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Strategic Planning in the Public Sector

According to the Balanced Scorecard Institute: Strategy Management Group "Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment." Planers use strategic planning to guide their organization towards their intended goals. Strategic planning produces result-oriented plans that look towards the future by assessing the existing conditions and determining what course of action is necessary in order to move towards their intended goal they have for the future of their organization.

Richard D. Young stated that there are four key concepts that appear in definitions when explaining strategic planning. Those are the following: The first is Vision: "Developing a common "vision for the future" or a "conceptualization" of where an organization wants or desires to be in the long term. The second is Assessment: appraising or determining where an organization is currently (I.E. its goals, objectives, activities, results,etc.) The third is Strategies: Identifying how an organization will actually realize (via concrete and predetermined actions)its mission, goals, and objectives. The fourth is Measurements: Evaluating the progress of an organization in the implementation of its action strategies."

Advantages of Strategic Planning

Author Paul Posner in the 2012 journal of The Public Manager offers the suggestion that if government agencies can develop more sophisticated models and metric systems it will better be able to more clearly identify a government agency's contributions to complex issues and it will be able to better meet its long-term goals when it comes to developing valid outcomes and results that government can use. This makes it possible that government agencies will be able to attract and retain motivated people to fill vital positions and create a federal hiring processes that is more responsive than those in the private sector and a federal compensation scheme that is more flexible or performance focused as its private competitors. Paul then developed a promising two-step approach to the implementation of strategic planning and it showed positive results when it was used by a some government agencies. First it examines the agency's processes, organizational, design, and contextual aspects and top management leadership and commitment dimensions. Second, it examined those results and the measures of strategic planning effectiveness from those charged with strategic planning Author Francis Stokes Berry in the 1994 Public Administration Review lists these factors as necessary for the successful implementation of strategic planning as fiscal health of an agency,the larger the agency-the more likely strategic planning is happen, during gubernatorial administrations cycles happen, when agencies work closely with the private sector, and the greater the extent of government agencies in public reach. Author Sergio Fernandez in the Australian Journal of Public Administration provided a study of public sector reform in the United States and how frontline public sector employees are vital innovators based on data from the 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey. Fernandez lists how this bottom-up innovation approach is an incubators of re-inventions, where ideas are discovered, learned, borrowed, adopted, and evolve through trial and error and is introduced throughout other agencies. It is also street-level bureaucrats who also influence the final form of the innovation and this is encouraging point for government agencies to keep building on this method. Author Paul Posner explains that the advantages of having government checks and balances in the Journal of the Public Manager which limit improper activity within government and outside of government such political appointments that increasingly layer the government positions with political leaders of close association.

References

1. Frances Stokes Barry. "Innovation in public management: The adoption of strategic planning." (http://search.proquest.com/abiglobal/docview/197164047/141C35ED5FE17F90E12/18?a.) Retrieved on 15 November 2013.

2. Paul Posner. "Offering Institutional Insight to Government's Leaders." (https://THEPUBLICMANAGER.ORG) Retrieved on 10 November 2013.

3. Sergio Fernandez. "Understanding Employee Motivation to Innovate: Evidence from Front Line Employees in United States Federal Agencies." (http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=9&sid=677cdb63-8d7a-4d84-8e3c-e307de18fed.) Retrieved on 15 November 2013.

Disadvantages of Strategic Planning

In a March 2013 report provided by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) it explains why it is hard for agencies to identifying the members of their acquisition workforce in addition with obtaining training for this particular workforce as a challenge to reaching the fundamental step towards keeping and retaining the best candidates for important jobs.<https://GAO.ORG> retrieved on November 23, 2013</ref> In similar findings, the GAO explains how some of the skills that are necessary to achieve Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) strategic planning goals state that the current strategies to address the gap and sustain critical skills are not based on identified gaps. Also, the EEOC is currently receiving less positive progress reports toward achieving its human capital goals because of the goals are not directly measurable or linked to its programming results. Author Aimee L. Franklin credits the passage of the Administrative Procedures Act of 1996, the Government Performance and Results Act 1933, and the administrative Procedures Act of 1946 as control mechanisms to deter government employees from acting in their self-interest and not society's interests. Formal Controls are presidential executive orders and legislative laws similar to employee handbook of national laws to discourage some behavior and it is more effective than informal controls such as ethical codes describing undesirable behaviors and are adopted by professional organizations.

References

1.Aimee L Franklin. " Serving the public interest? Federal experiences with participation in strategic planning." (http://search.proquest.com/abiglobal/docview/203259756/141C35ED5FE17F90E12/31?a.) Retrieved on 15 November 2013.

2.United States Government Accountability Office. "Acquisition Workforce: Federal Agencies Obtain Training to Meet Requirements, but Have Limited Insight into Costs and Benefits of Training Investments." (https://GAO.ORG) Retrieved on 23 November 2013.

3. United States Government Accountability Office. "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Sharing Promising Practices and Fully Implementing Strategic Human Capital Planning Can Improve Management of Growing Workload." (https://GAO.ORG) Retrieved on 24 November 2013.

