Information for more effective strategic planning

This paper illustrates how an entity—called a ‘strategic data base’ (SDB)—can be developed to provide important information in a form which makes it directly useful in various phases of a strategic planning process. The strategic data bases are concise statements of the organizational and environmental situations which define the organization's most salient problems, opportunities, and constraints. These SDBs may be developed through a participative process involving tasks forces which are made up of managers representing the diverse interests of the organization. The strategic data bases thereby become important informational inputs to planning which can directly serve to enhance the quality of planning decisions. Moreover, the process of developing SDBs can be an important learning device for those middle managers who can become involved in such a process at a much earlier point in their career than that at which they might normally engage substantively in the organization's overall strategic choice process.     

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.     

Investment and planning in R & D

When planning investment in R & D the required resources must be available—including intellectual resources. Ideally all the issues should be clear: and the R & D programme itself should be the most direct route to the objective, avoiding costly lavishness that may divert attention and effort. Innovation involves using intellectual capital and resources to their best advantage, for commercially worthwhile technical progress in industry. Planning is one of the ‘tools’ and both R & D and investment are ‘materials’ of progress. In this paper, the author examines the many implications behind this statement.     

Information technology and productivity: Myths and realities

In the absence of empirical research, media and government publicity have created false expectations and unnecessary anxieties about the effects of new technology. It is comparatively easy to show how information technology can produce productivity gains and job losses in specific areas. But it is not realistic to extrapolate ‘local’ effects to an organization as a whole, or to the economy. The argument of this paper is that it is necessary to consider the implications of technical change on three ‘levels of effect’—operating, organizational and strategic—in order to make a comprehensive assessment. Management, however, appear to concentrate on operating criteria, ignore the consequences of organizational decisions, and do not explore the strategic opportunities of the new technology. The potential strategic advantages may thus not be achieved.     

The lost art of planning

The purpose of this article is to present and illustrate planning as a generic and highly skilled activity. Central to this approach is a clear understanding of the objective of planning as reflected in the definition of the problem to be dealt with. It is the ability to make this essential judgement of ends and means that constitutes the ‘lost art’ of planning. Four distinct types of problems are identified: simple problems, compound problems, complex problems and meta-problems. This typology is used to show how the nature of what is to be planned determines how far planning can be expected to help and how best to go about doing it. A detailed example is provided to illustrate how a problem can be made more or less ‘manageable’ and the advantages and disadvantages that this entails. Finally, four different strategies are outlined for dealing with each of the four types of problems.     

Bypassing Publicity for Getting Things Done: Between Informal and Formal Planning Practices in Finland

This article contributes to the discussion concerning the ways in which network governance and classical-modernist government practices juxtapose and redefine the idea of publicity in planning practices. Through Finnish urban planning cases we ask what kind of publicity is being promoted. We argue that new modes of governing build and employ institutional ambiguity for ‘getting things done’. This provides possibilities to ‘skim the cream’ of the best possible ways of resolving present planning issues. The crucial question is whether the possible positive outcomes give a mandate to the process, even if the process operates in a democratic void.     

Ecological Information Needs for Environmental Justice

The concept that all peoples should have their voices heard on matters that affect their well‐being is at the core of environmental justice (EJ). The inability of some people of small towns, rural areas, minority, and low‐income communities, to become involved in environmental decisions is sometimes due to a lack of information. We provide a template for the ecological information that is essential to examine environmental risks to EJ populations within average communities, using case studies from South Carolina (Savannah River, a DOE site with minority impacts), Washington (Hanford, a DOE site with Native American impacts), and New Jersey (nonpoint, urbanized community pollution). While the basic ecological and public health information needs for risk evaluations and assessments are well described, less attention has been focused on standardizing information about EJ communities or EJ populations within larger communities. We suggest that information needed about EJ communities and populations includes demographics, consumptive and nonconsumptive uses of their regional environment (for example, maintenance and cosmetic, medicinal/religious/cultural uses), eco‐dependency webs, and eco‐cultural attributes. A purely demographics approach might not even identify EJ populations or neighborhoods, much less their spatial relation to the impact source or to each other. Using information from three case studies, we illustrate that some information is readily available (e.g., consumption rates for standard items such as fish), but there is less information about medicinal, cultural, religious, eco‐cultural dependency webs, and eco‐cultural attributes, all of which depend in some way on intact, functioning, and healthy ecosystems.     

