Elements of Strategic Planning and Management in Municipal Government: Status after Two Decades

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of strategic planning and management processes in municipal governments with populations over 25,000. Strategic planning has been used in municipalities for 20 years now, but little is known about how it is used and the results obtained. In particular, we explore whether municipal governments tie other components of the overall strategic management process to their strategic plans. Findings do not show a dramatic expansion in the use of strategic planning, but there is some evidence of growing sophistication, as demonstrated by links to other management and decision-making activities. Managers were enthusiastic about their experiences with strategic planning and largely satisfied with their achievement of goals and objectives. Overall, we find a raising of the bar as far as strategic planning is concerned, but the use of comprehensive strategic management is only beginning to develop in a small number of leading-edge municipalities.Strategic planning was introduced into the public sector 20 years ago, with much of the early literature focusing on local government applications (Dodge and Eadie 1982;Eadie 1983;Sorkin, Ferris, and Hudak 1984;Denhardt 1985). Over the past two decades, academics and practicing professionals have shown a sustained interest in strategic planning, and it has become a centerpiece of orthodox public management. Indeed, a recent study of the public management literature from a practitioner's perspective found strategic planning to be the most frequently discussed topic in at least one major public administration journal (Streib, Slotkin, and Rivera 2001). Beyond strategic planning itself, over the past several years interest has also focused on the broader process of strategic management in the public sector (Vinzant and Vinzant 1996a;Poister and Streib 1999;Zanetti and Cunningham 2000).The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requires federal agencies to develop strategic plans and tie them to budgets and performance measures, and many states have imposed similar results-oriented requirements through legislation or executive mandates (Broom 1995;Melkers and Willoughby 1998;Aristigueta 1999). Thus, 60 percent of a sample of state agencies responding to a 1995 survey reported using some form of strategic planning (Berry and Wechsler 1995). In contrast, there is no blanket requirement for local government jurisdictions to use particular approaches to planning and management. However, a decade ago, another study found that nearly 40 percent of municipal jurisdictions with populations over 25,000 had engaged in strategic planning on a citywide basis (Poister and Streib 1994). On the other hand, a number of authors have detailed the difficulty of using strategic planning effectively in local government settings

Innovation in public services: The case of Spanish local government

“…Some scholars argue that local governments are more apt to innovate than state and federal governments because of their capacity to make decisions quickly and decisively. Therefore, and based on the assumption that the largest town halls apply more strategic management techniques (Agranoff and McGuire, 2003;Berman, 1996;Boje and Whetten, 1981;Martins-Gonçalves and Sampaio, 2012;Poister and Streib, 2005;), the authors decide to send a questionnaire to the town halls of the largest Spanish cities, taking number of inhabitants as the index for municipality size. This information comes from a database called La Web Municipal (http://www.lawebmunicipal.com).…”

“…Consequently, strategic planning and management techniques have fully entered the public sector in the last twenty years (Bauer, Guzmán, and Santos, 2012;Chang and Chen, 2012;Poister and Streib, 2005). Throughout this period, both academics and private sector executives have shown great interest in trying to determine how the use of strategic management tools could improve business performance.…”

“…Thus, papers by Andrews, Boyne, Law and Walker (2009), Enticott and Walker (2008), Greenwood (1987), Meier, O'Toole, Boyne, and Walker (2007) and Poister and Streib (2005) use this model to provide the basis for the analysis of local administrations, public schools or other types of public bodies.…”

Strategic decision quality in Flemish municipalities

“…This is because NPM expects that public organizations that adopt a systematic and analytic strategic decision-making process, characterized by stakeholder participation, will develop a more qualitative set of informed strategic decisions (i.e. a coherent and focused strategic plan) (Poister and Streib, 2005;Poister et al, 2013). Frequently discussed examples include the US Government Performance and Results Act 1993 and the UK Best Value Regime introduced in 2000 (Boyne et al, 2002;Poister and Streib, 2005).…”

“…a coherent and focused strategic plan) (Poister and Streib, 2005;Poister et al, 2013). Frequently discussed examples include the US Government Performance and Results Act 1993 and the UK Best Value Regime introduced in 2000 (Boyne et al, 2002;Poister and Streib, 2005).…”