Components of a System

Elements & Interconnections

Elements

Elements that consist in public sector organizations vary from the focus of specific organization. A study that was conducted by Theodore H. Poister and

Gregory Streib claimed that the most frequent elements used were the development of goals, objectives, visions for the future, reviews of their organizational missions and action plans.

These key elements are vital in having a successful strategic plan in the public sector because each element is unique in its own case. The tasks that each of these elements have can be defined differently depending on the organizations view's. The list below shows a broad task for each of these crucial elements:

• Goals: the broad based strategies are sufficient to reach the organization's mission.
• Objectives: are used to achieve the organizations goals and vision. These strategies are measurable, specific, action oriented, and realistic.
• Visions: these are simple statements that the organization used as a future road map. These visions should allow enough room for all areas of impact but small enough to define their path.
• Reviews: are used when the strategic plans are implemented by the organization. This is a very significant element in strategic planning. Reviews are used to monitor the success of the plan as well as the challenges that are being faced. When reviews are implemented to the plan they must find areas of weakness and reevaluate their goals and objective to fix the issues that have affected their original plan.
• Mission: this element defines the organizations image. This statement usually includes the core goals and values of the organization.
• Action Plan: the action plan is used when the plan has been outlines. The action plan will prioritized the organizations focuses and make sure that the strategy being implemented will meet the criteria for their plan as well as if the plan is possible.

Interconnections

Interconnection between the elements are broad in range because neither overlaps another in priority; rather these elements work together to meet a common goal. According to The Exploring Strategy Model developed by Gerry Johnson, Kevan Scholes, and Richard Whittington claims that the elements are interconnected through strategic choices, actions, and position. Each of these elements can be sub-categorized into their specific category in which they fall under. Strategic Position is mostly with the goals of the organization as well as mission. Strategic choice involves the direction in which the strategy might move. Strategy in action is concerned with the strategy in actual practice. Interconnection between the elements must always be working together in order to be make the organization successful.

Shared Services/Strategic Planning in the Public Sector

Muhammad Kamal, in an article appearing in the Journal of Enterprise Information Management defines shared services as "a collaborative strategy in which a subset of

existing business functions are concentrated into a new, semi-autonomous business unit that has a management structure designed to promote efficiency, value generation, cost savings and improved service for the internal customers of the parent corporation, like a business competing in the open market." While strategic planning is vital to stakeholders in the private sector, some issues arise when trying to apply a systems thinking model to the public sector. Muhammad's article claims, "that local authorities, municipalities and other government agencies have been marked of with bureaucratic style of working - with issues such as dismal service levels, soaring costs and red tap continually deteriorating the overall reputation of government sector.

Richard Young, of the Institute for Public Service and Policy at the University of South Carolina, found that "states (and also many local governments) essentially agree that strategic planning is a process of developing a long-term plan to guide an organization, for example, a state agency, department or commission, towards a clearly articulated mission, goals and objectives. It is a process of assessing where an organization is presently, ascertaining the challenges and opportunities that present themselves, and determining what destination is most desirable and how to get there." Formulating a long-term plan to achieve set goals encourages the sub-systems of an organization to combine their efforts toward attainable goals. Shared services, in addition to adequate strategic planning and commitment, proves capable of increasing productivity and efficiency to new levels. Strategic planning, as described by Stephen Haines, asks us:

Five Key Questions for Defining Strategic Planning:

• Where does the organization want to be (i.e., organizational ends, outcomes, purposes, goals, holistic vision)?
• How will the organization know when it gets there (i.e., the customers’ needs and wants as connected to a systematic feedback system)?
• Where is the organization presently (i.e., today’s issues and difficulties)?
• How does the organization get there (i.e., close the gap from Phase C through Phase A [a “backwards process”] in a complete and holistic way)?
• What will change, in an ongoing sense, in the organization’s environment?

Answering these few questions helps to:

1. Establish a functional relationship with an ongoing commitment to setting/achieving organizational objectives.
2. Easily identify current levels of productivity, and begin to pinpoint areas that need reform or improvement.
3. Provide a better understanding of the steps necessary to close the gap between where the organization is now and where it wants to be.

According to Young, David Boulter defines strategic planning as a "procedure for developing a long-term and policy-oriented device or scheme that ties together the present to a clarified image of the future." [Boulter also asserted that] "strategic planning sets out to identify specifically an agency or governmental unit’s mission, goals, measurable objectives, and performance strategies.” Richard Young's findings confirm that Boulter's definition "includes an assessment of an agency’s performance and accomplishments using a multi-year outlook. It also provides a solid basis for priority-based resource allocations and decisions using a decision-making process that relies on careful consideration of an agency’s capabilities and environment." These criteria give a straightforward assessment of which steps are necessary in order to promote growth.

"These steps," according to Robert Denhardt, "which may detail new policy positions or new organizational processes, will form a new action agenda for the community or the agency. This point cannot be over-emphasized. Strategic planning is only helpful as it provides guidance for the day-to-day operation of the city or the agency. To be useful, planning must ultimately be action oriented." Public sector entities can benefit from producing long-term goals to be completed as a whole. In conclusion, strategic planning can provide many advantages and benefits to the public sector (if the existing taskforce is willing to accept the change).