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1. Introduction
The constant changes that occur in the environment, whether national, international, political, social, technological, human and others, are expressed in a very complex way in current organizations. These continuous changes allow organizations to enter a world where competition and innovation go hand in hand to achieve greater development of it and differentiate themselves within a broad market [1,2]
As stated by Nazari, et. al. [3] sport has a unique role in most societies [4] and in various forms is part of the daily lives of people [5]. It is evident in the literature review on sports management that strategic managers lead and play roles that through specific behaviors achieve greater results if they are aligned with the organization. In studies conducted by the authors and it can be stated that there is a wide application of strategic management in sports organizations both internationally [6-8] and nationally [9,10]. In Cuba in national indications within the sports sector, a management system is elaborated at all levels, but very few known antecedents are located until now, regarding the implementation in sports teams as part of their trainer and competition process.
According to the authors cited by Gonzalez [11]; they agree that the elements that make up the strategy are field of activity, distinctive capabilities, competitive advantages and synergistic effect. For non-profit organizations, those components of the strategy are manifested in a similar way, but the competitive aspect is less prominent since its purpose is to protect, promote or develop valuable resources rather than to compete for them, although sometimes they face each other for financing. It is pertinent to ensure that the different systems of the organization are integrated based on the business strategy, which must be oriented towards satisfying the present and future needs of customers.
According to Tallon et al. [12] posit that IT-enabled business process agility helps organizations reconcile the greater alignment between IT and business strategy to improve business process performance agility and deliver more satisfactory performance results [13]. Given the above, a number of tools have been developed that require IT, such as enterprise architecture and process mining, and the application of these approaches in parallel is recommended. Agile and reliable analyses of business processes can be performed, considering their influence and/or dependencies with the technologies used in the organization to ensure the effectiveness of the decisions taken [14,15].
Strategic management, due to its comprehensive nature that integrates all systems into a single strategic thought, is the most applied way of managing organizations. Determining the strategic course is no longer the problem for many organizations, the deployment of the strategy designed to fulfill the mission and provide the change to achieve the vision is the challenge to achieve [16].
According to Pérez and Rodríguez [17], the strategic alignment, as a management principle put into practice in different organizations, provides an opportunity for theoretical-methodological integration that contributes to the better functioning of the business system.
Strategic alignment, its approaches and performance that the organizations of the developed countries have had when aligning with the organizational culture, knowledge management, service and innovation, human resources, marketing, networks and companies. The analysis highlights the importance of strategic alignments and decisions in organizations that allow competitiveness and stability and sustainability in the market, during the established period. Large companies direct their efforts to align strategies with the different areas of the company, with work together to archive the planned objectives and goals, supported by strategic alignment [18].
Strategic alignment is a key element for the success of organizations, which has among its origins the idea of Senge cited by Crespo et. al. [19] of aligning and integrating various isolated components into a larger system, managing them from this perspective presupposes the coordination of resources and capabilities, makes it possible to establish and strengthen cooperative relationships between the strategic and support units to implement the strategy, promotes the participation of all, the rational use of resources, orients the organizational culture towards a systemic vision and leads to focus on the essential objectives.
Strategic alignment happens by design and is often the missing ingredient for your success. According to Tucker, strategic alignment is the prudent arrangement of the various internal and external elements of an organization from its business strategy to its organizational structure to best support the achievement of its long-term goals and purpose [20].
Strategic alignment is a continuous process that manages coordination factors, enables senior management to establish and strengthen cooperative relationships between resources, capabilities, and processes, and involve them in the strategy, to achieve synergistic effects that allow for added value in the organization [11,16].
The achievements of Cuban sports are determined by different factors, one of which is the application of science and technology in this sphere; consolidated through the country's governing sports body, the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, which is responsible for directing, executing and controlling the application of state and government policy in terms of the corresponding sports, physical education and culture, and physical recreation programs. Sport is a component of cultural identity and, in addition, a world business in great demand located between the 7th and 10th world economy with increasing looting of sports talent, which affects the Cuban sports system [21]; with strategic alignment in a general way in sports organizations it is possible to align all provincial and municipal directorates, processes to achieve the proposed objectives through a drawn strategy, which allows improving the performance of the organization.
The Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization shows a series of deficiencies defined in the 2016 - 2020 Sports Strategy that hinder the fulfillment of the strategy and objectives. There is insufficiency in the training and professional improvement of the cadres for the current times, as well as the attention to the reserve in terms of their selection and preparation. Deficit in the acquisition of means and fundamental sports implements in collective sports. Labor fluctuation due to the tempting job offers of the Varadero Tourist Pole and the massive opening of self-employment, especially those related to the sports sector. The exodus of the technical force to other countries due to personal interests. The little existing material in the database and the lack of integration of control tools for business management that would allow objective comparisons. The limited focus on continuous improvement due to the failure to identify and solve the problems affecting the organization. Failure to use the management by objective system as a working tool. The whole situation outlined above requires that a study be carried out to identify the existing shortcomings of strategic management and correct them.
The objective of this research is: to evaluate the strategic alignment between the processes and the strategic objectives in the Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization.
2. Methodology
2.1. Procedure for strategic alignment
In relation to the assessment of alignment, there are also varied proposals, especially from a theoretical-conceptual point of view. There are several authors who have dealt with strategic alignment, arriving at very useful conceptions and criteria, but even so, there are fewer studies dedicated to dealing with and scientifically substantiating its evaluation. Within the works dedicated to the evaluation of strategic alignment, they are based on each other and those of Decoene and Bruggeman [8], McLean [22] and Scherpereel [23] are noteworthy.
Methodologies for the development of methods for evaluation strategic alignment are shown in the literature, among which are cited that follows:
Gonzalez [11], the evaluation focuses on the manifestation of alignment factors in the organization in question, through its coordination mechanisms and the effectiveness of the implementation of each mechanism. It is a highly complex procedure due to the number of factors identified and evaluated in the Cuban education sector with a lot of information.
Van Beest [24], measures the success of the strategic plan and states that the most common approach is to determine the extent to which each process meets the strategic objectives using a numbered scale. With this result he creates an overall rating of the strategy by an average of all the individual ratings, establishing a threshold. People, processes and products that do not meet this criterion are reassessed and changed. Ambiguity is shown in the treatment of alignment as a process and the result obtained from it. Lack of evaluative factors and criteria of an organizational nature.
Comas Rodríguez [25], states that for the strategy to be properly implemented, it is necessary to link the different functional areas, processes, teams and people in the organization towards the achievement of the strategic objectives, where it can be seen that alignment is evaluated through the relationship between strategic processes-objectives, thereby defining the strategic direction to follow.
León et. al. [26] proposes a procedure for the strategic alignment between the relevant processes of the sports organization based on the needs of the organization and its problem bank. It bases the defined strategies, carries out an analysis and classification of the key processes, calculates the relative weight of the processes and the strategic objectives of the organization and the performance of these until reaching the evaluation of the strategic alignment through indexes. The procedure is based on the fusion between the procedures of Nogueira Rivera [27] and Comas [25]. It consists of three (3) stages
and ten (10) steps. It is an instrument of great value for managers that allows them to evaluate strategic alignment and deploy the defined strategy.
Yasin Ateş et al. [28], it sets out a procedure for strategic alignment between senior management and the chief executive officer with they consider essential to ensure the benefits of visionary leadership in the implementation of strategy by the middle and junior and senior management teams. They conduct a study that demonstrates how middle and lower level managers can influence the strategic consensus and strategic commitment of their teams through visionary leadership in strategy implementation.
Although the methodologies presented above show different ways of applying strategic alignment, it is seen as a management model that seeks to align organizational objectives with critical factors, processes, people, products and actors. Based on the analysis of the previous methodologies and specifying how the proposal presented differs from what currently exists, the authors propose a procedure for the evaluation of the strategic alignment between the processes and the strategic objectives of a sports organization, based on the calculation of different indices (Fig. 1), based on the procedure proposed by León et. al. [26] and Comas [25]. The research was conducted in the Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization and consists of two (2) logically articulated stages and six (6) steps.
