Limitations of strategic management

Limitations of strategic management
Despite the difficulties of practicalities, strategic planning is essentially seen as a rational approach the organisational management. It assumes that leaders can acquire a measure of control over the often turbulent, and always changing, external environment. Strategy is seductive; it appears to offer the potential to help managers to create order from chaos, to gain mastery over external forces, to Integra'


often disparate processes and to look beyond the immediate problems to a brighter future In practice, though, there are several limitations, as West-Burnham (1994b, pp. 87-8) suggests:
However attractive this model may appear in terms of coherence and relative simplicity it is not unproblematic. Any rational approach to planning will inevitably be compromised by a number of factor.
1. The extent to which vision and values are shared - cultural homogeneity is an aspiration rather than the norm in most educational institutions
2. The problems in Identifying a vision which is capable of changing to meet the perceptions and legitimate demands of all stakeholders over a significant time-scale
3. The concern that the dominance of one vision can over-simplify reality and thereby inhibit creativity, I.e. the organization becomes mechanistic.
Some of these problems are Illustrated by Wallace's (1991) research on strategic planning in two primary and two secondary schools in England. He chronicles a series of unforeseen events which disrupted planning in his case-study schools: 'While some plans were carried through as predicted, the substance of schools' development plans became less representative of changing priorities, targets and detailed plans as the year progressed and did not in practice guide ongoing development planning' (ibid., p: IS4).
Wallace (ibid.) summarises the factors which disrupted strategic planning at these schools, including the following:
• The multiplicity of goals, some of which came and went, that competed for the attention at any time
• Unpredictable crises and issues affecting Innovations and other work, alongside the predictability of most routine activity in school.
• The inability to predict some shifts in central government and LEA policies while being able to predict the possibility if not the timing, of others.
• The combination of relative uncertainty about some external Innovations or the arrangements for their introduction and clarity about others.
These factors illustrate the desirability of strategic planning being undertaken in a stable context In practice, the rapid pace of change means that strategy is an ongoing, evolving and uncertain process. Rational models underpin much of the normative literature on school and college management, including that emanating from government agencies. Glover et at. (1996, p. 136) Identify the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) model as being 'highly rational and technicist ... Educational objectives need to be explicitly defined and selected and then implemented through action plans ... The model can be seen as approaching the educational equivalent of formal strategic planning'
Wong et al. (1998, p. 69) argue that 'purely rational approaches to planning may n( t be appropriate' Referring to the Hong Kong context they advocate a process of flexible planning and the participation of teachers In the planning process, on approach consistent with the collegial model which we shall examine In chapter 5. They conclude that participative and flexible planning is more likely to be effective than traditional planning models:
For planning to be effective in coordinating school activities and producing positive outcomes, self-managing schools in Hong Kong should adopt a flexible planning approach ... In this model, responding to the environment Is a key concept... Teachers should be encouraged and helped to participate in planning decisions. If the plan is developed collaboratively, teachers' professional knowledge and experience are utilised and there should be better scanning and evaluation of the environment' (ibid., pp. 77-8).
However, the size of the organisation may be problematic in achieving the full participal, on of staff. One of the college principals interviewed in Lumby's (1999, p. 76) research ask(d: