Formal Strategic Planning

Formal strategic planning (FSP) is defined as "the process of determining the mission, major objectives, strategies, and policies that govern the acquisition and allocation of resources to achieve organizational aims" (Pearce, Freeman, and Robinson, 1987, p. 658). Strategic planning is a process which generates specific actions which are required to carry out a particular strategy. By definition, thus, the strategic planning process begins subsequent to the adoption of a strategy. The entire strategic process within an organization, however, is a set of highly interrelated components, which function within a dynamic environment. Thus, in the "real world", strategic planning will often precede strategy development, because of the cyclical character of the strategic process. The generally recognized elements of the strategic cycle are (1) organizational considerations, which are concerned primarily with the organizational structure, (2) resource requirements, (3) strategic control, which is concerned primarily with the organization's internal environment, (4) strategic planning, which is concerned primarily with the external environment of the organization, and (5) the development of strategy, which is th

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proach to the process of strategic planningan approach which recognizes that changing conditions in a firm's external environment both constrain the feasibility of alternative strategies, and demands, at times, changes in a strategic planappears obvious, few contemporary managers appear to be able to accommodate such flexibility (Ramanujam and Venkatraman, 1987, pp. 453468). Many managers, in an attempt to eliminate uncertainty from their strategic planning, simply ignore the dynamism of their firm's external environment (Namiki, 1989, pp. 7288). As far back as 1980, Robert Hayes and William Abernathy (1980, pp. 67) referred to this syndrome as managing "our way to economic decline." As stated at an earlier point in this discussion, McCaskey said in 1974 that strategic planning must become an intuitive process; a process in which (1) arenas of activity, and (2) preferred styles of action are identified, and provide the basis for strategy development, as opposed to basing strategy development on rigidly adhered to objectives and goals. At about the same time, Miles, Snow, and Pfeffer, as also stated at an earlier point in this discussion, described a way in which the strategy of a firm could be effectively related to
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William Glueck, Rees BrooksRooney, Pappas Brigham, Michael McCaskey, Freeman Robinson, Litschert Ramaswamy, strategic planning, Ramanujam Venkatraman, Kolb Black, Guthrie Chen, Jeffrey Pfeffer, planning process, strategic planning process, organizational performance, external environment, performance objectives, strategic management, 1991 pp, management journal, 1990 pp, strategic management journal, firm's strategic planning, effective strategic planning, 1989 pp, organizational performance objectives,
Approximate Word count = 3926
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)

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