The research is based on the exploratory type as it is a topic little studied in the sports sector and descriptive based on the characteristics of the evaluation of strategic alignment in the Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization.
Stage I.1. Preparation for implementation
Step I.1. Characterization of the sports organization
The stage is structured in two (2) steps related to the characterization of the sports organization and the conformation and training of the work team for the subsequent evaluation of the strategic alignment.
Step 1. Characterization of the Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization
As a premise, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics that distinguish the activity of the sports organization in order to know it, as a previous step to the conformation of the work team.
Step 2. Formation of the work team
A team of between seven and fifteen people should be formed, normally members of the Board of Directors and of the different key result areas. One of the members should be appointed as project coordinator and a plan of activities to be carried out should be established. The implementation of a training strategy in specific thematic nuclei, such as: organizational management, management programs, strategic alignment, sports management and process management.
Stage II. Measurement and evaluation of strategic alignment
Step II.1. Design of the Strategic Alignment Index
The main objective of this stage is to evaluate the alignment of the organization's processes with its strategic objectives (SOs).
To developed the Strategic Alignment Index (Isa), it is first necessary to determine which are the relevant processes (Rp) of the organization in order to evaluate the relevant processes index (Irp) and the strategic objectives index (Iso).
Once the list of the organization's processes has been established, the key processes are selected, the application of Kendall's coefficient method and General process map is recommended [28], which in turn allows to verify the concordance between those involved and to select the "Rp" of the organization.
Subsequently, the team should reflect on the elements that influence the selection of the key processes using the Strategic Objectives (SOs)/ Process Impact (ISO)/Customer Impact (CR)/Short Term Success (STS) Matrix [29,30].
Step II.2. Constructing the Strategic Alignment Matrix
The relative weight is calculated to assess the level of importance of each of the processes and SOs in the organization. To calculate the relative weights, the Analytic Hierarchies Process can be used, or other existing methods [25,26]. Once the hierarchical structure is defined, the criteria of each group of the same hierarchical level are compared and the direct comparison in pairs of the alternatives with respect to the criteria of the lower level. For this, paired comparison matrices are used using a proposed scale.
Subsequently, the (Isa) is calculated using eq. (1) [25].
Where:
Isa: strategic alignment index.
θej: mean of the value obtained by SOj.
wθj: relative weight of SOj.
n: number of SO.
This step evaluates whether the SOs have been implemented in the organization's "Rp". As a premise for the calculation of the indicator, the values reached in the impact matrix are analyzed, and it is verified that each SO has reached a high impact in some process.
This premise is not decisive, but it is a first evaluation element that allows to verify alignment problems. To assess the indicator, the experts of the working group, using the Delphi method, determine the levels that evaluate the alignment capacity (Table 2).
To build the strategic alignment matrix, first the Irp with SOs is calculated, based on the impact matrix between processes and SOs. The Isa of the processes with the SOs evaluates whether the "Rp" contribute to the defined strategy. The process alignment index (Ipr) with the SOs is evaluated using eq. (2).
Where:
Ipr: process alignment index.
Pri: average of the value obtained by process i.
wpi: relative weight of process i
m: number of processes
The strategic alignment matrix is constructed with the Iso” and Ipr”. A double-entry table is defined, where a demarcation line is established on each axis so that a four-quadrant matrix is obtained [25].
Step II.3. Evaluating the results of the Strategic Alignment Matrix
From the analysis carried out, two fundamental hypotheses were defined according to Comas [25]:
- SOs are concretized in the organization's "Rp".
- The "Rp" of the organization contribute to the strategy.
For the evaluation of the hypotheses, the possible strategies to be defined in each quadrant are worked out (Table 3).
