Human factors impeding strategy

In the current global economy successful implementation of a formulatedstrategy is essential to gain competitive advantage. Success in business ismanifested more in the ability to implement ideas and strategies rapidly andeffectively than in planning itself. Previous studies have identified that for allthe energy and resources invested in the pursuit of the perfect strategy, littleeffort is directed towards implementation. As a result most strategies stumblein the implementation phase, regardless of merit. Due to the importance ofeffective strategy implementation, this research attempted to identify thehuman impediments to strategy implementation. It was proposed thatidentification of the inhibitors would result in proactive management of thesehuman factors and ultimately result in the successful implementation of aformulated strategy. This research reports a case study which focuses on aprivate hospital group: Life Healthcare.The first objective of this research was to identify the human impediments tosuccessful strategy implementation in Life Healthcare by using the Delphitechnique. The second objective was to compare the findings of this researchwith previously conducted research. The third objective was to rank theimpediments identified in the study, in order of importance.Data was gathered from the management in two rounds of the study. The firstround entailed the use of a single open-ended questionnaire. The feedbackfrom round 1 was used to construct a structured questionnaire, which wasLikert based. This structured questionnaire was utilized in the second round ofthe study.Six notional categories of impeding factors were identified; strategy-,management-, employee, implementation models, approach and strategiccontrol-, organisational- and knowledge and information sharing factors. Theresearch findings confirmed the existence of the aforementioned impedimentfactors in Life Healthcare, as well as supported the notional categoriesidentified in the literature.- ii -These findings were interpreted and discussed in the context of existingliterature and a number of implications have been drawn. Employee factors,management factors, strategy factors and knowledge and information sharingfactors were emphasized throughout the analysis of the findings. Conclusionsand recommendations were drawn for Life Healthcare in light of these results.