The emergent ‘coaching industry’: a wake-up call for HRD professionals

Recent years have seen the rapid growth of an emergent ‘coaching industry’ in many countries with some scholars calling for the development of a ‘coaching profession’ replete with its own clear identity, clear boundaries and unique body of knowledge. Yet, at the same time, coaching has also been conceived as a necessary area of expertise and skill set among contemporary HRD professionals. Therefore, this article reports the results of a comparative study of the different conceptualizations and definitions of ‘coaching’ and contemporary HRD as reported in the literature. Results suggest that the intended purposes and processes associated with both fields of practice are virtually the same. The challenge and dilemma posed by these results are described from both a coaching and HRD perspective, and are discussed in terms of seeing the findings of this comparative study as a wake-up call for HRD professionals.     

Performance analysis of a multi-agent scheduling and control system under manufacturing disturbances

This paper is concerned with evaluating the performance of alternative multi-agent approaches to manufacturing planning and control. In order to separate the influence of ‘control algorithm’ from that of ‘control architecture’, a simple local control algorithm is chosen as a common starting point for developing the agent-based system. Two sets of experiments are then reported to evaluate how changes in individual agent characteristics can affect the control system's flexibility and adaptability against disturbances. These experiments show that the manufacturing and control system performance is not affected by architecture if the control algorithm remains fixed, however, altering the characteristics of the control system decision-makers influences both systems’ performance.     

Corporate planning—a conceptual critique

Corporate planning is accepted by some as being an effective, efficient, and feasible means of charting the path an enterprise takes through the future. In this paper the author questions both the concept and the contribution of corporate planning. The author examines not only the problem of budgetary analysis within a planning process but also questions the ability of corporate planning to provide the necessary perspective of the future in any identifiable or probabilistic sense. The author postulates ‘the guts of corporate planning’. In the author's own word conceptual critiques ‘may be defined as setting up your own straw man in place of the other fellow's sawdust totem’. However, this paper presents some controversial yet fundamental criticisms of the current concepts of corporate planning. It is for the reader to judge whether the straw or the sawdust is deepest.     

Information is Power: Public Disclosure of Information in the Planning Decision-Making Process

The legitimacy and effectiveness of community engagement in planning lies in the extent to which the public can access the information required for informed decision-making. The control of ‘commercially sensitive material’ by local authorities acting as gatekeepers is a therefore a challenging area of information management within the planning application process. Through the analysis of key cases in England, this paper identifies that regulations do provide for ‘commercially sensitive material’ to be released to communities in many cases, but there is a need to achieve better transparency for communities about what information should be available about a development proposal.     

Citizens' Anti-highway Revolt in Post-Pinochet Chile: Catalyzing Innovation in Transport Planning

During the last third of the 20th century, citizens throughout North America and Europe organized protests against urban highway projects, influencing urban transport planning in ways that shape its evolution to this day. With the globalization of car-centred urban planning models, some similar movements have emerged in developing countries. What, if anything, can they tell us about citizens' role in innovation to achieve more socially just, good and livable cities? Using a multidisciplinary approach grounded in planning theory and a local adaptation of participatory action research methods, this study explores lessons from an anti-highway movement in Santiago, Chile (1997). This study contributes citizens' perspective on crucial issues within the philosophy and history of city planning, examining shifts in governance that can significantly influence the potential for change in planning and city systems, even under adverse conditions. Is improving participation just a matter of ‘getting the process right’? This experience indicates that it requires re-formulating frameworks to encompass democratization, fostering multi-scalar, self-generating civil society organizations, and focusing on the role of organized citizens, rather than individuals, as they act on policy ecologies. The evidence from this Santiago case supports Portugali's argument that planning is both a profession, exercised by especially trained ‘experts’, and a skill exercised by citizens working from their everyday expertise. This example explores the mechanisms through which, even in a relatively hostile environment, self-generated citizen organizations may play a significant role in contesting business-as-usual debates and achieving innovative policies favouring greater equality and sustainability.     

Governing the Circular Economy in the City: Local Planning Practice in London

ABSTRACT

There is interest in the circular economy as a framework for transition from a linear take-make-dispose model of production and consumption, to a circular model which decouples economic growth from resource consumption. However, there is limited understanding of how that applies to the city through governance lens. This paper examines evidence from 28 municipalities in London to unpack the ‘government’ and ‘governance’ of circular economy in the city. It examines the ‘governmentality’ of circular economy in planning practice and reflects on what austerity localism and scalar politics might mean for the planning and governance of circular economy in cities.     

