Alignment

Assignment 1: Discussion—Strategy and Alignment

There are a variety of tools available for organizations to use to assess process. In this assignment you will learn how to apply a tool to a process situation.

RAEW is an acronym for responsibility, authority, expertise, and work. Responsibility denotes ownership, authority involves decision making, expertise involves skill or knowledge, and work is the task assigned either to a group or an individual.

Analyzing a process using the RAEW tool can help identify structural misalignments that impede strategy execution. These misalignments include the following:

• Authority with no responsibility
• Responsibility with no authority
• Responsibility with no expertise

These misalignments can impede strategy execution by slowing decision-making, disempowering teams when there is responsibility without authority, or depriving processes of key skills when there is responsibility without expertise.

Tasks:

• To prepare for your discussion posting, review the RAEW analysis technique at the following link:

Here are two examples to help check for understanding:

1. YouSigma. (2008). RAEW Matrix. Retrieved from http://yousigma.com/tools/raewmatrix.pdf
2. JISC InfoNet: RAEW Analysis. (n.d.). JISC Advance: Northumbria University. Retrieved from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/process-review/process-review-9.7

• Select an important process in your business unit that is performing poorly and perform a simple RAEW analysis.

Based on your analysis, respond to the following:

• What is the process you analyzed?
• How is it performing poorly?
• Can you find any structural misalignments using the RAEW tool?
• Describe the misalignment and the consequences of it.
• How would you fix this misalignment?

Write your initial response in approximately 300 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

By Friday, February 15, 2013, post your response to the appropriate Discussion Area. Through Tuesday, February 19, 2013, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses.