Strategy implementation

 

Strategy implementation

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Executive summary
Strategy implementation depends on organizational design and structure, personnel, culture and control system. If the strategy is not compatible with all these aspects, the strategy will not be accomplished. This report discusses the manner in which Southwest Airlines (SWA) Company develops and utilizes organizational structures, human resource, culture and control system to achieve its goals and objectives. The company follows a culture of strategies to achieve better performance and benefit from the competitive advantage in the market. 
	











	Thesis statement and introduction	
Strategy implementation is a crucial feature that ensures the accomplishment of strategic goals and objectives in an organization. 
Implementation uses different elements to ensure performance. These elements are; the organization structure, people, control system and culture present in an organization. Strategy is never full until an organization commits it to its activities. Putting the strategy into action through implementation is essential in order to affect organizational activities.  The paper looks at how compatible SWA organization design is to its strategies.  SWA invests on innovation and creativity to improve its effectiveness (Harrison, 2010). The design of the organizational structure, employees, culture and the control system enables the company to hold a competitive position in the industry. This report shows about SWA key structures and their ability to implement the organization’s strategies.
Southwest airline’s organizational design
SWA has a functional organization structure with the top levels of management making the company’s decision. Complete control of the organization is under the upper hand o the management. A functional structure ensures stability and efficiency of such a large and complex organization by ensuring all employees use a similar process (Hitt, 2007). SWA takes advantage of economies of large scale by using this type of organization structure. Organizational structure assigns duties and roles to employees and stipulates their correlation so as to ensure efficiency, quality and satisfaction of customers. These are the pillars for competitive advantage. SWA has three layers of management; the professional core, contractual fringe and a flexible labor force. It has mostly flat organizational level with minimal levels of hierarchy that keeps decision making to a handful of people. As a result, employees get decentralized to most responsibilities. 
Key strategic control systems
Organizational control systems are essential in strategy implementation. A control system equips managers with motivational incentives for efficient employees’ delivery. It also assists managers to get feedback on employees and organizational structure (Luca, 2006). There are three organizational systems, which assist in controlling strategy implementation. These are;
Accounting and budgeting system
Accounting and budgeting system are crucial for implementation of a company’s strategy. The system should provide easily accessible data needed for strategy implementation failure to which it jeopardizes full implementation of a company’s strategy. SWA Company has flexible budgeting and accounting system that simplifies decision making that guarantees effective implementation of the set goals and strategies.
Information systems
The information technology (IT) system is significant in strategy implementation. IT keeps records of all transactions that include sales information between manufacturers and retailers. It also reorganizes logistics and distribution. SWA has a strong IT foundation that supports the company’s key processes. It aims at establishing an IT system that change but not reform the whole system that will take ages to adopt. It is based on emails covering all communication between employees in the company. The company tries to keep their IT infrastructure as efficient as possible. The strategy of using their own website for online reservation has placed the company at a highly competitive level. The IT system simplifies by just a number of clicks, the process of early booking, checking and replacement of seats as well as other complex functions. SWA uses technology as a tool for making the business agile and competitive in the airline industry. 
Reward system
Rewards define the path that an organization will take to ensure implementation of objectives. SWA has managed to accomplish this by offering their employees with career development programs as well as other attractive packages like employee rewards. Such rewards include secondary employment benefits, profit sharing, free airline tickets, insurance and employee of the month selection. SWA reward system measures the attainment and achievement of goals and achievements. The wellbeing of SWA employees is taken proper car