Free Essay: Impact of Internal Factors on Strategic Planning

Introduction

It is doubtless that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an inimitable and outstanding organization in the world. Established during World War II, NASA was to provide solutions in jet engine technologies. Later, the aeronautic engineers focused on exploring chemical propulsion. Before launching Sputnik, the engineers were testing and flying hydrogen-powered engines, which would later play a central role in the Apollo undertaking to the moon. Six decades after chemical propulsion, NASA engineers made numerous advancements in rocket technology (Linne, Aukerman, & Palaszewski, 2013).

Moreover, NASA has high profile employees and contractors when rated alongside other leading organizations in the world. Besides this, the organization prides in being transparent to the US tax system. Its rich and well-documented history is quite useful to researchers all over the world. It has a host of technological achievements and in terms of crises. This analysis focuses on NASA’s internal environment, including leadership, processes, structure, and culture. Additionally, it explores the impact of this environment on its successful strategic plan. From the findings on Impact of Internal Factors on Strategic Planning, the researcher will make conclusions.

NASA Internal Environment

In understanding NASA’s internal environment, it is vital to appreciate the massive impact of American regulations in shaping the organization’s leadership structure. For example, the Space Leadership Act ensures that the leadership of NASA is professional and not political. An administrator leads NASA for a term of ten years. Moreover, the administration, the House, and the Senate usually selects member of the Board of Directors, who manage a range of duties like recommending names to the position of the Administrator CFO and Deputy Administrator, preparing and submitting the budget and organizing reviews and reports for space operations. Members of the Board of Directors serve for a 3-year-term. NASA remains a leading player in space technology with a promising future. It has high brand equity, which befits the country’s vision of the future and dates back to its success.

At NASA, internal organizations include, fulfillment of the strategic plan, financial management, performance documentation and planning. Tauri Group offers immense support to NASA in terms of financial management and analysis. Tauri always gathers data on design, technical operations, stores programs of research, and edits programs, under government control. It also works with a committee, which is appointed by the National Council of Researchers.

Based on the structure of NASA, it is a decentralized organization, with autonomous centers. Because of the capacity of these centers, they can handle all issues, including systems analysis, contract evaluation and cost management. This makes the headquarters rather weak. Like in other firms, NASA appreciates communication. Its technical experts are in charge of communication and interaction systems. With this effectiveness, there is interaction of roles, mainly in the decision-making, problem solving and teamwork. Through communication, it is possible to get information about NASA and its achievements.

Internal Environment and the Strategic Plan

Over the years, NASA remains committed to advancing aeronautical technology. It is in the process of launching a strategic plan to offer guidance towards achieving this. Processes in the plan include budgetary allocation, assessment and evaluation of activities, and execution. As mentioned before the organization has made huge milestones before in the world of space technology, which largely contributed to its national and global pride.

Importantly, Administrative changes of NASA grounded it for years, resulting into a loss of more than $20 billion on projects, which were annulled. This was because of shambolic management. With guidance from US regulations, NASA leaders guide the organization beyond politics and avoid wastage of resources. Its long-term project augments stability, which is crucial in the organization’s programs. It looks forward to building a formidable workforce to implement its strategic plan in all space programs. NASA’s leadership is essential for the continuity of its goals.

On the other hand, NASA’s decentralized organizational structure immensely contributed to overlap of roles and stagnation. Each center had visionary leaders who wanted to do something in a different way, leading to a weak headquarter to oversee their operations (Benard, 2007). Nonetheless, strengthening of the headquarters overturned the focus of these centers. Today, they are centers of excellence as they specialize in different fields, in realizing the success of the firm’s strategic plan.

Conclusion

In summary, NASA has a history of success throughout its operations. With its new strategic plan, the organization is set to remain relevant and deliver holistic results. This is due to proper financial management, excellent internal processes and efficient centers. Its aggressive leaders will ensure that it achieves the vision amicably accomplishment (Bernard, 2007). It is also necessary for the public to beware of NASA’s vision. To achieve this, the firm has appropriate communication systems in place, to enhance public interaction. With this, NASA clients will easily know its achievements internationally and worldwide.

References

Linne, D., Aukerman, C., & Palaszewski, B. (2013). Chemical Propulsion: Greater than 60 Years of Leadership and Innovation at NASA Glenn Research Center. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Vol. 26, 317-333

Bernad, M. B. (2007). Executive and Strategic Leadership. International Journal of Business, Vol. 12(1), 1083-4346