Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Master's Degree in Technology: Quality in the Department of Operations and Quality Management, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / Over the past ten years, intense global competition, changing customer needs and the changing business environment have forced many organisations to examine their organisational goals and to re-evaluate how to meet their challenges. Extreme global competition has forced many organisations to develop action plans to respond to an increasingly competitive market. One such action plan identified was the integration of quality practices and principles with strategic planning of the organisation. This research investigated the importance and usefulness of integrating quality practices in the strategic management process of organisations in the Printing and Packaging industry in the Ethekweni Municipality. This study included a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The review of literature represented the qualitative research method, acknowledged the importance of, and advantages and disadvantages of integrating quality practices with the strategic management process. It also identified selected quality practices that can improve the strategic planning process. The quantitative method included a preliminary study and a main study. The preliminary study was conducted using questionnaires and interviews consisting of 10 and 5 organisations respectively. The main study consisted of questionnaires administered to 30 organisations. The results of the pilot study showed that although many organisations were aware of the integration, they did not have the support from employees, nor the time to implement it. The main study indicated that the majority of the organisations integrated the two practices. 97% of the organisations found that this integration was difficult initially, but with some perseverance achieved success, while 3% of the organisations did not implement the integration. The latter are now considering the integration process. Hence, it can be accepted that the integration of quality practices within the strategic management process has directed the organisation toward continuous improvement, a competitive advantage, a greater market share and sustainability, greater customer satisfaction and increased profitability and sales.

published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Most of the conceptual and empirical work to date leads one to conclude that the contingency approach to understanding strategic planning systems is still in a formative stage. Overall, there seems to be few potential generalizations that emerge from these contingency based studies and even these few are tentative in nature. Furthermore, it seems that most of the contingency based studies had inadequate research designs. This inadequacy probably contributed to the relatively low degree of conclusiveness that has emerged from these studies. This study is intended to be a step forward in filling some of the gaps revealed in the literature. Its purpose is to better understand what strategic conditions need to be considered when designing strategic planning systems. The research questions triggering this research were: (1) What is the impact of the external environment on the design of strategic planning systems? (2) What variables determine the intensity, and structure of strategic planning? (3) What variables determine the role of the corporate planning staff, and CEOs in the planning process? The data were collected by a mail questionnaire and from published data of 174 firms (a response rate of 43.5%). A contingency model linking some contextual variables of business firms to a number of design parameters of strategic planning systems was developed. The findings point out that both the extent and different design parameters (e.g. the planning horizon) of planning systems are influenced by the unpredictability of environmental changes. In addition, other contextual variables such as organization technology are found to influence the extent and structural characteristics of strategic planning systems. Finally, the roles of both the corporate planning staff and chief executive officers in the planning process are identified. These roles are found to be influenced by a variety of contextual variables and non-contextual variables such as the type of industry.

D.Com. (Strategic Management) / A review of the literature reveals that strategy implementation is an important component of the strategic management process. In addition, it has been noted that there is a high failure rate in the implementation of strategy as a result of the existence of many potential barriers to the effective implementation of strategy. A lack of leadership – specifically strategic leadership – in the management structures of organisations has been identified as one of the possible barriers to the effective implementation of strategy. However, strategic leadership is also widely regarded as one of the key drivers of strategy implementation. In view of the fact that the role of strategic leadership in strategy implementation has been overlooked, the following research question was addressed: What is the perceived role of strategic leadership in the implementation of strategy in South African organisations? In the light of the identified problem and research question, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the perceived role of strategic leadership in the implementation of strategy in South African organisations. The thesis was that strategic leadership positively contribute to the effective implementation of strategy in South African organisations.

In this dissertation, strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship are combined in a single empirical research investigating the influence of business strategic management practices on organisational entrepreneurial orientation. Understanding this relationship has progressively become crucial in today’s hypercompetitive global environment where businesses, regardless of national location, size, age and industry, are facing incessant and dynamic change. Specifically, the influence of strategic management practices on corporate entrepreneurship in medium to large corporations in the financial and business services sector in South Africa is analysed by testing hypotheses that predict the relationship between strategic management dimensions of locus of planning, scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, and strategy control attributes, and entrepreneurial orientation. By applying factor, cluster and multiple regression statistical analyses, the study made four key findings. First, the results confirm that selected dimensions of strategic management practices influence the entrepreneurial orientation of firms. This in turn effect the position a firm occupies along a conceptual conservative-entrepreneurial continuum. Second, the study indicates that firms with perceived higher entrepreneurial orientation exhibit better performance measures. This finding supports the thesis that entrepreneurial orientation is an integral component for business performance in attaining sustainable competitive advantage, achieving above-average earnings and wealth creation. Third, a methodology that combined strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship in a single research generated new knowledge confirming that entrepreneurial orientation is a key construct in both subdisciplines. Fourth, the results show that divergent organisational entrepreneurial orientation profiles help in classifying firms along the entrepreneurial continuum. Furthermore, the research made a provisional finding that there are four possible distinct and excusive clusters of business groups along the conservative-entrepreneurial continuum in determining corporate entrepreneurial orientation in organisations

