Date of Graduation

1991

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Strategic Planning has become the most frequently used planning approach in universities during the decade of the eighties. The dynamic nature of the teaching, research, service, environments has caused higher education organizations to place extensive emphasis on scarce resources, multiple mission priorities, complex regulations, faculty needs and constituent satisfaction as critical elements in the planning process. As a result of this new dependency, numerous strategic planning specialists of this new dependency, numerous strategic planning specialists have developed criteria for connecting planning and success based on the strengths of the process. Only recently has organizational effectiveness been considered as a means of assessing the overall concept of strategic management, including consideration for both strengths and weaknesses of the planning process. To what extent have universities utilized their administrative leadership to develop a planning process that blends strategies relating to mission accomplishment (linear), environmental conditions (adaptive), and the cultural perspective (interpretive) of the institution? This study has examined the planning process of 75 research and doctoral granting universities and confirmed the type of strategic planning utilized. The study also identifies the extent of various effectiveness criteria. A number of basic planning and effectiveness conclusions about research and doctoral granting universities include: (1) Most have a linear (goal orientation) planning process, some plan interpretively (constituent orientation), few plan adaptively (environmental orientation). (2) All perceive high effectiveness with resource acquisition being least effective of 4 criteria reviewed. (3) A moderate correlation exists between planning types and effectiveness criteria. (4) Regression analysis of planning and effectiveness variables shows connections between planning processes and effectiveness criteria. (5) The analysis of a "match" between effectiveness outcomes and planning process shows a great consistency among universities. A model for planning in higher education should blend at least 3 types of planning, focusing on the results most advantageous, given the operating environment. A suitable combination of goal attainment, resource acquisition, ease of internal functioning and constituent satisfaction should be the objective.

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