New organizational structures: skill implications for professionals

Many writers predict that emerging new organizational structures will displace the traditional hierarchical structures. This paper looks at the skill implications for ‘professionals’ as these changes take place. It presents data gathered from a series of structured group discussions conducted with managers and professionals in the UK retail financial services sector (banking, insurance and mortgage lending) to illustrate how changing structures are impacting on ‘professional’ skills and roles. Six key trends, identified in the group discussions, are examined in the light of models which predict the way ‘professionals’ will be managed over the next few years. These trends are illustrated by short case examples or vignettes.     

An integrative spatial capital-based model for strategic local planning – An Israeli case

This paper presents an integrative model for strategic local planning based on the concept of spatial capital. The model bridges the gap between vision and reality by stimulating actions that are directed at mitigating challenges to the vision. The model uses the concept of ‘spatial capital,’ which is based on the accumulated assets and capabilities of a region. In addition, ‘development engines,’ which are alternative macrostrategies designed to help achieve the major goals set by the plan’s vision, are offered for use by the model. The developed model aims to achieve a better integration of the region’s overall capital resources.     

Corporate planning in developing economies

The critical factor in industrial planning in developing economies is the effective implementation of national or regional plans at the individual industrial enterprise level. This article focuses upon the ‘state of the art’ of corporate planning in developing countries and, having considered the difficulties and opportunities for improvement, suggests guidelines for a constructive assistance programme based on the development of planning in terms of progressive modular steps which may be introduced one at a time depending upon individual needs and other local circumstances.     

A framework for the strategic management of future tyre technology

Strategically managing technology faces one major problem: technology planners and managers who mistake ‘R & D management’ for ‘strategic technology management’. In globally competitive markets, survival and growth of tyre companies will increasingly depend upon the ability to manage technological resources strategically. This article proposes a process model which views the strategic management of technology as ‘techno-business management’, where technology and business strategy, planning and implementation can be facilitated by the use of portfolio frameworks and technology forecasting techniques in analysing and addressing the key strategic management areas of techno-business strategy development and strategy implementation.     

Unequal Regionalism: Regional Planning in China and England

This paper responds to the revival of regionalism in the past two decades by showing that such a re-emergence is unequal. Comparing the practice of regional planning in China and England, this paper has demonstrated that the party-state in China and the liberal-democratic state in England have responded differently to this revival and developed different framework for regional administration and planning. These variations have not only elaborated planners' concern about planning practice in a ‘context of difference’ from social dimension to geographical variations, but also echoed geographers' affirmation that global trends take on different characters in local setting.     

Rational Versus Communicative: Towards an Understanding of Spatial Planning Methods in German Planning Practice

This paper considers the use of planning methods in German planning practice against the background of the ‘communicative turn’. The debate about concepts of rationality in Germany as well as in other countries can be said to have resulted in the paradigm of communicative actor-oriented planning achieving at least the same standing as the analytical rationality of the classical expert-based planning model. The inconsistent use of the term method in research corresponds to empirical findings indicating that the term is used ambiguously in practice. Nonetheless, planning methods fulfil a number of functions in practice. The notion of a relatively clear division between ‘analytical-rational’ methods on the one hand and ‘communicative’ methods on the other hand was relativized by experimental investigations. The setting in which the methods are applied seems of more importance; even apparently ‘analytical-rational’ planning methods can be implemented in a more or less communicative fashion.     

Participative planning at Swiss reinsurance

Reinsurance—the insurance of insurance companies—is very much a behind-the-scenes business. It is not surprising to see that planning seminars and planning literature rarely touch on the problems of developing and implementing corporate planning models in this field. The Swiss Reinsurance planning example might show how sources from various industries and ‘doctrines’ were blended together and built to form a compact medium-term planning ‘package’ for a very specific type of service business.     

Contextualist-retroductive case study design for strategic asset management research

Abstract

This paper develops a tailored case study design for strategic asset management research. It draws on the notions of ‘contextualist approach’ and ‘retroductive strategy’ used in case study research, and follows the multiple embedded-case design advocated within qualitative research. Using a published asset management research study as a primer, it demonstrates the application of the proposed research design and its methodological rigour. This research design could serve as a reference framework, as well as a research instrument, for guiding asset management research. As such, it facilitates the development of theory that accounts for the multi-faceted nature and current priorities of asset management. Overall, this research design helps determine what activities to be incorporated into an asset management program to enhance an organization’s ability to capture value from its operations system. In so doing, it promotes a holistic perspective on asset management that is currently lacking in the literature.     

