P05 Strategic planning and management for public value creation in turbulent times
Corresponding chair and review group chair:
David Špaček, Associate Professor, Masaryk University, Brno, david.spacek@econ.muni.cz
Co-chairs:
Sara Brorström, Associate Professor, Gothenburg University
Bert George, Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong
Åge Johnsen, Professor, Oslo Metropolitan University
Description
Strategic planning and management have long been considered approaches to enable public value creation in public organizations and related entities like collaborations or networks. These approaches are extremely popular, with strategic planning typically focusing on strategy formulation and strategic management on the more continuous practice of integrating planning, implementation and continuous learning. Yet, coming out of a global pandemic, these managerial approaches have received strong criticism in part due to the realization that many events often did or do not go as planned. Formulated plans and strategies become obsolete very fast and flexibility as well as learning during decision-making was paramount. Simultaneously, evidence demonstrates that strategic planning and management help to align an organization’s aspirations with its capabilities, thus ensuring that strategies are not empty rhetoric that fail to achieve implementation. Additionally, strategic planning and management have been argued to provide an important framework, a map, a sense of purpose to work towards even when times are turbulent and uncertainties are vast. In this panel, we seek to identify the practice and usefulness of strategic planning and management in times of turbulence.
A number of questions related to strategic planning and management could be:
- Has the COVID-19 (or other crises) influenced strategic planning and management in public organizations and related entities? And how?
- Which adaptations were made to strategic planning and management taking into account the need for flexibility and learning?
- What is the relationship between strategic planning and management, and crises management?
- Under which conditions are strategic planning and management considered useful in times of turbulence (or not)?
- Are there differences in terms of who is involved, which tools are used, and what the process looks like during strategic planning and management in times of turbulence?
Answering these questions may be helpful for advancing the theory as well as the practice of strategic planning and management for public value creation.
Requirements on abstracts
The panel invites both theoretical, review and empirical papers that deal with these questions or other questions related to public value and strategic planning and management. Paper abstracts should include a short description of the topic, the research question(s) and method, and an indication of the research findings.