A Thesis Report Submitted to Mzumbe University, Dar es Salaam Business
School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree
of Master of Science in Human Resource Management (MSc-HRM)
The strategic management process involves not only strategy formulation but also
strategy implementation. The strategies formulated are actualized in the
implementation of the strategic plan. Much of the time, implementation of strategic
plans poses the greatest challenge in strategic management as this, by and large,
would determine the actual outcomes and results of the firm’s strategic plan. It
therefore appears at the end of the strategic planning processes whose other
ingredients include idea conception in the mission and vision, tactical plans and
operational objectives. Effective implementation of strategic plan does not guarantee
results as planned. The strategy itself as well as the implementers and the
implementation process can influence the outcome. This study sought to establish the
challenges faced by Deloitte in implementing strategic plans. A case study of
Deloitte was used to achieve the research objective. Both primary and secondary data
related to the area of study were used. To gather primary data, the researcher relied
on the interview guide administered to the employees and the top managers,
questionnaires to different employees of the organization, reading various documents
related to the study. Content analysis of the interviewee responses was applied.
The research findings revealed that overall; organizations face some challenges
during strategy implementation process. Some challenges are the employees'
unawareness on the availability of the strategic plan in their organization. Also there
was little or no integration of the results of strategic plan with their day to day
activities. The strategic plan is treated as something separate and not directly linked
to the daily management of the business. Not only that but also not all the people
charged with executing the plan are involved from the onset at Deloitte. Only very
few, who are all from the top management, are involved in the planning process, and
the plan is brought down to other team members for their execution. Another
challenge found was that people at Deloitte are not enlightened as to what is
expected of them, so they just do their best to make the job done in any way possible.
The findings also showed that there is an inherent lack of accountability in the
planning process which leads to problems and sometimes complete failures in the
plan's execution. In order for organizations to reduce or remove this problem, they