Toward a More Strategic View of Strategic Planning Research

This book summarizes the current state of research on strategic planning and offers an agenda for future research.

The book edition comes with a new introduction that argues that strategising by public, non-profit and business organisations should be a major focus of research. Strategising is what links aspirations, capabilities, and implementation. Strategic planning should be viewed as one approach, but not the only approach, to strategising. A focus on strategising prompts researchers to consider issues of vertical and horizontal alignment of purpose, including across sectors; competence and scalability; co-production; decision-making and change management; and trust, transparency, authenticity and accountability. Additionally, the role of various strategising techniques and information technology should be analysed further.

Beyond the book’s introductory overview of the field, chapters focus on the following topics:

• planning styles
• collaboration, strategic plans, and government performance
• impacts of context and political responsibilities on government strategic planning efforts
• impacts of strategic planning in municipal governments
• impacts of austerity on strategic planning and government performance

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Public Management Review.

John M. Bryson is McKnight Presidential Professor Emeritus at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the award-winning Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 5th Edition (2018). He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Lauren Hamilton Edwards is Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her work on the strategies and tools employed by public and nonprofit organizations is published in top journals, including the American Review of Public Administration and Public Administration Review.

David M. Van Slyke is Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the Defense Business Board at the U.S. Department of Defense.