Improving health care planning--some lessons from immunization.

This article presents a managerial perspective on health planning by the Federal Government illustrated by the case of the Swine Flu Immunization Program. The recent national program in the U.S.A. for immunizing the entire population against the swine flu is examined in terms of the processes of health planning. It is concluded that this program was poorly planned and therefore doomed to failure from the beginning. Recommendations for improved planning of similar programs are made.     

Managing the impacts of large public programs

This paper is the result of a research project which investigated the impact of the U.S. space program on the American economy. Based on their field studies of past space program impacts, the authors develop several conclusions regarding the overall management and strategic planning of large public programs. In this article, the author outlines a structured approach to strategic planning and evaluation which will aid public program managers to respond to the challenge of impact management.     

Risk Communication in The Netherlands: The Monitored Introduction of the EC "Post-Seveso" Directive

Implementation of article 8.1 of the EC-"Seveso" Directive (82/501/EC) is now under way in many countries in Europe. In The Netherlands, the implementation of the Directive started with a carefully monitored introduction of active information provision at two sites (Dordrecht and Elst). This introduction was supported by a multidisciplinary research group. This group helped to develop the risk communication program and also played a role in the evaluation of the program. This paper describes these processes and their evaluation. We will focus on the design of the risk communication programs and the effects of the programs on knowledge and attitudes of the local target groups. This effort and its results clearly started an institutional learning process involving governmental bodies at several organizational levels (local, regional, and national), and industrial organizations (individual firms and organizations of industries). Monitoring the design, the implementation, and the effects of active information provision proves an effective means to gain experience with the implementation of the Seveso Directive and could help to facilitate further implementation.     

Designing innovative systems

Some current authors of management theory suggest that formal systems and procedures are inconsistent with innovative behaviour in organizations. Yet many organisations are developing increasingly formal strategic planning and control systems to assure organisational change and responsiveness to dynamic environments. In this article, the author suggests that these trends are not as paradoxical as they initially seem. However, formal systems design—to assists the innovation process—must exhibit different characteristics from the traditional design methods used by systems analysts, industrial engineers, or writers of policies and procedures.     

Planning a computer network: The octopus experience

The author of this article is engaged in software design and implementation for the decade-old Octopus computer network. This network remains in a continual state of growth and change in a constant effort to take advantage of the most advanced hardware and software available from an ever-developing technology. Those planning a computer network or other complex computer system should benefit by considering the Octopus experience with regard to the needs of computer users, methods of design, network and operating system structure, security and privacy, the management of limited resources, and the advantages of locally generated hardware and software.     

A Critical Reflection on the Experimental Method for Planning Research: Testing the Added Value of PSS in a Controlled Environment

For planning research to successfully generate usable mechanisms for planning practitioners more hypothesis-testing research designs are needed. Currently, the academic field seems more geared toward generating hypotheses, either by observing practice or from theoretical studies. This approach is especially common in research that generates knowledge of planning. In this paper, I map several relevant research designs that allow for such hypothesis testing and discuss their usability in planning research. Then, I particularly focus on the experimental method as a promising design for generating contextualized mechanisms for planning practice. I describe and analyze a study that aimed to develop mechanisms about the added value of knowledge technologies for the quality of planning. Two consecutive experiments are described in detail, after which the usability of the experimental method for planning research is discussed. Reflecting on these experiments indicate that the main strength of this research design is that it allows to create ideal circumstances for falsification (which is virtually impossible in planning practices. The main weakness is the ecological validity of findings, especially when the research is executed with students.     

A Case Study in the Programming and Maintenance of Institutional Change

While behavior change projects and component analyses have been critical to the development of behavioral technology, behaviorists working in human service institutions have not focused enough attention on the "packaging" and systematic application of a technology for institutional change. In the present study, a package of organizational behavior management procedures was systematically introduced in a human service setting. The goal of intervention was to promote and maintain institutional change sufficient to support the wide scale implementation and maintenance of state-of-the-art behavioral procedures for program management and service delivery. The specific procedures utilized in the study included the following: (1) planning; (2) establishing functional organizational structure; (3) recruiting, orienting, and training management and direct service personnel; (4) contracting for staff performance; (5) scheduling, supervising, and evaluating personnel; (6) obtaining and managing financial resources; (7) evaluating program operation; (8) ensuring legal safety; and (9) disseminating results. Sixteen dependent variables, chosen to illustrate the quantity and quality of institutional change, were measured for the three years prior to, and five years following, intervention. Data from these measures indicated that intervention resulted in a positive change in virtually every aspect of program operation and that change resulting from the study was durable over time. Within the limitations imposed by case study design, these results were interpreted to suggest that institutional change is possible and that the technology required to effect such change is currently available.     