Table 3 Possible strategies according to the Strategic Alignment Matrix
| Interpretation | Strategy | |
|---|---|---|
| I | SOs are aligned and manifested in the processes. | Define the control system and deploy the formulated strategy by the sports organization. |
| II | Not all SOs are embodied in the processes. | Review SOs to identify those that do not contribute to the sports organization's processes. |
| III | Not all "Rp's" contribute to the strategy. | Identify those distinctive competencies not aligned with the SOs and redesign the strategy. |
| IV | No alignment between SOs and processes. | Processes re-engineering and re-design the strategy of the sports organization |
Source: Based on Comas [25].
Step II4. Improvement plan based on the Strategic Alignment Matrix
Alignment Matrix, the lines of action to be worked on are determined in order to project the improvements to close the existing gaps in the strategic alignment of the objectives and processes [31].
3. Discussion of results
The following results are obtained from the application of the proposed procedure for evaluation of strategic alignment in the sports organization.
Stage I. Preparation for implementation
Step I.1. Characterization of the sports organization
The Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization is subordinated to the National Sports Directorate. This organization has the strategic planning for the Olympic cycle, which has the following strategic objective: to guarantee the provision of specialized services in each of the key result areas, influencing the improvement of the quality of life of the people of Matanzas, in the formation and promotion of patriotic athletes, perfecting the system of science and technological innovation and contributing to the respect for the environment.
In order to provide all the services rendered, the company has a staff of 143 workers, 119 of whom 88 have higher education. Despite having highly qualified workers according to their level of education, the company only has 13 masters.
The directorate serves 13 municipalities made up of 44 combined, the Schools of Sport Initiation with a total of 385 workers, the schools for physical education teachers with a staff of 144 and the academies with 87 workers. The current sports enrollment is 14 767 students, most of whom are concentrated in the municipalities, followed by the Schools of Sport Initiation.
It has 409 sports facilities in different disciplines, the sports with the largest number of areas are: baseball, volleyball, athletics, soccer and basketball; the rest of the sports have very few facilities in the province. As for the number of judges and referees, the provincial commission has a total of 3 021, of which 821 are female.
Step I.2. Formation of the work team
The work team is defined and is made up of 11 people. All the personnel selected as experts have an average of 18 years of experience in this entity, in general, as professional training they have bachelor's five (5) and master's six (6) degrees, in addition seven (7) have full knowledge of the subject to be treated, the rest are trained on the research subject and on the work tools to be used for each of the stages in which the research is carried out. The rest are trained on the research topic and on the work tools to be used in each of the stages of the research.
Stage II. Measurement and evaluation of strategic alignment
Step II.1. Design of the Strategic Alignment Index
In the conformation of the "Isa" there is a high involvement of the top management, it is a result of the key process Teaching. The relative weight of each process and SO was calculated to assess their level of importance and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method was used for the calculation.
Step II.1. Calculating the Strategic Alignment Index
The starting point of this step is to have identified all the processes of the organization for their development and improvement. From the documentary review (procedures manuals, balance sheets, strategy for the Olympic period, among others) of the sport organization, it is affirmed that its processes are defined by each of the behid key results, these are listed below: internal control, inspection, organization and archiving, cadres, physical culture, sports training, teaching, attention to the population, economic management, security and protection, national defense, informatic security, technical material supply and collaboration.
Fourteen the processes have been identified, they are reviewed by the team to verify that they are in line with the strategies and that they include all the activities performed in the organization.
In the sport organization we worked with the processes defined by the organization; the strategic process sheets were prepared. The risks were inserted and aligned with the quality system and the internal control system.
The 11 processes defined in the management planning and organization system were used. The Isa” is calculated after identifying the Rp” of the sport organization, which is obtained from the application of Kendall's coefficient method (Table 4), obtaining that the key processes of the organization as judged by the experts at the time of evaluation. The keys processes are physical culture, sports training, teaching, economic management, technical material supply, organization and archiving; there is agreement in the criteria of the work team given that Kendall's coefficient is equal to 0,58, the condition of being 0.5(W(1.