The benefits of planning with normative and heuristic approaches

The effectiveness of planning groups that used normative planning approaches and heuristics were investigated. The quality and innovation in plans developed using each planning approach were compared. Two studies were carried out in three organizations. In the first study, a ‘behavioral’ planning approach and a heuristic were used in a single organization. In the second study, a ‘systems’ planning approach and the heuristic were applied in two organizations. The field experiments demonstrated that the normative planning methods produced plans with superior quality and higher information levels. No differences in plan innovation were observed. Some guides for practice were derived from these findings.     

The Value of Using Scheduling Information in Planning Material Requirements*

Current research and practice in the field of production and inventory planning is dominated by hierarchical, material requirements planning-based methods. The objective of this research is to determine the merits of a major redirection for the design of manufacturing planning systems—a direction that more directly exploits the capabilities of modern computer technology. We test the relative performance of two fundamentally different classes of manufacturing planning systems: (1) those that make no use of sequencing and scheduling information in the planning of material deliveries (for example, traditional MRP-based systems), and (2) those that use sequencing and scheduling information to plan delivery of materials. We first derive an analytical expression for the expected benefit (in terms of flow time reduction) of using scheduling information for a single machine system. We then describe and test a simple heuristic for predicting the improvement that could be realized in more complicated multimachine systems, under certain conditions. Results from controlled simulation experiments, over a wide range of operating environments, suggest that although the value of scheduling information is influenced by the operating environment, it could be substantial.     

Best Practices and Policy Transfer in Spatial Planning

Abstract

Numerous European programs and initiatives have been instrumental in identifying a large and increasing number of examples of best practice (or good practice) in the field of spatial planning. In fact, there is now a profligacy of best practice, which means that many researchers and policy-makers are often confronted with too much information when trying to identify examples of policy and practice in other places. The identification and dissemination of best practices has become a growing industry in many areas of European policy, including spatial planning and urban environmental issues. In many cases, an underlying assumption of best practices is that they are equally applicable and effective in another setting, and that the development and dissemination of best practice will help to lead to improvements in policy and practice in other countries, regions or cities. However, the reality is that best practices have a more limited role in policy-making processes: other influences are frequently more important. The value of exchanging European best practices is limited since there are huge differences in the economic, political or social situation between countries in the European Union. This is particularly true when considering the transfer of best practices between ‘new’ and ‘old’ member states, where the social and economic situation, as well as the institutional frameworks, are often very different in ‘borrowing’ and ‘lending’ countries.     

Critical Realism,Managers and Information

Many accounts of contemporary management raise the issue of the effective use of information, but little is said about how this is to be achieved. This paper sets notions of ‘information literacy’, drawn from higher education, against the reflections of a small group of managers. This indicates that there are a number of dimensions, notably the relationship of information use to organizational power, that are not adequately catered for in current conceptions of information literacy. It is argued that existing accounts focus excessively on the construction of meaning without taking into account the constraints on such construction. Drawing on resources from critical realism, these constraints are taken to relate both to the individual's embodied nature and to the structural dimensions of their practice. Exploration of these constraints is felt to require attention to the temporal dimension of social analysis and to an examination of the interrelationships between structure and agency.     

When Does Information about Probability Count in Choices Under Risk?

The question addressed in the present research is whether in naturalistic risky decision environments people are sensitive to information about the probability parameter. In Study 1, we showed that in naturalistic scenarios participants generally revealed little interest in obtaining information about the outcomes and probabilities. Moreover, participants asked fewer questions about probabilities for scenarios containing moral considerations. In Study 2, it was shown that, when supplied with information on probabilities, people could be sensitive to this information. This sensitivity depends on two factors. People were less sensitive to probabilities in scenarios perceived as containing ethical considerations. People were also less sensitive to probabilities when they were faced with a single-choice situation than when they were faced with a series of lotteries with different probabilities. This can be accounted for in terms of the evaluability principle.     

Design of a strategic planning management information system

Information systems that are to support strategic planning must be developed on bases that reflect the unique nature of strategic organizational decisions. This paper presents a systems design methodology which implements five basic criteria for the design of a strategic planning Management Information System (MIS). The methodology uses discriminant analyses of the perceived importance to managers of various categories of strategic information to delineate the most significant information requirements of various managerial groups. These results are augmented with similar analyses based on the personal characteristics of the potential system users in order to implement a design criterion related to the integrated nature of a planning MIS and a ‘teaching’ objective which is posited to be valid and feasible for such a system.     

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.     

Formal planning in major U.S. corporations

As the world about us changes, managers in all types of institutions try to cope in a variety of ways. In the early 1960s, many corporate managers realized they could not make sound decisions about future business activities in an expedient, reactive manner because their firms were growing very large and complex with new technologies, products, markets and competition to deal with. As a result, formal planning techniques which had been used in narrow functional applications were introduced on a much broader scale and formal long-range planning became popular. New corporate planning functions appeared in many companies, as well as new staff planning specialists and planning executives. The author conducted a field study on the design of these systems in the mid-1960s and he argues that they showed great promise for improved management.With this history in mind, we might ask why such subjects as ‘planning techniques’ and ‘problems of implementation’ are still topics of concern. It would seem that such techniques would be well known and established in most firms after 10–15 years. However, this is not the case, for during a second field study of corporate planning systems which was completed in 1976 the author found that many corporations, including some of the largest ones, had redesigned their planning systems in the early 1970s, essentially making a fresh start at formal long-range planning. (See Table 1).From his recent field study the author concludes that all corporations experience problems in implementing and using a formal planning system. The nature of these problems and some possible remedies are the subjects upon which this article focuses.     

信息条件下的城市运输规划方法

交通网络中信息的引入,改变了以往人们的出行行为。常规的出行需求预测模型在信息条件下,需要进行合理改进。本文提出了将传统的出行产生模型与动态交通模拟模型集成进行信息条件下的城市运输规划研究的一种新的方法框架     

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.     

Who should plan technological innovation?

Over the last 10 years there has been a growing need to improve integration between business planning and R & D activities. One reason for this has been a decrease in the returns on R & D investments. An understanding of the relationship between demand and technological innovation is needed to achieve this integration. The planning approach will be very different depending on whether the company's business is based on ‘technology-push’ or ‘demand-pull’, and whether planning is controlled by the R & D or the marketing function.     

The social construction of strategic coherence: Practices of enabling leadership

The construction of “strategic coherence,” defined as the development of a system of mutually compatible meanings among organization members about desirable organizational directions, is clearly a crucial issue for organizations. Yet, how to achieve it is in part an open question. While previous studies have considered how strategic coherence may emerge across top levels of management through strategic planning activities and negotiations among senior leaders, we know much less about the contribution of other actors and processes behind the scenes (in non-strategy roles). Drawing on an ethnographic study of a public hospital's planning and project management practices, this paper therefore focuses on the bundles of practices, people and tools through which strategic coherence can emerge across different levels and sectors in mundane activities. We build on the concept of “enabling leadership”, grounded in practice theories of leadership, as our analytical lens. The study reveals how strategic coherence is socially constructed by practices of ‘fueling’, ‘shaping’ and ‘entwining’ mutually compatible meanings, in interactions among diverse people and tools. We propose a grounded model of the construction of strategic coherence as the progressive socialization of meanings about organizational direction that is not just administered from the top, nor naturally emergent from the grass-roots, but that is a collective and inherently socio-material accomplishment of enabling leadership.     

Strategic planning in a changing corporate environment

Strategic planning is about nothing, if it is not about attempting to achieve desirable futures. In the past this has often been seen as an excuse, or indeed a necessity, for fixed goals which are constantly timed. Such a state of planning has, fortunately, for a long time now been discredited and this paper concentrates upon the concepts of strategic planning within the changing corporate environment, an environment which therefore has to effect both the goals as well as the process of planning. Furthermore, the author concentrates upon the concept of a planning, allocating, and monitoring cycle of strategic planning which sets the strategic planning concept within a process cycle as well as within an effective allocative structure. The author considers this latter point an extremely important one since, as he says, ‘planning can become a very sterile and barren activity if it is not viewed integrally with acting and doing’. Finally, this paper concentrates on the important fact that planning must, within a dynamic environment, be an iterative and a learning process.