Modern health care depends on technology, Part 2

The first article in this series presented the principles and vocabulary of technology assessment and described the process used at St. Luke's, a tertiary care hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This second article will describe the resources needed to support a technology assessment program. Technology planning, acquisition, and management will also be discussed. Historically, the health care marketplace has welcomed new technologies. In a future in which providers will be accountable for the outcomes of the care they provide, the ability to evaluate new and existing technologies will be essential for success.     

Scenario building: an integral methodology for learning,decision-making,and human resource development

Recognizing and managing the complexities of strategic change is a difficult endeavor for organizational leaders, and is one that is increasingly necessary for organizations that exist in uncertain and rapidly changing environments. Organizations, and the individuals within them, must develop expertise and tools to operate effectively in these conditions. Scenario building has gained attention as a methodology that enriches traditional strategic planning methods by helping organizational leaders recognize and better prepare for the critical uncertainties and complexities of forces driving future change. Scenario building is explored in this article to provide HRD professionals with a solid exposure to the art of scenario building. The process is defined and explained, its history briefly explored, and key benefits as a learning and decision-making tool as well as for the field of human resource development are discussed.     

Strategic planning—Which style do you need?

Strategic planning is now a large and diverse activity practised in many different kinds of organizations. This article provides an overview of the field with a summary of the five main schools of thought each with its own business philosophy and a range of practical approaches and techniques. These basic styles are concerned with planning as a central control system, a framework for innovation, an organizational change process, a political activity, and a way of exploring the future. Most planning systems have a dominant style or focus and this emphasis needs to be adjusted in response to changes which are occurring continually in the organization and in the external environment. The article is designed to help the senior manager or corporate planner to assess the state of planning in his organization and to see where there are important gaps in the enterprise's capability for planning which might be filled by the launching of new initiatives. The article also offers an agenda of approaches for consideration by the executive who wishes to move his enterprise from a conventional 5-year planning and budgeting system towards a more comprehensive process of managing organizational change and development.     

Translating planning into action

This article is concerned with planning as a practical tool for management action. It is not about the theories of planning but about the dynamic impact of planning on a company. The author is committed to planning as a vital discipline for any company and a necessary element in evoking response to technological and market change.     

Getting Professionals to Plan: Pressures, Obstacles and Tactical Responses

It has long been accepted that professional services gain their business on the basis of their own reputation or through client referral. It was almost an unspoken rule not to market their services, but in today's climate there is a need to break from this mould. In order to understand change in professional services, an in-depth survey was conducted covering 25 legal firms and 25 accountancy firms. This survey looked at three aspects: the pressure to conduct strategic marketing planning; the obstacles to such planning; and the tactical responses to these obstacles. The one-to-one interviewing method chosen brought forth genuine and sometimes surprisingly frank responses. The potential benefits of strategic marketing planning are examined, together with the difficulties of adopting such an initiative. The outcome of this research highlights a series of implications for theorists and practitioners, with suggestions of areas for further study.     

Endogenous Adaptation: The Effects of Technology Position and Planning Mode on IT‐Enabled Change*

The redesign of information technology (IT)‐enabled work processes often necessitates fundamental design changes to the intended work process, the IT platform hosting the work process, or both. Research suggests that such design changes often can be traced to earlier decisions involving endogenous adaptation or internal organizational change. Two such decisions are a firm's technology position and planning mode. This study examines the relationship between technology position and planning mode in predicting the magnitude of design change in process redesign projects. The conceptual frame applied in examining these relationships involves a synthesis of Miles and Snow's adaptive cycle with elements central to concurrent engineering. Our results indicate that the magnitude of design change is related to differences in technology position and planning mode. To effectively implement organizational change, firms must leverage their IT platform by carefully timing IT investments in accordance with their adopted technology position. Directing the trajectory of a firm's IT platform and deploying it so as to complement the firm's technology position reduces design uncertainty, promoting reengineering success.     

关于“通缩出口”论的检验:中、日、美三国比较

本文的目的是根据价格传递效应的理论,通过考察中、日、美三国间进出口价格的相互影响来检验是否存在中国“通缩出口”的现象。为了使检验结果更具有统计意义上的稳健性(robustness),论文在两个方面作出了创新的努力:首先,数据处理方法的选择。不再是只依赖对数据要求苛刻的古典最小二乘法来做参数估计,以免造成“虚假回归”的问题。注意到数据本身的序列相关、异方差、结构变化和非线性等特征,我们还分别采用了工具变量(IV)、虚拟变量(DM)、一般矩(GMM)、向量自回归(VAR)和误差修正(ECM)等比较科学的方法来检验中国“通缩出口”论假说的真伪性。其次,代理变量界定及其数据的设计。由于数据本身的不稳定性、数据不全或某些重要的概念缺乏对应的数据,所以,论文运用了ARI-MA的动态预测模型来完善数据,以减少其他数据加工的方法所带来的严重性的估计偏差问题。鉴于上述比较严密的实证方法,我们得到两个重要的政策含义:首先,主张中国“通缩”输出论是基于传统的“支出转移效应”的宏观分析视角,但忽略了进出口企业的定价能力等微观要素,所以,这种主张不符合数据反映的现实情况。其次,一国的货币政策可以制约汇率和外国价格对本国价格的传递效应,这一特点是现有的价格传递效应理论,即支出转移效应和商品价格?     