Table 4 Kendall's method for selecting the key processes of the sport organization.
| Processes | Ʃai | Δ | Δ² | Rp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Culture | 22 | -53 | 2809 | 1 |
| Sports Training | 26 | -49 | 2401 | 2 |
| Teaching | 41 | -34 | 1156 | 3 |
| Economic Management | 48 | -27 | 729 | 4 |
| Internal control | 77 | 2 | 4 | |
| Attention to the population | 93 | 18 | 324 | |
| Organization and archiving | 66 | -9 | 81 | 6 |
| Cadres | 91 | 16 | 256 | |
| Security Protection and Defense | 110 | 35 | 676 | |
| Informatic Security | 107 | 32 | 1024 | |
| Technical material supply | 60 | -15 | 225 | 5 |
| Collaboration | 105 | 30 | 900 | |
| ƩƩai | 1050 | 13182 | ||
| T | 75 | |||
| W | 0.58 | |||
| m | 10 | |||
| k | 14 |
Source: Own elaboration.
In this step, the documents conceived by the Key Result Area (KRA) of Teaching called: Strategic Planning of the Olympic cycle 2021-2024 and Management System, which offer among their various information the strategic objective that corresponds to the aspirations to be achieved by the management and the work objectives for the year, are reviewed.
However León [32], states that these objectives should be elaborated by each KRA to contribute to the fulfillment of the mission and to achieve the vision so it is proposed to the sport organization that it should reelaborate it’s SO and direct them to the fulfillment of the vision of each of its identified KRAs which are three, which should review and group those other indicators that remain outside the KRAs are grouped in another that may be related to the direction and management of the sport organization.
Strategic objectives defined in the organization are:
SO1.To satisfy the needs of the population of Matanzas, increasing the options for the systematic practice of physical-sports-recreational activities in schools and the community, aimed at the formation of values and the quality of life of the population.
SO2. To increase the quality of sports training of athletes-patriots who respond to the principles of the Revolution and Cuban socialist sport.
SO3. Motivate the improvement of the quality and training of sport teachers who respond to the principles of the Revolution, aware of the need for sustainable development.
SO4. To improve the science, technology and innovation system by achieving new and better knowledge by generalizing and introducing the scientific results and the management system appropriate to the conditions of the organization.
Then with the Process Impact Matrix, as followed in the procedure of Comas [25] this matrix is used to evaluate how each process impacts on the fulfillment of the SO, as a result it was obtained that four (4) of the Rp” coincide with the key processes, so they are all significant, it is shown in Table 5. Of the six key processes evaluated, five obtain a score greater than and equal to 500, these are organized in ascending order from the first order key processes: Organization and Archives, Collaboration, Physical Culture, Sports Training and Teaching.
Step II.2. Constructing the Strategic Alignment Matrix
Once the Strategic Alignment Matrix has been prepared, the alignment between the SO and the Rp” defined is evaluated, which reflects the alignment relationships in ascending order. Once the values reflecting the impact of each Rp” on the SO have been averaged, the results obtained are analyzed and the averages of each process and each SO are calculated (Table 6).
Using the Analytic Hierarchical Process, the relative weight of each process and SO was calculated to assess their level of importance. When analyzing the Isa” (Table 7) with a value of 5,57, it was shown that the defined Iso” are reflected in the Rp” of the sport organization.
Table 5 Strategic Objectives (SO)/ Process Impact (ISO)/Customer Impact (CR)/Short Term Success (STS) Matrix.
| Relevant Processes | ISO | CR | STS | Total | Order of priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organization and archive | 10 | 10 | 10 | 1000 | 1 |
| Technical material supply | 10 | 10 | 10 | 1000 | 1 |
| Physical Culture | 10 | 10 | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Sports training | 10 | 10 | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Teaching | 10 | 5 | 10 | 500 | 2 |
| Financial Management | 1 | 5 | 5 | 25 | - |
Source: Own elaboration.
