Strategic Management Health Care First student: The text notes that there are several elements to action plans. First, the management needs to set objectives for action plans, the resources required to make the plans work, a plan for measuring results, what actions are going to be taken (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter, 2008).

Right now, Steve Morgan needs to set some objectives. That is the most important thing. He has an idea about some of the problems that his organization faces but at this point the critical factor is going to be to determine what needs to be done to solve the many problems that the company faces, to find a way to prioritize everything. So setting the objectives is probably the most important right now. Objectives are the starting point, and everything flows from there. Morgan therefore needs to diagnose what is wrong, and then operationalize that as part of the action plan. Only once the objectives are known can Morgan start with identifying the tasks that will be used, and determining the resources that will need to be used as well (MindTools, 2014).

The resources aspect is actually I would say the least important. The reason for this is that resource constraints are actually some of the problem. But when you are trying to build your business, and improve your profitability, you figure out first what needs to be done, then you worry about the details of how it will be done later. Morgan can always adjust the action plan to reflect any resource constraints that might exist. If we think about the human resource issue specifically, if it requires a little bit more money or personnel to have the new physicians to increase capacity, that is well worth it. So the action plan has to start with the objectives, and those should be aligned with other elements of strategy, and resources is probably less important for Steve...

You always have to start with the objectives, and the resources are more a constraint and you figure out those details later, but you start with that overall vision that drives the strategy for the entire process. This is true no matter what about the company, and is based on sound strategic management principles. It is also worth noting that in this case, the output measures are mostly known. For example, Morgan knows that the organization needs more physicians, and he knows that he wants profits to grow at the same rate as the revenues. So the measures are defining the problem and will also inform the performance targets, since to know you have a problem implies that you have an idea about what a good outcome looks like.
Second student: Chapter 10 of the textbook is where you go to learn about action plans. In this chapter, it is stated that action plans consist of objectives, actions, resources and measures. This is so that the problem can first be understood, then some ideas about how to solve the problem are generated, and resources deployed, and lastly that the organization will evaluate the action plan on the basis of its results. It is also true that any good action plan will have a strong communications plan.

I feel that in this case the communications part is the most important. The organization is going through a period of change, and one of the factors that will dictate whether or not a change activity is successful is communication. Whatever plan you come up with, management guys like Steve Morgan need to be able to communication that plan effectively, to get buy-in, achieve motivation and generally to information everybody within the organization how will need to implement this plan as to what it is,…