{"id":3868,"date":"2025-07-08T15:56:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:56:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:56:52","slug":"achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Achieving Strategic Goals Requires Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Setting strategic goals for improving everything from an organization\u2019s financial performance and pay structure to its employee retention and diversity is an important process. That said, it\u2019s crucial for leaders to follow through by ensuring that relevant data is collected, shared, and analyzed to create a plan with specific steps for achieving those goals. That\u2019s much more difficult.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson<\/a> of Michigan State University said that she has collected data on the connection between diversity practices and organizational performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a survey of human-resources executives, we asked about approximately 35 different diversity practices, and the ones that mattered most were having DEI goals and responsibility structures, but then, surprisingly, using the goals,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cWe did not know that those would be separate in our analyses, but HR leaders who responded to our survey saw that there was a separate step of actually tracking goal performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of organizations who said, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019ve got goals,\u2019 but they did not use the goals at all in their strategic-planning or operations,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of them didn\u2019t even collect the data, while others collected the data but didn\u2019t even use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past half decade, there has been an uptick in businesses talking about data and analytics, including descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. The key is how leaders glean actionable insights and takeaways from analyzing data and put a plan in place to achieve strategic objectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cA best practice is using the data that you have in your organization to inform your actions, and that\u2019s done in finance, operations, and the supply-chain space,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cThere are so many other business spaces utilizing data and analytics\u2014why aren\u2019t we doing this in the diversity space?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have these data that tell us what people\u2019s experiences and behaviors in the workplace are, as well as their attitudes to their employer,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a missed opportunity if we don\u2019t use them to inform how to change things for the better or double down on the things that are really working well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Setting strategic goals for improving everything from an organization\u2019s financial performance and pay structure to its employee retention and diversity is an important process. That said, it\u2019s crucial for leaders to follow through by ensuring that relevant data is collected, shared, and analyzed to create a plan with specific steps for achieving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,60,72,74],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-social-responsibility","category-diversity","category-ethics","category-hr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAchieving Strategic Goals Requires Data - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Achieving Strategic Goals Requires Data\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:56:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":366,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/laptop-and-data.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY\",\"DIVERSITY\",\"ETHICS\",\"HR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/achieving-strategic-goals-requires-data\\\/\",\"name\":\"Achieving Strategic Goals Requires Data - 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