Question

Difference between strategic and tactical operational management decisions

Answer 1

1. Strategic decisions:

Strategic decisions are major choices of actions and influence whole or a major part of business enterprise. They contribute directly to the achievement of common goals of the enterprise. They have long-term implications on the business en­terprise.

They may involve major departures from practices and procedures being followed earlier. Generally, strategic decision is unstructured and thus, a manager has to apply his business judge­ment, evaluation and intuition into the definition of the problem. These decisions are based on partial knowledge of the environmen­tal factors which are uncertain and dynamic. Such decisions are taken at the higher level of management.

2. Tactical decisions:





These decisions relate to the implementation of strategic decisions. They are directed towards developing divi­sional plans, structuring workflows, establishing distribution chan­nels, acquisition of resources such as men, materials and money. These decisions are taken at the middle level of management.

3. Operational decisions:

These decisions relate to day-to-day op­erations of the enterprise. They have a short-term horizon as they are taken repetitively. These decisions are based on facts regarding the events and do not require much of business judge­ment. Operational decisions are taken at lower levels of man­agement. As the information is needed for helping the manager to take rational, well informed decisions, information systems need to fo­cus on the process of managerial decision making.