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.

Thesis(MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

Over half of the respondents indicated that they had benefited from the introduction of strategic management at Saybrook. The benefits of strategic management at Saybrook were mainly increased sales and the saving of Saybrook from liquidation. According to the respondents the objectives of changing the way a company is run should be mainly to promote profitability and viability in the business, to improve quality, initiate growth for machines and human resources, the creation of value for stakeholders and improvement of processes. There was positive overall impact on relations between Saybrook and stakeholders as a result of the adoption and implementation of strategic management with the main areas of gain being increased profitability and better quality products. In nutshell the benefits that accrued to Saybrook due to the introduction of strategic management were increased profit, increased efficiency, better customer focus and higher quality products. Saybrook is better performer now than before the introduction of strategic management, increasing productivity and creating a conducive environment for the development of solutions to business problems were also cited as main strength of strategic management. Respondents were of the opinion that strategic management should focus on both management should focus on both management and employees since success of technique depend on teamwork. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The word 'strategy' is still very critical and central in running the affairs of any business and organization. Strategy is highly rated and often seen as the bedrock for any success of an organization and business venture. Since its years of evolution, it has been dominated primarily by rational and analytical approaches up until the resurgence of an emergent approach as a new perspective in strategy enactment processes. Ever since then the discourse of strategic management processes has been predominantly underpinned by these two approaches. As a case study, four organizations that represent a wide spectrum in terms of type and therefore assumed to provide scope for discovering variations with regard to strategy processes were selected. These four organizations were selected to examine the approach/es used in strategic enactment and to evaluate the relationship between organizational success and its strategy enactment process. The focus in this study is biased to what strategy is perceived to be at organizational level and whether individuals within these organizations do subscribe to the same perception or on their own. Secondly, as strategy is perceived as the bedrock for an organization success, the study has attempted to look at possible links or relationships between the two - success and strategy. This has been done by looking at the alignment between organizational operations and the strategy. The results of the study show that: • The four organizations use the rational analytical approach to strategy enactment. • Individuals within these organizations subscribe to the holistic perspective of strategy enactment which integrates strategy formulation and strategy implementation dichotomy into a single gestalt of formulation-implementation at all levels of the organizations. • The success of the organization cannot only be attributed to strategic enactment and its application alone. Other factors as well act as enablers and / or provide opportunities for organizational success. • The approach used to design and implement strategy has a direct relationship with how the designers and implementers of strategy define and understand an organization to be. For instance the study shows that strategists who define and understand organizational strategy as an entity devoid of its social and cultural construct tend to use the rational and analytical approaches. However, those who see it as an entity that is shaped and influenced by socio-cultural factors are prone to the emergent approach. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2007.

The dissertation explores strategic planning in thirteen public entities, based in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The study attempts to review the challenges experienced by the entities when undergoing strategic planning, and the techniques applied to overcome these challenges. The results present the extent to which the challenges and techniques as reported by the participants are found in the literature. The findings also present correlations between the extent to which a public entity is funded by government, and the extent to which it experiences strategic planning challenges. In addition, the findings include the negative correlation between the extent of the strategic planning challenges experienced, and the extent of an entity’s reliance on techniques to overcome the challenges. The study concludes by highlighting areas that need further research. The dissertation is important as it adds to the general body of knowledge, and contributes to the studies on strategic planning of public entities in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

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.

The aim of this study is to review the literature on the intangible resources as sources of sustainable competitive advantage in Malaysian private colleges/institutions From it forms the objective to measure the possession of sources of sustainable competitive advantage and its sustainability. This paper explores the theories of sustainable competitive advantage, resource-based view, strategic assets as well as reviewing the concept of capabilities differentials as intangible resources. Hall's (1993) four dimensions of capabilities differentials are selected as a conceptual model for identifying the strategic assets of a firm. The four dimensions are functional capabilities differentials, positional capabilities differential, cultural capabilities differentials and regulatory capabilities differentials. The attributes for each dimension are identified based on the education industry perspective. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.

This research paper serves to review the literature on strategic management with a specific emphasis on its effectiveness in achieving desired organisational performance. / Forty years after the terminology “business strategy” became commonly used many issues continue to plaque both practitioners and academicians. Even the definition of the word “strategy” is still debated. / The Rational Approach continues to dominate the world of strategy development. However, there is growing dissatisfaction with strategic planning. Many criticisms have been against this approach, in favour of a more intuitive and possibly more realistic strategy development process. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005

This paper reviews the published literature on the role of pharmacoeconomics for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacoeconomics is analysed as a part of decision processes at several stages of drug development and drug marketing. The review is focused on the practices of the application of pharmacoeconomics in various countries in Europe. In particular, the drivers for the development of pharmacoeconomics within the pharmaceutical companies are described. Investments made by companies with respect to the pharmacoeconomic function in terms of personnel and budgets are derived. / Results of literature analysis show, that much is published about the rationale for pharmacoeconomics, and the strength and weakness of different methods used. However there is limited published about the strategic component of pharmacoeconomics from the view of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe and the conclusions drawn from the external influence on pricing and reimbursement on investment and resource allocation into the pharmacoeconomic function. In spite of these restrictions it can be concluded, that the published data show an increasing importance of the pharmacoeconomic function in the pharmaceutical companies in Europe. / Faced with the enormous increase of publications of pharmacoeconomic studies in the last years there is little doubt, that these evaluations are mainly sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry although exact figures are not available. Around 19% of the companies outsourced at least 75% of their budget for pharmacoeconomic evaluations. The pharmacoeconomic staff level tended to increase substantially with company size although the amount of budget is still quite small. About 1% of pharmaceutical research and development was spent for the pharmacoeconomic function. It can be expected that within Europe the pharmacoeconomic function will continue to grow importance in the pharmaceutical industry in the next years. / Thesis (PhDBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2003.