Continuation of Project 2: Situation Audit

Step 7: Analyze Critical Resources

Now that you’ve examined your organization’s big picture—MVGOs, size, and structure—you’re going to analyze the critical resources of your organization for inclusion in your report.

Critical Resources

As you analyze your organization’s critical resources, follow the guidelines below:

• Consider whether your organization has the critical resources needed to accomplish its MVGOs, whether these are being used effectively, and whether they are being leveraged for competitive advantage.
• Read about resource-based theory and resource dependency theory to learn more about how and why certain resources may serve as a source of strength for an organization.
• Consider whether your organization has valuable, rare, inimitable, and nonsubstitutable (VRIN) resources (characteristics of resources) that it can use toward a competitive advantage, and whether these are sufficient given the market or markets in which your organization is operating.

Types of Critical Resources

Briefly explain the relevance of resource-based theory and resource dependency theory to an organization’s critical resources; then analyze and discuss two or three highlights that pertain to your organization’s human, financial, technological, and physical resources. Integrate, as appropriate, the VRIN characteristics (valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable) in your discussion of the four critical resources listed below. Each critical resource should be discussed separately.

• human resources
• financial resources
• technology resources
• (physical resources)

When Step 7 is complete, prepare your findings for inclusion in the final report. Then proceed to Step 8.

Project 2: Situation Audit
Step 8: Examine Leadership, Governance, and Management

Now it’s time to shift your focus to the organization’s leadership. Management styles, leadership styles, and governance structures can have an immense impact on the daily experience of employees at all levels. Leadership can also positively or negatively affect the execution of all the elements you’ve studied thus far: strategy, resource allocation, competitive advantage, etc.

Read the resources below and prepare a summary and analysis of how each principle applies to your organization. (If you believe one of these topics is not relevant for your organization, you may be able to skip it. Before making this decision, consult with your professor):

• management and leadership styles and effectiveness
• management control systems
• organizational leadership
• governance

When you have completed Steps 7 and 8, follow the instructions in Step 12 to submit them for feedback in the Assignments folder. Then proceed to Step 9, where you will review the elements of a SWOT analysis.

Project 2: Situation Audit
Step 9: Evaluate Strengths and Weaknesses

An analysis evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, known as a SWOT analysis, is an important task when analyzing an organization’s situation, especially when the information is intended for use in strategy development and related decision making.

For the purposes of this report, however, your interest is in internal organizational factors, and you will therefore focus on strengths and weaknesses.

Review the elements of a SWOT analysis, concentrating on the S and W portions.

Then use the results of your analyses in Steps 2 through 8 to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organization.

When Step 9 is complete, prepare your findings for inclusion in your final report. Then proceed to Step 10.

Project 2: Situation Audit

Step 10: Explore Capacity for Learning and Change

The last step before working on all your conclusions and recommendations for this report is to examine your organization’s capacity to learn and change. Learning organizations are organizations that systematically measure their performance against sound criteria and metrics and then take concrete actions to change and make improvements.

However, organizations—and people—vary considerably in their ability to decide upon, implement, and manage change. Therefore, managing change is extremely important and often goes hand-in-hand with the desire to improve organizational performance.

Think about your organization’s attempts to improve its performance in key areas. If the organization has tried to make changes in key areas, were the attempts a success or a failure? Explain the reasons you associate with the organization’s success in making changes or the organization’s failure to succeed. (If you cannot identify any attempts by your organization to make changes, think of a key area in your organization that could be improved and briefly explain the reasons you think your organization would succeed or fail if an attempt to make changes in that area was launched.)

For further guidance, read these resources on organizational change and learning organizations.

When Step 10 is complete, prepare your findings for inclusion in your final report. Then proceed to Step 11.

Project 2: Situation Audit
Step 11: Form Conclusions and Recommendations

It’s time to wrap everything up. You will now finalize your situation audit report by making recommendations based on the conclusions and research that you’ve done.

In priority order, with one (1) being the highest rank, list and explain, in no more than a few sentences for each conclusion, your report’s 3 to 5 most important conclusions. Follow each conclusion with a specific recommendation that is expressed in no more than a few sentences.

Once discussed with senior management, these recommendations and conclusions may form the basis of future strategic plans and objectives for your organization.

When you have finished this step, continue to Step 12 to submit your final situation audit report.

Project 2: Situation Audit
Step 12: Submit Your Work

Make a note of the recommended delivery dates in the table below and submit your situation audit report in the dropbox at the bottom of this page.

The final deliverable should include the work from all steps above and should reflect the feedback you’ve received from your instructor on the interim deliverables that you’ve submitted.

Step #	Submission week	Deliverable	File-naming protocol
Step 3	Week 2	Organizational overview/Fact sheet Mission, vision, values, and goals	lastname_firstname_organizational_overview_factsheet.docx lastname_firstname_mission.docx
Step 6	Week 3	Organizational strategy and analysis	lastname_firstname_org_strategy_and_analysis.docx
Step 8	Week 4	Critical resources Leadership, governance, management	lastname_firstname_crit_resources.docx lastname_firstname_leadership_ governance_mangt_.docx
Step 12	Week 5	Final situation audit report	lastname_firstname_audit_ final_report.docx

When you submit your project, your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below. You can use the list below to self-check your work before submission.

• 1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
• 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
• 6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.
• 6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.
• 8.1: Evaluate major business/organizational systems and processes and make recommendations for improvement.
• 8.3: Identify and distinguish among organizational structural types and their respective implications for performance.
• 9.1: Design organizational structures, systems, and processes that support the strategic goals of the organization.
• 9.2: Evaluate how human capital serves as a source of competitive advantage.
• 10.2: Analyze financial statements to evaluate and optimize organizational performance.
• 10.3: Determine optimal financial decisions in pursuit of an organization’s goals.