Key words: supply chain management, capacity planning, spot market, long-term contract, contract theory / The long-term supply commitment is made deal through strategic interactions between the players of the supply chain. Game theoretical analysis is conducted to study the bargaining behaviors of the players. Optimal contract design can be obtained in various bargaining power scenarios: Contract Manufacturer Stackelberg, OEM Stackelberg, and Vertical Nash game. We also extend the analysis for single Contract Manufacturer and single contractual customer to multiple customers. The multi-units auction mechanism is also discussed briefly. / This thesis studies the problem of strategic capacity planning for make-to-stock manufacturing systems in the presence of a spot market and a long-term contractual channel in a continuous-time infinite horizon setting. The spot market is run by a B2B online exchange where the sales and prices are random over time while the long-term contractual channel is established by a structured contract in which the price and volume to be delivered are pre-negotiated. / Typically, we consider a supply chain which consists of an upstream manufacturer (e.g. Contract Manufacturer) and a downstream manufacturer (e.g. OEM). The two parties of the supply chain are linked by a long-term contract and both of the parties can trade in the spot market. To study the strategic behaviors of the contract manufacturer and the OEM, we first characterize the optimal operating strategies of the players under a specific contract and then analyze the influence of the contract terms on the optimal policies and the expected profit functions. We find that the optimal contracting strategy of the contract manufacturer can be characterized by a supply curve, which is a price-volume pair and strictly upward slopping, and the optimal contracting strategy of the OEM can be characterized by a demand curve, which is strictly downward slopping. / Pang, Zhan. / "August 2007." / Adviser: Youyi Feng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: B, page: 1305. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

The ability to implement strategies successfully is important to any organisation. Despite the importance of the implementation process within strategic management, this is an area of study often overshadowed by a focus on the strategy formulation process. This thesis concentrates on the strategy implementation process, investigating barriers to strategy implementation. A research framework called the Organisational Minefield was developed to represent the importance of the implementation process to organisations. In contrary to most studies available in strategic management, this research included participants from all levels of the organisation.To identify barriers to strategy implementation, a case study of Air New Zealand was conducted. This involved focussed interviews with 28 participants from the Network and Revenue Management Department of Air New Zealand. Other sources of data such as research articles and secondary company data sources were also used. The findings revealed that: participants from different levels of the organisation have unique perceptions of the implementation process; implementation variables could become roadblocks that undermine the implementation process; these barriers can be overcome if managers are perceptive to the organisation's current situation; and the Organisational Minefield framework presented verified the significance of the role of barriers in the implementation process. The findings add two additional barriers to implementation, namely leadership and power. It was also discovered that the participants acknowledged that these two barriers will impede or enhance the success of Air New Zealand. This was backed by the level of commitment and loyalty shown by the participants, which brought Air New Zealand one step closer to unravelling the mysteries of the implementation process.

This thesis considers the problems associated with the Australian Public Sector moving sometimes erratically towards strategic public management following substantial and wide ranging reforms over the last 20 years. In particular, this study examines public organizational planning and evaluates the extent to which private sector planning philosophies and methodologies have already and could be applied more relevantly to the public sector. The major proposition is that commercial planning methods and techniques can be used selectively to enhance agency planning and management effectiveness and efficiency. A specific application at Centrelink is considered for public service providers delivering high quality government services as part of a purchaser/provider relationship. Strategic planning and management theory and models are reviewed and a progressivestages model is developed for the APS. A range of private sector planning techniques and tools is evaluated and brief but classified case studies on major APS organizations are also presented. The thesis concludes that a dynamics capabilities approach would enable public organizations to maximize strategic management and operational effectiveness.

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left">This study has evaluated the strategic planning and management of the University of Namibia. The crucial objective was to assess the strategic planning process of the University of Namibia to see if the strategic plans were properly developed and also determine how the Northern Campus feature in the overall strategic plan of the University of Namibia. The research has used the body of knowledge on strategic planning and management to investigate the problem. The secondary objective was to develop a theoretical understanding of strategic planning and management. The study will record and develop a case study on the strategic planning of the University of Namibia, and see how planning has been able to address the issue of development. On the basis of the findings, the research has suggested alternative guiding principles of the planning process. At conclusion the research has made numerous recommendations for the decision makers on how properly planning process can be followed.</p> </font></p>