Using strategic planning to drive strategic change

This article describes a case history of strategic planning, learning and change within a major division of Dowty plc. At Dowty CASE, a telecommunications company, the management team used strategic planning as a structured learning process to generate strategic change. There are many lessons which academics and practitioners alike can learn from this case of strategic planning and change in action.     

Tackling the human problems in planning

This article presents findings from the first phase of a research program on the management of long-range planning systems. The initial focus is on behavioral problems encountered by those using planning systems and solutions for dealing with them. Both the problems and solutions were identified by chief planning officers during a university sponsored workshop. Some observations are offered about the way in which managerial thought processes affect the potential for resolving complex behavioral problems in organizations.     

Planning for changes in stages of corporate development

A considerable amount of research has demonstrated how companies evolve in terms of strategy and organizational design. The evolution of firms reflects the dynamic response of companies to their changing environment. It is logical that planning must also change in response to changes in overall corporate strategy. This dynamic aspect of planning requires a different approach than planning for the continuing growth of existing businesses based on a consistent strategic outlook. This difference is illustrated by reference to two components of planning: fixed and variable. These distinctions are used to demonstrate the dynamic aspect of planning and how planning can, and should, change to accomodate changes in management strategies.     

An investigation of company product decision making

This article is concerned with an investigation of the approaches taken by companies in making product decisions. The first part is concerned with a review of the range of product decisions as presented within the literature. This range is established within the context of corporate planning, with a major split between long term strategic planning product decisions, and short term operational planning product decisions. The second part of the article is concerned with the results of a survey that was designed to investigate the criteria that companies use within their product decision making. These criteria included those applicable to strategic planning, but also incorporated a range of criteria applicable to short term operational planning, as proposed in a recent article by Greenley [8]. The overall conclusion to the survey results was that a common and universal approach to product decision making cannot be identified within this sample of companies. A low level of agreement as to the relative degree of importance of the criteria was evident, and, little attention to differentiating product decisions with time was also evident. The results also challenge the importance given by the literature to the concepts of product life cycle, portfolio analysis and synergy. Finally, the author suggests two implications as a consequence of these results.     

Solving the Multidimensional Assignment Problem by a Cross-Entropy method

The Multidimensional Assignment Problem (MAP) is a higher dimensional version of the linear assignment problem, where we find tuples of elements from given sets, such that the total cost of the tuples is minimal. The MAP has many recognized applications such as data association, target tracking, and resource planning. While the linear assignment problem is solvable in polynomial time, the MAP is NP-hard. In this work, we develop a new approach based on the Cross-Entropy (CE) methods for solving the MAP. Exploiting the special structure of the MAP, we propose an appropriate family of discrete distributions on the feasible set of the MAP that allow us to design an efficient and scalable CE algorithm. The efficiency and scalability of our method are proved via several tests on large-scale problems with up to 5 dimensions and 20 elements in each dimension, which is equivalent to a 0–1 linear program with 3.2 millions binary variables and 100 constraints.     

Beyond Planning:: Strategies for Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

This article brings strategy back to managers and their organizations. It argues and demonstrates empirically that what managers do, and the kind of organization they lead, matter in terms of achieving stated objectives. Managerial action involves a set of activities from assessing the problem to prioritising action, and takes place within an organizational context which has two important elements for decision-making. First, organizations have an accumulated stock of experience, and the more managers can access and utilise this experience base the better. Secondly, the culture and structure of an organization may exhibit more or less readiness for the changes that decisions bring about, and contexts less ready for change pose problems for managers in the implementation of decisions.This long-term study of 55 decisions in UK firms shows that careful managerial planning does not of itself guarantee successful outcomes: the organizational context is crucial in framing actions and influencing achievement, and decisions may send a firm on a trajectory beyond the point at which it can plan with confidence. Where experience and readiness are strong, decisions achieve stated objectives—where both are lacking, decisions tend to fail. But, as examination of two illustrative cases indicates, strength in either domain may be enough: sound experience may win out in comparatively unreceptive situations, and decisions may still succeed where experience is lacking but the organization is ready for change. The article closes with some implications for managers.