Table 7 Calculation of the strategic objective alignment index.
| Strategic objectives | Average | Relative weight | |
| SO1 | 7,30 | 0,31 | 2,26 |
| SO2 | 7,60 | 0,28 | 0,75 |
| SO3 | 7,00 | 0,26 | 2,04 |
| SO4 | 6,60 | 0,15 | 0,51 |
| Iso | 5.57 | ||
Source: Own elaboration
Table 8 Calculation of the alignment index of the relevant processes.
| Relevant Processes | Average | Relative weight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organization and Archives | 5,25 | 0,39 | 2,05 |
| Collaboration | 6,50 | 0,27 | 1,76 |
| Physical Culture | 7,50 | 0,16 | 1,20 |
| Sports Training | 7,88 | 0,12 | 0,95 |
| Teaching | 8,50 | 0,06 | 0,51 |
| Ipr | 6,46 | ||
Source: Own elaboration
Source: Own elaboration
Figure 2 Matrix of Strategic Alignment of the Matanzas Provincial Sports Directorate.
To build the Strategic Alignment Matrix, the Ipr” was calculated, whose value was 6,46 (Table 8), showing that the Rp” are acceptably aligned with the SO defined for the sport organization. After determining the alignment indexes, the Strategic Alignment Matrix is constructed as shown in Fig. 2.
Step II.3. Evaluating the results of the Strategic Alignment Matrix
The Strategic Alignment Matrix shows that it is in the first quadrant, where the SO of the organization are aligned and manifested in the Rp” in one way or another, so it is possible to continue with the deployment of the strategy defined for the sports organization, although it is necessary to be more proactive and identify the risks that threaten the results and eliminate the weaknesses detected in the strategic diagnosis.
Step II.4. Improvement plan based on the Strategic Alignment Matrix
The proposed actions are shown in order to improve the performance of the sport organization's objectives and processes so that they can be fulfilled and the alignment of its objectives and processes can be reevaluated at a later date.
With the fulfillment of the proposed actions, the sport organization can reach a high level of alignment between processes and objectives and thus obtain a high performance in the affected objectives that will also allow it to comply with the strategies outlined.
The proposed actions are:
1. Check and control events scheduled at the grassroots level.
2. Develop physical activity programs through festivals and events, both provincial and interprovincial, and in an integrated manner in the Pioneer Cups, Student and School League and on special dates such as Challenge Day, World Heart Day, among others.
3. Implementation of Programs and Projects of the Associated System, with direct impact on the improvement of the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation and Ministries of Education joint work.
4. Improve the quality of enrollment in the Schools of Sport Initiation with an increase in the number of athletes considered of immediate prospects and applying aptitude tests for new entrants, as well as evaluating school retention rates.
5. Project the preparation work on the development of skills for the technical and methodological preparation of athletes in the phases of consolidation and improvement.
6. Review the tasks that contribute to the Physical Culture process and objective 1 to determine the gaps that impede their good performance.
7. Check if there is control over the indicated and analyze the results of the indicators of the centers.
8. Conduct a diagnostic study of the improvement needs of middle-level technicians.
9. Conduct methodological sections with the Subdirectors and Methodologists by sub directorates and evaluate the preparation.
10. Orientate the planning of actions to ensure the updating and recording of information, indicating its control.
11. Carry out checks through thematic visits to the control actions file book.
The authors concur with the statements made by Ledesma et al. [18], this is corroborated in the present investigation, where the strategic alignment is a set of instruments that arise with the purpose of generating answers in management and organizational issues. The study of the approaches allows to identify the existing relationship of alignment in organizations, applying a set of policies and strategies according to the organizational culture, in which coexist values, commitment and norms shared by those who conform it, and that when acting harmoniously with the proposed goals allows the design and achievement of the strategic plans.
According to the authors cited by Comas et al. [16], they have developed models and procedures that provide generalized solutions and tools to operationalize strategic alignment, as stated in the procedure proposed in the research, given its importance in the effective functioning of organizations and their interest in the continuous improvement of their processes and results; however, the dynamics of change generated by the environment and the internal development of the institutions themselves, demand to broaden the spectrum of analysis that serves as the basis for the action of alignment, with greater orientation towards a more systemic vision with emphasis on stakeholders.
