Public Management Review
Call for Proposals for a Special Issue on Strategic Planning – The State of the Art on Theory and Practice
Edited by
John M. Bryson, University of Minnesota,
jmbryson@umn.edu
Lauren Hamilton Edwards, University of Maryland – Baltimore County,
ledwards@umbc.edu
David M. Van Slyke, Syracuse University,
vanslyke@maxwell.syr.edu
Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations, public-private partnerships, and collaborations has become a fairly ubiquitous practice in developed countries. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of research on what works and why, under what conditions, to what extent, in which types of organizations or settings, or for which purposes. This special issue is meant to help address that concern.
Papers on a variety of themes are sought. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:
1. How is strategic planning conceptualized, both in theory and practice? What are the various forms strategic planning can take for organizations, functions, projects, collaborations, and communities? What difference does it make in how it is conceptualized? Are there important international comparisons and contrasts?
2. Does how plans are conceptualized make a difference in the success of plans? How do plans function as boundary objects or transitional objects? Are there important international comparisons and contrasts?
3. What issues are involved in operationalizing strategic planning for purposes of research? How do competing ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies affect how strategic planning is operationalized and what are the implications for the kinds of findings that are possible?
4. What do meta-analyses of strategic planning and related forms of planning show? What are the implications of the findings for theory and practice?
5. Which forms of stakeholder participation in strategic planning are most effective? For example, what are the most effective connections between strategic planning for communities and citizen engagement? What role(s) do or can social media play?
6. What kinds of leadership and roles matter the most when it comes to engaging in effective strategic planning?
7. How does strategic planning align with other kinds of planning and with what effects?
8. How can or should strategic planning be managed in a decentralized organizational or community environment? Who should be involved, how, and why? Who should not be involved, and why? How can the processes be cascaded across organizations or communities?
9. Does it make a difference what strategic planning is done for, meaning the substantive area to which it is applied? In other words, are there important differences to be noted when strategic planning is applied in different substantive areas involving different technical, programmatic, administrative, political, and legal challenges? How do the substantive area and task environment affect the process, the plans, and their outcomes?
10. What are the available methods of linking strategic plans with implementation? Does it matter which are used?
11. What is the role of “micro-processes” in strategic planning (e.g., facilitation, stakeholder analysis and engagement processes, deliberation techniques, analytic tools and techniques, etc.)? What difference does it make which micro-processes are used, when, how, why, and by whom?
12. What are the main reasons why strategic planning is used? Is it used because it is required, a sign of legitimacy, everyone else is doing it, or because it works? Under what circumstances is strategic planning most likely to be used perfunctorily, politically, perversely, or purposefully?
13. How should the initial, intermediate and final outputs and outcomes of strategic planning be conceptualized and operationalized?
The Process
1. Two to four-page paper proposals are due no later than August 31, 2015, to the editors at:
jmbryson@umn.edu,
ledwards@umbc.edu, and
vanslyke@maxwell.syr.edu
2. The editors will decide which proposals should be accepted and then those authors are encouraged to submit a complete paper.
3. The editors encourage authors to submit drafts of their papers for review and comment by the editors prior to the final due date.
4. Final papers are due no later than December 30, 2015.
5. The blind review and revision process will end no later than November 30, 2016.
6. Finals manuscripts must be submitted to Routledge by December 31, 2016.
7. The special issue will be published in March 2017.
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McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
237 Humphrey Center
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Tel: 612-625-5888
Fax: 612-625-6351
Email:
jmbryson@umn.edu
Webpage http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/jmbryson/index.html