Findings show that there is the most improvement in the area of internal communication of the strategy. Employees are the ones who execute the strategy and their understanding of the strategy's content is essential to successfully implement strategy.
Expected outcomes
The main idea behind the thesis is that companies whose employees know the strategy well are the most profitable. Employees are the ones executing the strategy, so getting them to understand the core of the strategy is crucial.
Research questions
Scope
Sales teams are the first point of contact with the customer, so knowing how well they know the strategy is essential. The survey was carried out in the summer of 2019 as there was a new strategy underway and the starting point was important to know so that it could be developed in the future and during the implementation of the new strategy.
Strategy
The fifth problem is that creating new business can be difficult for large and 'old' companies. But on the other hand, they may not have enough resources or knowledge to do it, so a person specialized in the change process has been appointed.
Strategy in practise
The realization of the strategy depends on the extent to which it is visible in the daily life of the organization. When a sense of urgency arises within the organization, not only in management but in every team thinks about the common goal.
Staff as a strategy executor
When planning the strategy's implementation, it is useful to think about how to get different parts of the organization to participate. In the organizations that the culture already supports, commitment to the strategy is usually also at a high level.
Strategy communication
The nature of communication is that it is present all the time in the organization and it cannot be separated. In addition to top management's important role as communicator, it is beneficial to recognize other key roles in the organization and give them a role as a change agent and use it as a communication channel.
Framework
Internal strategy communication is often thought of as an action that takes place at the end of the strategy change process. But when the staff is participating in the strategy process already in the early stage to create the strategy, the effective communication channel also works. Employees are more likely to commit to the strategy and have time to understand the message.
In the figure, various communication channels are gathered and participation is at the core of all of them. If there is a lack of formal information from top management, it easily leads to rumours, which can lead to speculation and stress. Even if the information to be given would not be finalized, it is better to communicate it than not.
Terms related to internal strategy communication are in focus and are repeated in this thesis. This chapter presents an overview of the research approach and data collection process.
Research strategy
Action research is not only investigating how things are at the moment, but especially how things should be (Ojasalo, Moilanen & Ritalahti). And this is exactly what this thesis aims at in committee organization. at this time?' As the research progressed, an additional research question emerged: 'How can the communication of the strategy be developed more effectively, so that the strategy becomes closer to everyday life?'.
Data collection
Survey is a planned poll and it is an efficient way to collect information when there are many respondents. The features of online surveys make it very efficient: no interviewers are needed and the answers can be received quickly. In the survey there is the possibility to ask delicate questions, but longer questionnaires eliminate answers.
During the summer of 2020, due to the economic crisis, there were redundancies in the study organization that affect the response rate and the current holiday season. At that time, research was still done because the new strategy process was already underway and wanted to examine the current situation before the implementation of the new strategy began. There are respondents from every level of the organization, sales leaders, team leaders and employees and every answer is the same.
Knowledge of strategy’s content
The third statement is "I am impressed with the strategy" and 29.6 percent answered "can't say" and 7.5 percent strongly disagreed or disagreed. Regarding the statement 'Our strategy guides my daily work', more than half of the respondents either 'can't say' or disagree, believing that it is not necessarily clear what activities are in line with the strategy or that the daily work consists of things, which are not experienced according to the strategy. There were several answers that the strategy is not visible in the daily work or that it is visible everywhere all the time simply because the strategy is so broad and does not narrow down the activities.
According to these results, it seems that the work itself is perceived as meaningful, but it is not necessarily clear whether the tasks are in line with the strategy or not. The final statement on the strategy part is 'I know what kind of actions I need to take to execute the strategy', which 59.2 percent strongly agree or agree with, but on the other hand, 29.6 percent can do not say and rest 11.2 percent disagree . There are many "Can't say" answers that prompt a question when the respondents really don't know what actions they should take according to the strategy or they didn't fully understand the question.
If my entire day isn't filled with various problem-solving tasks, I try to bring strategy to client discussions. Both are good goals, but it is not clear whether the strategy is driving these actions or even whether the strategy is clear to the respondents.
Communication
The next statement is 'I miss more discussion and information about our strategy', the result being clear as 70 percent strongly agree or agree. Respondents also agree with the final claim, “I need more information about our strategy to implement it in my job,” with 74 percent strongly agreeing and agreeing. The last open question 'Where do you get information about our strategy?' also continues the same results.
In other words: there are information and discussion partners, but too little discussion and information. When there are several places and situations where strategy reoccurs, it clearly increases touchpoints and.
Key points
Validity and reliability
As the research, I consider this research to be valid as the study provides answers to the questions that were asked and questions have been understood as they have been intended. It leaves some questions open: the respondent does not want to answer the questions, or the respondent does not know what the question means. Also in the qualitative part, there are some questions that have answers that are quite parallel.
There should have been more and more specific questions about internal communication of the strategy. In addition to the question 'Where do you get information about strategy?', it would have been informative to ask 'Where would you like to get information about the strategy' and. In which ways would you like to learn about strategy so that you can implement it in your work?' These questions would have been interesting to have answers with in mind research question 2: How to develop communication of the strategy more effectively.
In this chapter I will discuss about the development ideas to the main issue that emerged in the survey. I divided the development ideas into two areas: the development of communication from top management and the development of communication at management level.
Developing ideas for top management
But with digital communications, top management can communicate equally and simultaneously with everyone in the organization. Even though the message seems clear to top management, it doesn't mean everyone knows or remembers it. In the survey, several answers were that respondents did not talk about strategy and missed more discussion about strategy.
Top management is essential to create opportunities to listen and ask questions of staff. In addition to a simple sentence, it is crucial to have visual images to reinforce the message. Again, there is the opportunity to iterate the strategy in different ways so that it resonates with as many employees as possible (Keller & Schaninger 2020). Even though the message should be simple, the meaning should not be simple.
One thing that came up in the survey was that the respondents didn't know where to find it. It is essential for everyone in the organization to know where to find information and strategy should be available to everyone.
Developing ideas for managerial level
Balanced scorecard as strategy communication tool
Starting implementing development ideas
The starting point was to examine the current situation how well strategy guides work in sales organization in the commission company. There was a new strategy process starting in the company and this kind of information was essential to have for the execution phase. First research question was 'How do strategy guides work in the sales organization at the moment?' I sought an answer to that question from the survey.
The survey's results showed that there was the most to develop in the knowledge of the strategy's content and there was a great need for more efficient internal communication of the strategy. The results reiterate the need for more discussion about the strategy as well as awareness of where to find information about the strategy. Based on the challenges that arose in the survey, an additional research question was created: How to develop communication of the strategy more effectively.
Organizational changes had been made in the company, which led to a lack of resources to guide my thesis. If it had been possible, I would have implemented some of the development ideas into actions in the company.
Survey ‘How strategy guides work in sales organization?’