Several studies show that, what happens in most organizations is that few manage to achieve the objectives set; one of the main causes is the lack of strategic alignment in the organization to execute the plan. Several researches have been carried out on the evaluation of strategic alignment in the health sector, in service organizations, education, productive sectors, private companies and Small and medium enterprises, among the most notable we have those cited by Comas [33]; the application in the sports sector is new in Cuba [26], although several master's thesis and diploma researches have been initiated in Cuba in recent years introducing it as a management tool in Cuban sport organizations.
Considering also strategic alignment and people management, as Kolehmainen [34] argues that strategic alignment, job training and strategic performance measurement systems are a combination of management practices that may be necessary to achieve organizational balance, the authors consider and argue that the focus is on aligning processes with strategic objectives as a priority for such organizations, which is presumed to contribute to improving the performance of the organization as a whole, without focusing on service and financial analysis.
Strategic alignment is the process of planning and implementing practices to ensure that an organization's strategies support its overall objectives. A strategically aligned organization comprises prescribed operations, methods and practices that work in unison to achieve long-term goals as stated by Morrison et al. [35] and shown in this study as a strategically aligned organization, as well as all departments, projects, decisions and functions contribute to the fulfilment of the organization’s mission, vision and goals.
For some authors, such as Gonzalez [11] in order to accurately determine a hypothesis or theory on strategic alignment, the critical success factors in various business organizations should be studied in greater depth [19], considering the heterogeneous characteristics of the organization under study and the fact that it is an organization budgeted by the local government, its level of complexity, formalization and centralization make it impossible to evaluate the strategic alignment by the critical success factors that affect its performance, although the authors consider it pertinent to study strategic consultancy and applied management in greater depth in order to have new theoretical contributions in terms of strategic management and innovation in Cuban sports government organizations.
Strategic alignment in the sports organization will enable the entire operation and the resources needed to be designed and focused on such a way that they contribute to the execution of the strategy. As Comas [16] states, companies and institutions have been adopting strategic alignment because of its positive results, such as the increase in efficiency, effectiveness and quality of their processes and products.
In the comparative analysis with other studies, it is observed that companies have different degrees of alignment, but it is found that those who perceive greater alignment are more satisfied with the results achieved. What is significant with this study is the clear link between processes and objectives that seek to align, the existing strategic alignment in the sports organization allows all the necessary operations and resources to be designed and focused in such a way that they contribute to the execution of the defined strategy; elements that can guarantee greater efficiency from the values of the alignment indexes that impact on the final results, as well as on the compliance and satisfaction of local sports events.
4. Conclusions
Considering the subjectivity and need for the systematization of the strategic alignment, this document contributes to simplify the research from the few existing studies on the subject in sports organizations both in Cuba and in the world, this research allows the systematic visualization facilitating the application of the proposed procedure and saving time.
The procedure implemented is based on the one proposed by León and Comas. It is adapted to the sports organization under of study integrating new tools such as brainstorming, Kendall's Method, Impact Matrix and Analytic Hierarchical Process. The steps and activities to evaluate the strategic alignment of the sports governance organization are reorganized.
With the support of the work team, it was possible to list its only strategic objective of the organization, the 14 processes that integrate the Matanzas Provincial Sports Organization, with its General Map of processes. As a result of calculating the strategic alignment index (Iae=7.13) and the alignment index of the key processes (Ipr=6.46).The sports organization is located in the first quadrant of the strategic alignment matrix, which means that it is possible to continue with the deployment of the strategies (Ensure the provision of specified services contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of the entire population of Matanzas; Increase the quality and rigor in the sports training of athletes achieving satisfactory sports results that lead the sports organization to a location between first and sixth place; raise the amount of specialized technical force and the scientific degree of the sports organization workers).