Planning Your Way to Job Growth

This paper examines the impact of comprehensive community planning on job growth in a US setting. Comprehensive planning is carried out in many communities, usually at the city or county level. Analyzing county-level data from the state of Georgia collected using a survey of planning professionals, we find that several aspects of planning and the subsequent implementation of the plan can have large impacts on job growth. We find that zoning standards increase job growth, but that it makes little difference how strict those zoning standards are. The largest increases in job growth can be captured simply by consistently following the adopted plan. This is likely due to the signal sent by following the plan that the local government can be trusted to keep other promises made in the process of attracting new businesses. Finally, the most innovative comprehensive plans were associated with lower job growth, at least within our 5-year post-plan study period, perhaps because already struggling communities pass innovative plans in hopes of correcting their shortcomings. The lesson our research holds for planners is that following the plan is likely more important for its success related to economic development than the particular features in the plan.     

The business portfolio approach—Where it falls down in practice

During the past decade the SBU (or portfolio) concept has enjoyed widespread popularity as a basis for corporate-wide strategic planning systems within large, diversified firms. This article discusses the implementation of such systems on the basis of 3 years of clinical and small sample research. A ‘basic model’ of implementation is used as a basis for comparison to progressive practice as observed in a sample of 13 firms. Furthermore, a new conceptual perspective for the portfolio concept is developed as a complement to the observed approach to implementation.     

How to design a financial planning model.

Corporate planning models frequently consist of integrated pro forma income statements, statements of financial position, and cashflow statements. When implemented by utilizing computer-based planning systems, these models allow managers to explore potential decisions in ‘what if?’ planning analyses.The logic of an integrated financial statement planning model can be arranged following either a ‘funds needed to balance approach’ or a ‘direct approach’. With a funds needed to balance approach total assets are set equal to total liabilities plus equities to satisfy this fundamental accounting identity. Logic in such models is often difficult to validate. In the direct approach, total assets are calculated independently of total liabilities plus equities providing an extremely strong test for model validation prior to using the model to assess ‘what if’ alternatives.In this paper, the author discusses the logic of integrated financial planning models and their implementation with computer-based planning systems. The funds need to balance approach and the direct approach are described and contrasted to assist corporate planners in evaluating and selecting a method for constructing the logic of corporate planning models.     

A commonsense approach to portfolio planning

For the diversified firm, business portfolio planning offers a way of determining its individual businesses' roles and developing a synergistic corporate strategy. In practice, however, the common tools of portfolio planning—the growth/share and market attractiveness/business position matrices—present problems in that often neither of the matrices is precisely suitable for a given individual business. This article makes use of modifications of the growth/share and market attractiveness/business position matrices in order to make them more operational. The authors believe that a step-by-step ‘shirt-sleeve’ approach to portfolio planning can make this type of analysis accessible and invaluable to a small diversified firm, as well as providing insights to larger corporations with formal planning departments.     

Environmental pollution and economic growth: Implications for corporate planning with an Indian case study

This article attempts to analyze the implications for Corporate planning, in developing societies, of the ecological debate. The emerging nations desperately need growth to raise the base living standards of the vast majority of their populace. Yet, the ‘backlash’ of the western movement for environmental preservation has spread to the third world. How is the dilemma resolved? Can growth and environmental balance coexist? A distinction must be made between the degradation caused by squalor or lack of growth and that emanating from growth. The spread of the basic amenities of life will reduce the former. The latter can be controlled by planned location and regulation of industrial growth. The corporate planner, therefore, needs to scrutinize the ecological implications of any project carefully before arriving at any value judgement. ‘Pollution scanning’ is now part of environmental scanning. An Indian case study highlights some of the issues involved.     

Strategic planning for the armed forces

The author points out that in most countries the defence department is a very large ‘business’. He claims that, although long-range planning in the Canadian Department of National Defence may not be perfect, it does follow the stages of traditional strategic planning. He describes these stages, pointing out some innovations which he feels could be of value to other government departments in other countries as well as to large corporations in the private sector. He emphasizes the importance of feedback and describes ‘capability components’ which have been developed in the Canadian defence department to replace the traditional thinking in terms of ‘Army, Navy, Air Force’. Each capability component focuses on the required output/result and has a sponsor who is responsible for developing plans for the long-term ‘state of health’ of his capability component. Overall, the author makes a strong case for forward-looking and results-oriented strategic planning.