategy work: overcoming the obstacles to effective execution,
Ivey business journal, 72 (2), pp. 1– 6
Li1, Y., Guohui, S. & Eppler, M. J., (2008), ‘Making Strategy Work: A Literature Review on
the Factors influencing Strategy Implementation,’ Retrieved 24 January 2012 from, shttp://www.knowledge-communication.org/pdf/making-strategy-work.pdf
Parsley, K & Corrigan, P., (1999), What is a strategy, Quality improvement in healthcare:
putting evidence into practice, Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes
