Strategic Planning: Mission, Vision, Goals, and Objectives
2.5 Three Levels of Objectives
The same goal may give rise to quite different objectives—either because they are framed by different groups or individuals from different perspectives or because they are deliberately varied in order to stimulate a “dialogue” from which mutual understanding and clarification may emerge or be enhanced [23]. By the same token, different objectives (or sets of objectives) may lead to the same goal but with varying costs and benefits. The action programs associated with each objective may involve different operating and capital costs.
Approximations of these costs and benefits may assist in the discussions among various groups and the public in general in the further clarification of goals.
Strategic objectivesdefine the expected change in conditions, welfare, or behavior as a consequence of the initiation of some program or activity (i.e., the justification for undertaking the program or activity). Such objectives relate to the impact of the programs or activities of an organization on its clientele or service groups (usually external).
The following statements, for example, might be considered an appropriate strategic objective for a City Planning Department: Increase efficiency and ensure consistency in the administration of government activities by providing a full range of capital facilities planning to the service programs of the city. This statement specifies the conditions that the application of strategic planning is intended to achieve (increased efficiency and consistency in the administration of government programs), and by implication, it identifies the community at large as the intended target group.
Strategic objectives should specify what the organization proposes to do andwhy it proposes to do so. The tendency, however, is to focus on the how.
Thus, an appropriate strategic objective of a municipal fire department might be: “Reduce current response time to all fire and emergency vehicle calls by 25% during the next two years.” A statement: “Build, equip, and staff a third fire station during the next two years” tells how the strategic objective might be accomplished and should be reserved for the next level in the delineation of specific program actions.
Management objectivesshould describe specific program actions in terms ofhowandwherespecific resources (project budgets) will be used. Management objectives identify the commitments required to translate a strategic objective into specific activities. Management objectives often reflect staffing requirements or other resource commitments required to achieve a single key result. Such objectives usually areinternalto the organization and are often associated with and identified through such techniques as management by objectives (MBO).
Management objectives may identify how an organization intends to carry out a particular program component.
Management objectives should be precise, measurable, and time bound.
This degree of specificity is not easily achieved. The tendency often is to state objectives that simply describe current activities. In order to avoid this pitfall, objectives should be expressed in words of change—for example, to develop, to increase, to reduce, to eliminate, to prevent, to maintain, and so forth.
Finz suggested the following criteria regarding the formulation of management objectives [24]:
1. Objectives should provide quantitative levels to be achieved.
2. Objectives that do not provide quantitative levels should at least provide a measure in terms of time and budget constraints.
3. Objectives can be expressed in terms of satisfaction or acceptance on the part of those affected by the services provided.
4. Objectives that cannot be expressed in the form of positive quantifi- cation nevertheless should be more specific than goals.
The so-calledrule of rigor in the Social Sciences can be stated as: If you can count it, count it; if you can’t count it, describe it; if you can’t count it or describe it, forget it.
One management objective emerging from the previously cited strategic objective that the Planning Department might adopt is:Conduct a series of public meetings and workshops to foster greater citizen involvement in identifying the community’s long-range goals and objectives. The specific actions by the planning staff involve the development and implementation of opportunities whereby the public could participate in discussions regarding the overall goals and objectives of the city. This statement implies that staff will be assigned to carry out or coordinate various tasks in the development and implementation of these public meetings and workshops.
Another management objective that the Planning Department might adopt would be: Develop and disseminate information on public policies and proce- dures that affect the city’s long-term economic development. This management objective could be made more explicit by referring to the specific policies and procedures to be disseminated. These policies, in turn, would reflect an assess- ment of needs and issues current in the community.
Still another management objective might be:Develop and implement com- munication mechanisms that will facilitate the further involvement of represen- tative citizen groups in decisions that affect the allocation of public resources.
The specific actions by the planning staff involve the development and imple- mentation of communication mechanisms. This statement implies that staff will be assigned to carry out or coordinate various tasks leading to this implementa- tion. Such assignments could be made more explicit by incorporating them into the management objective.
Management objectives, in turn, should be related to performance mea- suresandmeasures of effectiveness. These measures can be used to identify the service units, constituents or clients, and/or products associated with the activ- ities of the organization. They provide mechanisms to determine the success (or lack thereof) of a program in achieving agreed-upon strategic objectives.
Performance measures may be equated to costs or inputs. Efforts must be made, however, to go beyond the more common workload measures that tend to assess efficiency rather than measure effectiveness. Effectiveness measures examine the relationship of the program outputs to program objectives—the standards for the outputs.
Operational objectivesmost often are associated with the implementation and control of specific tasks, and the assignment of specific resources to achieve strategic and management objectives. Whereas the principal focus of strategic objectives is effectiveness, the keynote of operational objectives most often isefficiency. Operational objectives frequently reflect explicit performance measures that can be adopted by the organization to monitor its activities.
Examples of operational objectives derived from the previously cited man- agement and strategic objectives might be:Conduct a series of public meetings over the next three months to discuss the current criteria and procedures by which decisions are made in connection with the allocation of capital funds for major public facilities and improvements. Work with Financial Operations to de- velop new capital facilities planning mechanisms to assist service departments in the budgeting and management of their annual operating funds in response to identified program objectives.
An operational objective often represents the best current statement of the most appropriate way to get the job done. Operational objectives should provide a basis for action. The primary purpose should be the detailed identification of activities and techniques that should be carried out in the implementation of a project or program. Operational objectives may involve the determination of specific resource requirements (personnel, equipment, materials, capital expen- ditures, etc.) and their appropriate order of commitment (project schedules) to ensure that specific tasks are carried out efficiently. Operational objectives often include references to relatively short-term completion dates (e.g., one to two years).
Operational objectives must be flexible enough to undergo revisions as the tasks and activities evolve. Detailed examination of the tasks required to complete a project may expose overly optimistic assumptions and can lead to more realistic project schedules. It may become apparent that the strategic and management objectives can not be met, either because they are too ambitious or because they have not been thought through sufficiently to ensure that necessary resources will be available when and where they are needed.