EFFECTS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING ON ORGANIZATIONAL GOAL ATTAINMENT (A STUDY OF ZENITH BANK PLC)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0      BACKGROUND OF
THE STUDY

Companies now operate invastly competitive and non linear environment, the value of business lies increasingly in its ability to capture information and generate new idea.
According to (Kotler 2009), “an idea that is no dangerous is hardly worth
calling an idea”. The same can be said of strategic plan. A great plan
provokes. It takes chances. This eventually attracts customers and the market
to ones brand. Therefore there is a need for effective strategy planning in an
organization. In today’s competitive environment, every company has a plan, but
firstly, we need to understand the concept of strategic planning.

Strategy is an overall
approach and plan so strategy planning is an overall planning that facilitates
the good management of a process. Strategy planning takes you outsides the
day-to-day activities of your organization or project. It provides you with the
big picture of what you are doing and where you are going.

Strategy gives you clarity
about what you actually want to achieve and how to go achieving it, rather than
a plan of action for day-to day operations. 

Strategic planning consists
of a set of underlying processes that are intended to create or manipulate a
situation to create a more favorable outcome for a company. In business,
strategic planning provides overall direction for specific unit such as
financial focuses, projects, human resources and marketing.

Strategic planning can be
defined as a broad managerial process of developing a vision, mission
statement, goals and objectives with which to serve an influential guide to
employees using the top bottom management approach (Warmer 2000).

Berry (2001) strategic
planning is a tool for finding the best future for your organization and the
best path to reach that destination.

Strategic planning can be
defined as a process of using systematic criteria and rigorous investigation to
formulate, implement and control strategy and formally document organizational
expectations.

Strategic planning is an
off-short of strategic management and is nowadays referred to as corporate
planning.

Strategy management
refers to the formulation and implementation of plans and the carrying out of
activities. In short, it implies a set of activities relation to the
formulation and implementation of strategies to achieve organizational
objective.

According to Owolabi
(2001), “Strategic management is the management process by which policies are
formulated and strategies are selected to achieve the goals and objective of an
organization”.

Strategy management is a
disciplined approach utilizing the principal and process of management to
identify the objective or mission of any business.

Strategic management
process as the way in which strategists determine objective and make strategic
decision. Strategic management’s main focus is the achievement of
organizational goals taking into consideration the internal and external
environment factors.

Planning is the process
of establishing goals and objective and courses of action to attain them. Thy
effective successful strategy is departed in structure, thus to effective
economic performance the organization needs to alter it structure.

1.1      STATEMENT OF
PROBLEM

Many organizations spend
many of their time realizing and reacting to unexpected changes and problem
instead of anticipating and preparing for them.

Research have made it
clear that there is an increased internal and external uncertainty due to
emerging opportunities and threats, lack of awareness of needs and of it
facilities related issues and environment and lack of direction. This research
study is to assess the effect of strategic planning or organizational
performance, which at long run enhances organizational goal attainment.

Strategic planning is not
only to bank but all other organizations for performance and goal from this
scenario several issues rises in respect of strategic planning among which are
stated below:

How do we identify
factors which are core guide to strategic planning?

What is the effect of
strategic planning in achieving organization goal?

What are the factors that
led to insufficient attention given to strategic planning in an organization?

1.2      OBJECTIVE OF
THE STUDY

The objective of the
study is to examine the effect of strategic planning in achieving organization
goal attainment.

The objective is as
follow:

1.    
To
examine the effect of strategic planning in achieving organizational goals.

2.    
To
examine the relationship between organization performance and goals.

3.    
To
see how strategic planning influence performance of the business organization.

4.    
To
examine the potency of strategic planning in the achievement corporate goals
and objective.

1.3      SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE STUDY

The importance of
strategic planning towards achieving organization goal cannot be over
emphasized and it reflects the justification of this study.

The finding and
conclusion of the research will serve as basis for organization decision on
strategic planning. This may also be significant for further research work in
strategic planning in achieving organization goals.

1.4.     RESEARCH
QUESTIONS

1.        Does strategic planning enhanced the
organization performance?

2.        Are the management or workers ready to achieve the
organization goal?

3.        Is strategic planning a tool for organization efficiency and
effectiveness?

1.5      RESEARCH
HYPOTHESES

Ho:     Strategic planning does not enhance
better organizational performance and goal.

H1:      Strategic
planning enhances better organizational performance and goal.

Ho:     Strategic planning is not a tool that
enhance efficiency and effectiveness in an organization

H1:      Strategic
planning is a tool that enhance efficiency and effectiveness in an organization

1.6      SCOPE OF THE
STUDY

The scope of the study is to fill the gap by developing and
demonstrating the use of an evaluation instrument measuring the effect of
strategic planning on organizational effectiveness and culture.

1.7      DEFINITIONS OF
TERMS

Management: Management in all business and human organization activity
is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and
objectives. Management comprises of planning, staffing, leading or directing
and controlling an organization for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.

Organization: An organization is a social arrangement which pursues
collective goals, controls its own performance. Organization is understood as
planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings to construct or
compile tangible or intangible product.

Planning: Planning in organization and public policy is both organization process
of creating and maintaining a plan and the psychological process of thinking
about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. It
combines forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how
to react to them. 

Performance: Performance management includes activities to ensure that
goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner.
Performance management can focus on performance of organization, a department
process to build a product or service, employees etc.

Strategy: Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular
goal. The word ‘Strategy’ has military connotation because it derive from the
Greek word for general. Strategy is district from tactics. In military terms,
tactics is concerned with the conduct of an engagement are linked.