strategic planning

Introduction

Strategic planning is a structured approach used by organizations to make fundamental decisions and actions that shape their direction and performance. It involves a disciplined process that integrates strategic thinking, acting, and learning to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Key Insights

Strategic Planning and Organizational Performance
- Strategic planning has a positive, moderate, and significant impact on organizational performance, particularly when measured as effectiveness and when formal strategic planning is employed .
Evolution and Adaptation of Strategic Planning
- Strategic planning has evolved significantly since its inception, shifting responsibilities from staff to line managers, decentralizing to business units, and incorporating more sophisticated and varied planning techniques .
Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Sectors
- Government and public sector organizations have increasingly adopted strategic planning to manage changes and improve decision-making and program performance, although its success can be variable due to the complexity of public sector environments .
Challenges and Criticisms
- Strategic planning is often criticized for being overly rational and for inhibiting strategic thinking. It is also based on the mistaken assumption that the external environment can be made predictable, which is not always the case .
Roles and Benefits of Formal Strategic Planning
- Formal strategic planning can play various roles such as public relations, information dissemination, group therapy, and direction and control. However, it cannot alone produce strategic vision and direction where it is lacking.
Strategic Planning as a Communicative Process
- Strategic planning involves iterative and recursive communication processes where multiple actors engage in dialogue to shape and refine the strategic plan, which becomes more authoritative over time.

Conclusion

Strategic planning is a valuable tool for enhancing organizational performance and managing change, particularly when it is formalized and integrated with strategic thinking. While it has evolved to become more sophisticated and decentralized, it still faces challenges such as unpredictability of the external environment and potential inhibition of strategic thinking. Despite these challenges, strategic planning remains a critical process for both public and private sector organizations, playing various roles that contribute to organizational direction and control.

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Strategic planning

Summary

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Strategic planning is a leadership tool that enhances strategic thinking, acting, and learning in organizations, but its effectiveness depends on the organization's unique circumstances and goals.

The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning has evolved from a one-way process to a two-way process, with the former focusing on strategy development and implementation, and the latter on fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Does Strategic Planning Improve Organizational Performance? A Meta‐Analysis

Strategic planning positively impacts organizational performance, with the strongest impact when performance is measured as effectiveness and strategic planning is measured as formal strategic planning across sectors and countries.

Strategic planning isn't dead— it changed

Strategic planning has evolved into a viable system of strategic management, shifting responsibility from staff to line managers, decentralizing it, and focusing on organization and culture as critical ingredients in strategy execution.

The roles of formal strategic planning

Formal strategic planning can play various peripheral roles, such as public relations, information, group therapy, and direction and control, but it cannot produce strategic vision and direction on its own.

Initiation of Strategic Planning by Governments

Strategic planning has become increasingly important for governments to address the challenges of public sector change and define their future vision.

The Pitfalls of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is based on a number of mistaken assumptions, including the assumption that the external environment can be made predictable, but in reality, the external environment is always unpredictable.

State Agencies' Experience with Strategic Planning: Findings from a National Survey

Strategic planning is highly utilized in state agencies, with 60% currently using it and only 5% discontinuing it due to leadership changes, budget cuts, or personnel changes.

Strategic planning as communicative process

Strategic planning is a communicative process involving multiple actors, involving iterative and recursive relationships between talk and text, shaping a final agreed plan and influencing power relationships and social order within organizations.

A measurement model of strategic planning

A multiple indicator measure of strategic planning improves consistency, reliability, and validity, enabling more accurate comparisons and normative recommendations in management research.

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