RESEARCH PROPOSAL

IMPACT OF STRATEGIC PLANNING ON INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

Submitted By Irfanullah Khan Fahimullah Jan Bangash M. Ali Farooqui Ali Raza MBA-V (D) Submitted to Ms. Sarwat Bilal

BAHRIA UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD April 25th, 2011.

Contents

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................ 1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM ..................................................................................................... 3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................... 3 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 3 RESEARCH DESIGN/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................. 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 7 EXPECTED OUTCOME OF THE RESEARCH: ....................................................................... 7 TIMELINESS ............................................................................................................................ 8 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 10

INTRODUCTION
In the perfect world, every Individual should complete his next years plan before the start of every New Year, and must

communicate it to his organization. But the reality is, that most of the employees dont have a plan. Large number of those who say that they do have a plan, in reality they only have goals or objectives with no clear plan as to how they will attain their goals.

Why

is

planning

so

important

and

why

it

should

be

done

considering a firms strategy? Businesses today take place in a global marketplace. Everything is changing at a unique pace. By the rapid growth of technology and the internet, time and

distance continue to become less and less relevant.

Strategic planning was once done by the biggest companies, the market leaders, and those who lead change, but it is now a need to survive in a global marketplace. Strategic planning provides a company its purpose and direction. It is necessary that

everyone in an organization must know what they sell or do, who are the firms target customers and how the firm competes, and with whom. Without strategic planning, businesses are always

reacting to the pressure of the day. ( John E. Lawlor, 2005)

Individual

performance

means

how

well

an

individual

in

an

organization performs compared to the tasks that assigned to him. It can also be defined as the quantitative and qualitative output by an employee. It is necessary for an organization to carry out individual performance planning because; (a) they need 1|Page

to get things done, in order to drive the business forward; (b) the more people understand what is expected of them at work, the more engaged and productive they are.

This study is focused on the telecom sector of Pakistan. To be more specific, this research will be conducted has on Pakistan 30000

Telecommunication employees. The

Company impact of

limited

which

almost on

strategic

planning

individual

performance will be studied on PTCL as it is the largest telecom organization in Pakistan.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

At one time, organizations and employees relationship was very specific another as the employees for in the the past were in at considered just of

contribution and

organization Conversely by the

production present, of

commodities/goods relation has

services. broadened

this

been

use

performance

management. Now we not only look into how we plan our strategies but also how that planning affects the individual performance of the employees. Now, as the performance management systems are in place, there is greater focus on aligning organizational goals with individual goals. lead Ultimately, to the effective individual of

performance

will

effective

accomplishment

organizational goals and the fulfillment of strategic plans of the firm.

The impact of Strategic planning on individual performance has not been measured by many researchers. Only a small number of researchers have studied the impact. Especially in Pakistani

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context this study will set the foundation for researchers all over Pakistan.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Most of the firms efforts are directed towards increasing the individual performance because individuals are basic unit of a firm. Improving their performance, in turn, improves the

performance of the respective departments and ultimately that of the firm as a whole. Individual performance derives its

importance from the fact that human capital is considered to be a firms most important asset. One aspect that can ensure an improvement in individual performance is strategic planning.

This study tries to address the following key statement; Formal strategic management leads to a high level of individual performance.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The research objectives are as follows;

Explore the relationship between the strategic management process, and individual performance.

How the formal strategic planning process gives a sense of direction to the individual employee.

How

the

formal

strategic

planning

process

helps

in

the

alignment of an individuals goals and objectives to the strategic goals of the firm.

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In Pakistan very few companies indulge in the process of formal strategic management and then the alignment of their resources including the HR efforts to the accomplishment of the strategic goals.

LITERATURE REVIEW
(Robert M. Bushman et al., 1996) Robert and colleagues have studied the role of individual performance evaluation in terms of executives and CEOs annual compensation system. Regardless of the financial instruments for measuring individual

performance one should also include prudence and prejudice, as well as other objective criteria. On the bases of agency theory it has been concluded that the more the growth

opportunities(relative to assets in place, product life cycle) the more the individual performance. This article gives a point that career growth chances and time horizon gives an increase to individual performance evaluation.

Change is the only constant thing in this world and same is the case with the strategic planning. According to Wilsons Study, the survey conducted involving 50 corporations and industries about their changing practices occurred over past 6-7 years. Most changes involved shifting of planning responsibility from staff to line managers, decentralization to business unit on the other side with same corporate and autonomy and have the changing more

environment.

