Evaluating the Impact of Strategic Management and Strategic Thinking on Performance in the Public Health Sector

Introduction

In today's world, rapid changes in the age of technology and information have made many of the classical competition assumptions in the business world obsolete. It is not enough for enterprises to benefit from new technologies in order to increase their success and competitiveness. At the same time, uniform distribution, competitiveness and access to consumers should be strengthened in their economies. All the efforts of the enterprises are aimed at establishing strategies for superiority in competition. In the 21st century, imagination is becoming the quality most needed by businesses. Within this framework, the primary purpose of the enterprises is to reach the future by defining strategies that will make a difference. In order for companies to gain a structure that is stronger and more competitive in business life and to enable them to compete, they should be put into practice by making use of different strategic methods. With this in mind, “Strategic Management Approach” can be considered as an application that will contribute to strengthening the competitive position of enterprises in their internal world.

The concept of strategic management has come to the forefront in the management of business organizations in the 1980s. With the increase in production, developments in the market began to intensify competition. Increasing pressure from competition has led businesses to set strategic goals for investment and market. Strategic management approaches that lead businesses to set goals are the main subject of the study. Effective management is based on long-term strategic strength as well as the involvement of the organization in decisions. In this context, the implementation of strategic decisions is important for organizations as well as for the country. An excellent structure and criteria of excellence are among the items to be sought in the future in terms of management. Today, participation principles, strategic management forms gain importance and weight.

Strategic management is an important concept for health institutions as well as for other institutions. Health institutions need the concept of strategic management in order to survive in a competitive environment, to analyze the internal and external environment of the institution, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the institution, and to identify the threat elements of the institution and the aspects that will provide opportunities for the institution. In the face of globalization and the concept of competition that comes with this globalization, health institutions are beginning to give more strategic thinking, strategic decision making and strategic thinking as much as other institutions.

Although the concept of management is very old, the concept of business management is a concept that emerged about a century ago and is still being developed. The reason why the concept of business management is so new is the absence of large scale production-based enterprises until the industrial revolution that began in the 18th century. From this perspective, it is possible to characterize the time before the industrial revolution as the “pre-period” or “pre-period scientific”. However, it is possible to say that the management activity existed in ancient times, even in the early ages, considering that there existed individuals and communities who came together to manage the same goal in the past.

Strategic Management is a concept obtained by combining the concepts of strategy and management (Thomas 1984). Therefore, it is necessary to give information about the concept of strategy. In the literature, it is stated that the strategy is based on two sources in terms of its origin. One of these; latin concept with stratum meaning road, line or bed. The second is related to the name of the former Greek General Strategos. It was used to indicate the art and knowledge of the general (Steiner 1971). The concept of strategic management has entered the business literature since 1980. Strategic management, planning the research, review, evaluation and selection efforts necessary for the planning of strategies, taking all kinds of structural and motivational measures within the organization for the implementation of these strategies, taking into force and implementing the strategies before and after the implementation of the top-level staff covering is the sum of the processes that concern their activities (Eren 2005).