Strategic Orientation

Definition

Strategic Orientation is acting in accordance with the organizational priorities, strategies or vision.

Core motivation: To contribute to the organization’s direction

It's about:

• the ability to understand and contribute to the organization’s vision, goals and priorities;
• making sure that your activities and those of others are aligned with the priorities and goals of the organization;
• setting the priorities, goals, strategies and vision of the organization to move it forward.

When a person thinks ahead about the changing business environment and considers social and economic trends, they can plan and adjust the long-term view of the organization. This results in an organization that is adaptable and versatile.

What is a vision?

• It is the image that an organization must have of its objectives before it sets out to reach them.
• It describes the organization's aspirations for the future.

What is a strategic direction?

• It is a course of action that leads to the achievement of the goals and the vision through organizational strategies.
• It is where the organization wants to get to in its business and what path it will take to get there.
• It is the means to make strategic decisions, allocate resources effectively, align the employees' efforts, and measure performance and progress against targets.

You do not need to be in a managerial role to demonstrate Strategic Orientation. Employees and managers must be able to understand and link their daily work activities to those of the organization as a whole to optimize results. You can find multiple sources of information on the CRA's website such as the CRA's mission and vision and the Corporate Business Plan. You may also wish to consider branch, division, regional or local business plans and priorities as to how your work fits with the organizational vision and direction articulated in those plans.

Purpose of this competency for CRA

Strategic Orientation is essential to ensure that employee activities are aligned with the organizational mandate and vision.

Progression of scale - Scope of outlook and degree of involvement in the organizational direction

The Progression of the scale works together with the underlying notions, so it is important to consider this information as it indicates how the behaviours progress as you move from level 1 to level 4. The behaviours generally build on each other.

In other words, you may:

• know which objectives and organizational strategies have an impact on your area of the organization;
• understand how those priorities and strategies affect your own daily work;
• respect those priorities and strategies in how you carry out your duties.

The scope of outlook includes your own individual work responsibilities. Your degree of involvement in the organizational direction is low.

Example/Context

A collection officer knew about the CRA’s Vision 2020 and understood the priorities and strategies related to his own work. He made sure his daily activities respected these priorities to be consistent with the future objectives of the organization.

In other words, you may:

• Identify and implement adjustments to your area’s activities to make sure the operations are properly aligned with the organizational strategies and priorities;
• Provide a detailed recommendation on how and why these changes would be implemented, if you are not in a position to approve the required adjustments.

At this level, you need to understand the goals and strategies for your area and determine whether the operations and activities in your area are consistent with those strategies.

The scope of outlook is larger than your individual work tasks and would include your area of responsibility such as work section, division, or committee. Your degree of involvement is greater as it consists of supporting the established organizational direction in your area of responsibility.

Example/Context

The strategic direction has already been determined for the business line where a large file auditor works. He made sure to understand how the day-to-day operations of his area were linked to the long-term strategic direction of the program and noticed some discrepancies. He then recommended to his senior management team the necessary measures that would bring the activities and operations of his area to be consistent with the strategic plans.

In other words, you:

• are involved in formulating or influencing the creation of specific strategies or action plans on how the strategic direction can be successfully achieved.

At this level, you help to more concretely shape the organization’s vision and strategic direction. The scope of outlook is relatively broad (such as regional, across the function or office-wide) and the degree of involvement is significant in influencing the strategic direction.

Example/Context

A senior program officer in Compliance Programs Branch was aware of CRA’s strategic direction to take a systematic and coordinated approach to achieve audit program objectives at the regional and national levels and to improve the quality of audit files. He worked together with a project team and he played a key role on that team. He developed more specifically a proposal that supported the strategic direction of a more standardized approach to risk assessment in audit files. His proposal was to create a centralized area that would take on the screening, business intelligence and audit quality review programs for the GST/HST and income tax business lines rather than having that work done at the Tax Services Office level. When the project team’s proposal and recommendations were approved, a Business Intelligence and Quality Assurance (BIQA) program area was created in each region to enhance the quality of audit files, business intelligence, risk assessment at all stages and to improve the integrity of CRA audit processes by introducing more internal controls.

In other words, you may:

• be aware of projected directions of government;
• anticipate how change may manifest itself in the mid to long-term future;
• consider how present policies and methods might be affected by future developments and trends;
• look at a large scale view, and through your foresight, contribute to developing a vision that will guide the organization to the desired future state.

There would be a broad scope of outlook (such as regional or national) and a very high degree of involvement in the strategic direction to guide the organization into the future.

Example/Context

The employee worked with the senior executives and provided his insight on trends in certain key industries that could directly affect CRA’s future. With his specialized knowledge of expected changes in those key industries, he worked together with the senior management team to develop and articulate future strategic directions for his directorate. He researched and modified some approaches used in other countries and provided global statistics to support his strategic long-term perspective. He also outlined potential consequences for CRA if nothing was done in a timely manner to implement these new strategic directions. His recommendations paper was submitted to his Director General with the approval of the senior management team.