Scenarios

procedures

become

diversified, involving of more techniques and sensitivity toward the objective as well as the approach. The main point that his study shows is that, with the passage of time the culture has 4|Page

increase its impact in the organization and has become a part in strategy execution and and thus the norms, values the and beliefs,

motivation

individual

behavior

are

significant

determinant of the corporate performance.(Wilson, Ian, 1994)

Long

span

of

time

has but

been still

spent they

by are

American getting

companies

on

strategic

planning

competitively

weaker. But the point that Roberts study shows is that it is not because of the wrong ideology of strategic planning neither the performance of the managers as there is a lot of experience and expertise behind it. The main point is that how manager advances toward the work of planning because new era has new industrial competitions and new demands for strategic planning. (Hayes, R.H., 1985)

Individual level of analysis in organizational behavior has been studied by Teresa Marchant. Elements of motivation and ability are linked by individual is level of analysis, to by which the

individual

performance

determined,

the

performance

managements HR practices and reward and recognition systems. Since new practices are best implemented with due attention to the relevant change for issues, change Teresas research that are describes involved. the In

considerations

management

keeping with the principles of Strategic HRM, the new strategies for improving individual performance are aligned to the

organizations strategic objectives. The two main points that should lead to individual performance improvement are focusing on training which will improve the ability of an individual and emphasizing on developing intrinsic motivation. (Teresa

Marchant, 1999)

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(Rodrigo Copony Valadares, 2006) His study concerns with the individual performance questionnaires performance management that had in the organization With the in help among terms of of the

system. been

distributed

different

employees of different organizations, it has been concluded that the commitment of employees towards work and organization varies accordingly to the performance management system (benefits and return). Theses involve career development and power of

autonomy. The main goal is to achieve the workers commitment towards the organization which would result high individual

performance.

RESEARCH AUDIENCE
As this study will be conducted on Pakistan Telecommunication Company limited (PTCL), it makes PTCL the primary audience,

because the findings of our study will help PTCL to deal with the flaws in their strategic planning, and its alignment with the individual performance.

Those researchers who are studying or have already studied the connection between Strategic planning and individual performance are considered as the secondary audience. They can use the

findings of this research either to strengthen their statements or to carry out new studies.

RESEARCH DESIGN/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

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The framework is based upon the goal setting theory proposed by (Locke & Latham, 2002) for both strategic planning and

individual performance.

The independent variable is strategic planning here with three dimensions. The dependent variable is individual performance

with three dimensions.

Strategic Planning
Organizing resources to plan Collecting contextual information Creating a culture of cooperation

Individual Performance
Has an Impact on
Sense of Identity Desire to learn

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The method of study includes the methods for carrying out the research. We will begin by analyzing different types of data and categorize it accordingly; identify methods of collecting data; tools to be used for the research and set an appropriate scale for analysis. We have decided to consider quantitative data for the research and we will be emphasizing our study on the basis of both

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primary and secondary data. Out of the many methods to collect data, the primary data will be collected through questionnaires administered directly to the respondents and the secondary data would come from various research papers on the topic in question as it perfectly fits-in to our studys requirements. The tools used for the research methodology include

questionnaires. Our questions will mostly be using the 5 level likert scale starting from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. Using the likert scales will allow us to asses and control all possible gray areas while obtaining appropriate information from respondents. The sample being chosen to conduct the research study includes 50-60 employees from various public and private sector

organizations. (Better mention the no. of firms being surveyed or any particular sector)

EXPECTED OUTCOME OF THE RESEARCH:

We expect that the findings of this study would re-emphasize the importance of a formal strategic management process in firms. This research study would be an addition to the existing body of knowledge on this particular topic with the shared goal of

increasing the use of formal strategic management process by firms so as to increase the individual performance. Finally as a result of the strategic management efforts, we expect a

considerable increase in the individual performance.

TIMELINESS

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This Research Project is expected to be completed by the end of spring semester 2011.

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REFERENCES
y Hayes, R.H. (1985). Strategic planning - forward in reverse. Harvard Business Review; Volume: 63:6. John E. Lawlor (2005). The Importance of Strategic Planning. Practical decisions. Retrieved from: http://www.practicaldecisions.com/strategic-planning.pdf. Rodrigo Copony Valadares. (2006). The Influence Of Performance Management System Into Individual Commitment In The Organization. Maxwell ,Brazil. Robert M. Bushman, Raffi J. Indjejikian and Abbie Smith. (1996). CEO compensation: The role of individual performance evaluation. Journal of Accounting and Economics Volume 21, Issue 2, April 1996, Pages 161-193. Teresa Marchant. (1999). Strategies for improving individual performance and job satisfaction at Meadowvale health. Journal of Management Practice, 2(3), 63-70. Wilson, Ian. (1994). Strategic Planning Isnt Dead - It Changed. Long Range Planning, 27 (4).

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