Many American organizations have reported dissatisfaction with the results of their strategic planning, TQM, or other large-scale change efforts. Some have even abandoned their efforts all together. According to the literature, the major problem seems to be with implementation and deployment. One of the major obstacles that organizations face in the implementation and deployment phase of their planning effort is the loss of momentum. They seem to get the ball rolling and generate a lot of initial excitement but then after some period of time, the energy level begins to decline. All of the work: that was put in at the beginning seems to get cast aside in order to "get the job done" or to ''fight fires." In an effort to provide American organizations with some recommendations for successful implementation and deployment, this research addressed two questions: (1) What are the "root causes" leading to an organization's strategic planning effort to lose momentum during implementation and deployment, and (2) Does it appear that ''Hoshin'' organizations struggle with these root causes to a lesser degree than "Non-Hoshin" organizations? / Master of Science