Successful strategic plan implementation in public organizations : connecting People, Process, and Plan (3Ps)

Strategic planning (SP) remains the dominant approach to strategy formulation at all levels of government, and it is an enduring topic of public administration research and practice. Simultaneously, little is known about the conditions under which strategic plans are successfully implemented in government. This Viewpoint essay provides evidence-based recommendations from SP initiatives in Flemish municipalities using multi-informant and multisource survey data. It shows that successfully implementing strategic plans is influenced by the people, process, and plan (3Ps) underlying SP. Involving creators in SP helps make the SP process more informed. An informed SP process that includes constructive conflict helps induce high-quality strategic plans. High-quality strategic plans contribute to successful strategic plan implementation. Practitioners are encouraged to consider SP not as a one-size-fits-all solution to strategy formulation, but as an approach in which variation in people, process, and plan influences implementation success

Strategic-decision quality in public organizations : an information processing perspective

This study draws on information processing theory to investigate predictors of strategic-decision quality in public organizations. Information processing theory argues that (a) rational planning practices contribute to strategic-decision quality by injecting information into decision-making and (b) decision-makers contribute to strategic-decision quality by exchanging information during decision-making. These assumptions are tested upon fifty-five Flemish pupil guidance centers. Rational planning practices are operationalized as strategic planning, performance measurement and performance management. Information exchange by decision-makers during decision-making is operationalized as procedural justice of the decision-making process. Results suggest that procedural justice, strategic planning and performance management contribute to strategic-decision quality while performance measurement does not

Towards strategic-decision quality in Flemish municipalities: the importance of strategic planning and stakeholder participation

Legislation put forth by the Flemish government mandated Flemish municipalities to adopt strategic planning for their 2014-2019 policy cycle. The government’s assumption is that strategic planning’s approach to decision-making results in strategic-decision quality. Despite this assumption, it remains unclear whether and how strategic planning actually contributes to municipal decision-making. This study elucidates this issue. Drawing on survey data from 271 informants within 89 Flemish municipalities, we find that the systematic dimension of formal strategic planning and the participation of both core and peripheral stakeholders contribute to strategic-decision quality. However, the analytic dimension of formal strategic planning offers no significant contribution

New development : determinants of financial performance in public organisations

In the slipstream of NPM, public organizations worldwide have had to increase their financial performance by adopting management practices. Nonetheless, financial performance (FP) might be mostly predicted by contingencies that are not within direct managerial control. Drawing on evidence from 308 Flemish municipalities, this article shows that organizational and environmental contingencies affect FP, but a significant amount of variation in FP is unexplained-indicating that management could well matter

Rational planning and politicians' attitudes to spending and reform: replication and extension of a survey experiment

The rational planning cycle of formulating strategic goals and using performance information to assess implementation is assumed to assist decision-making by politicians. Empirical evidence for this assumption is, however, scarce. Our study replicates Nielsen and Baekgaard’s (2015) experiment on the relation between performance information and politicians’ attitudes to spending and reform and extends this experiment by investigating the role of strategic goals. Based on a randomized survey experiment with 1.484 Flemish city councilors and an analysis of 225 municipal strategic plans, we found that information on low and high performance as well as strategic goals directly impact decision-making by politicians

Does strategic planning ‘work’ in public organizations? Insights from Flemish municipalities

Strategic planning (SP) is a popular instrument within public organizations. Despite its popularity, it remains unknown whether SP actually ‘works’ in a public sector setting. This article presents insights based on three empirical articles and interviews with five expert stakeholders in Flemish municipalities. These insights suggest that SP is more than a fad and can contribute to positive outcomes. However, this contribution is contingent upon the behaviour underlying the SP process

Successful Strategic Plan Implementation in Public Organizations: Connecting People, Process, and Plan (3Ps)

Strategic planning (SP) remains the dominant approach to strategy formulation at all levels of government, and it is an enduring topic of public administration research and practice. Simultaneously, little is known about the conditions under which strategic plans are successfully implemented in government. This Viewpoint essay provides evidence-based recommendations from SP initiatives in Flemish municipalities using multi-informant and multisource survey data. It shows that successfully implementing strategic plans is influenced by the people, process, an

A survey of parental resistance to treatment in the Division of Mental Hygiene Child Guidance Clinics as found in cases closed during the fiscal year July 1945 to June 1946

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University, 1947. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Blue Bird

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2845/thumbnail.jp