In your previous assignments, you examined how today’s health care organizations prepare themselves for the present and the future through strategic management. Specifically, you analyzed how a health care organization’s external and internal environments affect its operations. You also performed a TOWS analysis to help a health care organization identify strategic objectives to drive and improve all aspects of the company.

QUESTION

In your previous assignments, you examined how today’s health care organizations prepare themselves for the present and the future through strategic management. Specifically, you analyzed how a health care organization’s external and internal environments affect its operations. You also performed a TOWS analysis to help a health care organization identify strategic objectives to drive and improve all aspects of the company.

The next step is to consider the directional pathways health care organizations take to achieve their strategic objectives. Creating a strategic vision for a health care organization involves developing or revising the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements. Here is a summary of these three directional strategies:

A mission statement captures the organization’s distinctive purpose or reason for being.
A vision statement creates a mental picture of what leaders want the organization to achieve when accomplishing its purpose or mission.
Value statements clarify how the organization will conduct its activities to achieve its mission and vision. They frequently reflect common morality and emphasize respect, integrity, trust, caring, and the pursuit of excellence.
In a first-in-class health care organization, these three directional strategies align with the company’s overarching goals. Once strategic leaders are confident the mission, vision, and values are well formulated, understood, and communicated, they then focus on the activities that will make the most progress toward accomplishing the organization’s mission and move it toward realizing its vision. These activities are called strategic goals.

This assignment provides an opportunity for you to create a directional strategies report. In this report, you will analyze the alignment of your health care organization’s current directional strategies (mission, vision, and value statements) with its strategic goals. You will make recommendations for improvement if you identify gaps between where your health care organization currently is and where it wants to go.

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria:

Competency 1: Analyze organizational structure, design, culture, and climate in relation to environmental forces.
Analyze the effectiveness of a health care organization’s directional strategies.
Identify gaps between effective directional strategies and an organization’s existing directional strategies.
Competency 3: Recommend an organizational structure and design to optimize a strategic plan.
Analyze the alignment between an organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals.
Propose changes to an organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between its organizational structure and its strategic goals.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for professionals in health care administration.
Write a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional directional strategies report that includes conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.
Follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references.
Scenario
Your boss is pleased with the thorough and impressive work you have done to date. However, she notes that the TOWS matrix findings do not align with the organization’s directional strategies. The organization’s structure needs to more closely align with its strategic goals, so that the organization can be more efficient, competitive, and profitable. She asks for your help once again.

Her next task for you is to examine the organization’s current mission, vision, and value statements and compare them to the TOWS matrix. She requests that you recommend revisions to the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements so that they more closely align with the organization’s strategic priorities.

Knowing your boss, you understand that she wants your directional strategies report to be insightful, substantive, and brief—all at the same time. You also know that your boss is a visual person. It will serve you well to include appropriate images and diagrams, such as your TOWS matrix, in your report to highlight key information.

Instructions
Write a directional strategies report that examines the alignment of a health care organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals.

Report Requirements
The requirements, outlined below, correspond to the grading criteria in the Directional Strategies Report Scoring Guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

Analyze the effectiveness of the organization’s directional strategies.
Use the Mission, Vision, and Values Analysis Questions document, linked in the resources, to determine how effectively the existing directional strategies currently fulfill the requirements of effective directional strategies.
Identify gaps between effective directional strategies and the organization’s existing directional strategies.
Analyze the alignment between the organization’s directional strategies and its strategic goals.
Examine the strategic fit.
How well does the directional strategy fit the environment?
How appropriate is the organization’s direction, given the environmental analysis you completed in Unit 3?
Which strategic goals make the most sense at this time? Growth? Maintaining the status quo? Or does contraction make the most sense right now?
Propose changes to the organization’s directional strategies that improve alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals.
Recommend changes you think the organization needs to make to establish a foundation necessary for the organization’s current structure and strategies.
Be sure to support your recommendations with references to current, scholarly, and authoritative sources.
Write a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional directional strategies report that includes conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.
Follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references.
Document Format and Length
Prepare your report using a familiar and appropriate document format used by health care organizations, such as business report or white paper.

Your report should be 4pages in length (double-spaced).

Supporting Evidence
Health care is an evidence-based field. Consequently, readers of your report will want to know the sources of your information, so be sure to include applicable, APA-formatted source citations and references.

ANSWER

Alignment of Directional Strategies with Strategic Goals in a Health Care Organization

Introduction

In today’s rapidly evolving health care landscape, organizations must strategically position themselves to meet present and future challenges. This necessitates a thorough examination of the alignment between a health care organization’s directional strategies (mission, vision, and values) and its strategic goals. This directional strategies report aims to analyze the effectiveness of the organization’s current directional strategies, identify gaps between effective strategies and the existing ones, assess the alignment between directional strategies and strategic goals, and propose changes to enhance alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic objectives.

Effectiveness of the Organization’s Directional Strategies

A comprehensive evaluation of the organization’s current directional strategies reveals certain areas where improvements can be made. While the mission statement effectively captures the organization’s distinctive purpose or reason for being, the vision statement falls short in creating a compelling mental picture of what the organization aspires to achieve. Additionally, the value statements lack clarity in guiding the organization’s activities and fail to emphasize crucial principles such as respect, integrity, trust, caring, and the pursuit of excellence.

Identifying Gaps between Effective and Existing Directional Strategies

An important discrepancy arises when comparing the findings of the TOWS matrix with the organization’s current directional strategies. The TOWS matrix highlights strategic priorities, including leveraging technology and developing strategic partnerships, which are not adequately reflected in the existing strategies. This misalignment impedes the organization’s ability to achieve efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability.

Alignment between Directional Strategies and Strategic Goals

Assessing the alignment between the organization’s directional strategies and strategic goals requires considering the strategic fit and the environmental analysis. The organization’s direction should align with the opportunities and challenges identified in the environmental analysis. Furthermore, the strategic goals should be tailored to the present context. In this scenario, a growth strategy may be appropriate if the organization aims to expand services and market share. However, maintaining the status quo or considering contraction might be more suitable if resource constraints or changing market dynamics are prevalent.

Proposed Changes to Improve Alignment

Based on the analysis, revisions to the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements are recommended to enhance alignment with strategic priorities. The mission statement should clearly articulate the organization’s distinctive purpose, while the vision statement should vividly depict the desired future state. The value statements should underscore principles such as innovation, collaboration, and patient-centeredness, which directly support the organization’s strategic goals.

Conclusion

Aligning directional strategies with strategic goals is of paramount importance for a health care organization’s success. By critically assessing existing strategies, identifying gaps, and proposing necessary changes, the organization can establish a robust foundation for achieving its strategic objectives. This directional strategies report offers valuable insights and recommendations for enhancing the alignment between the organization’s structure and its strategic goals, empowering the organization to navigate the dynamic health care landscape with clarity, purpose, and success.