ASPECTS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT APPLIED IN ...

Annals of the University “Constantin Brâncuşi”of Tg-Jiu, No. 1/2008, Volume 2,
ISSN: 1842-4856
The following diagram shows how a SWOT analysis fits into a strategic situation analysis.
Situation Analysis
/ \
Internal Analysis
External Analysis
/ \ / \
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
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SWOT Profile
The internal and external situation analysis can produce a large amount of information, much of
which may not be highly relevant. The internal analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the internal
environment's potential strengths and weaknesses, while an external analysis identifies changes that
occur in the external environment and that could possibly be related to market trends, social changes,
economic environment, political and regulatory environment and so on.
The SWOT analysis can serve as an interpretative filter to reduce the information to a
manageable quantity of key issues. The SWOT analysis classifies the internal aspects as strengths or
weaknesses and the external situational factors as opportunities or threats. Strengths can serve as a
foundation for building a competitive advantage, and weaknesses may hinder it. The wizardry of
SWOT is the matching of specific internal and external factors, which creates a strategic matrix and
which makes sense. It is essential to note that the internal factors relate to areas such as operations,
finance, marketing, and so on. On the contrary, the external factors are out of the immediate control,
relating to areas such as political and economic factors, technology, competition etc.
When the analysis has been completed, a SWOT profile can be generated and used as the basis
of goal setting, strategy formulation, and implementation. When formulating strategy the strengths can
be leveraged to pursue opportunities and to avoid threats, and one can be alerted to weaknesses that
might need to be overcome in order to successfully pursue opportunities.
Used for an initial brainstorming concerning the overall situation of a society SWOT can
produce large amounts of information, some of which can be contradictory. Not everything that comes
out can be considered as "hard data", as it may reflect lack of knowledge, or it may be affected by
emotions or personal experiences. However, such data can be quite valuable for identifying further
areas of attention. If SWOT is used as a starting point for an institutional development program, the
results can help set ID-objectives and to define a time-frame. SWOT can also be applied to
complement the "snapshot analysis" done by using CAPI (Customized Assessment and Performance
Indicators) as a planning tool.
There is however an amount of criticism related to the SWOT analysis.While useful for
reducing a large quantity of situational factors into a more manageable profile, the SWOT framework
has a tendency to oversimplify the situation by classifying the environmental factors into categories in
which they may not always fit. The classification of some factors as strengths or weaknesses, or as
opportunities or threats is somewhat arbitrary. For example, a particular cultural or social aspect can be
either a strength or a weakness. A technological change can be a either a threat or an opportunity.
Perhaps what is more important than the superficial classification of these factors is the social
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