Strategic Planning: SWOT Analysis, Strategies, Policies,
4.2 Political, Social, and Organizational Constraints
Assessing the feasibility of implementation involves a projection of the political, social, and organizational constraints associated with the set of strategies and
program options under consideration. Specifically, the following issues should be raised.
1. Whose ox is likely to be gored (political and economic climate)?
2. What quantitative and qualitative resources are required for successful implementation (resource climate)?
3. How well does the strategy/program option fit with the existing mission of the agency or organization (organizational climate)?
4. What factors of community or client disposition may affect imple- mentation (social climate)?
5. How has the proposed implementation agency (or similar agencies) performed in the past and what difficulties are likely to be encountered in the future (climate of agency competency)?
6. What are the innovative aspects of the strategy/program option that may require major attitudinal shifts among the participants (climate of innovation)?
The ox-goring issue may seem obvious, but trade-offs between conflicting interest groups are seldom clear-cut. Someone is helped and someone else is hurt—even by a fairly innocuous program of system maintenance. Even when it appears that there are no losers, “relative deprivation” may produce the impression of a loss among certain groups. In essence, if a program makes one group better off, another group may feel worse off.
The political environment surrounding the implementation of a strategy or program may harbor potential problems that should not be overlooked.
Therefore, it is important to examine some specific questions, such as:
1. Are there complicated legal questions and, if so, to what extent is new legislation required for successful implementation? Does existing legislation or legal precedent hinder implementation?
2. To what extent are private interest groups mobilized in support of or opposed to the strategy/program? What is the degree of cohesion or articulateness of opposing groups?
3. Will the interests of existing client (support) groups be adversely affected by the proposed strategy/program?
4. What is the partisan character of the implementing organization (or jurisdiction)?
5. To what extent does the proposed strategy/program threaten important officials with a reduction of power, prestige, or privilege?
6. Has a recent crisis lent support to the strategy/program? Could the strategy/program be more successful if implemented at a different time?
Future economic conditions are often difficult to predict, especially when dealing with a strategy that requires a long implementation period. Several questions must be asked about the economic implications of a proposed strategy or program:
1. To what extent will prevailing economic conditions be affected by the implementation of the strategy/program?
2. Will future economic resources be sufficient to support successful implementation?
3. To what extent can future political developments affect resource availability?
It is incumbent on the skillful manager to examine these questions before implementation and to assess potential disruptive effects on various interest groups. Standard forums for public involvement, such as public hearings, may not provide all the necessary clues. Citizen surveys and informal contacts with decision leaders may prove more useful in making this assessment. In either case, the strategic manager should strive to reduce the level of uncertainty regarding the impacts of the strategy or program, and to identify the option(s) that will require a lower level of entrepreneurship in terms of adjusting for competing claims.
While qualitative resource requirements for successful implementation often are implicit in the cost–benefit or other analysis of alternatives, an attempt should be made to make these resource issues more explicit. Qualitative resources might include highly specialized personnel, technological uncertainties (e.g., the availability of a particular computerized information system), or merely a certain level of required coordination between agencies. All these resources have intangible costs, and the strategic manager should try to calculate these costs, albeit crudely, and to identify the program option with the lowest qualitative costs.
All programs require quantitative resources—such as money, personnel, and time—for successful implementation. The following questions might be useful in examining these constraints.
1. What sources of funds are definitely available and how flexible are these funding sources in terms of allocations to different aspects of the strategy/program?
2. Does the strategy/program require additional funds in face of tight revenue constraints?
3. Will the strategy/program require space, facilities, and support services that may be difficult to obtain?
4. Are significant technological or procedural uncertainties involved in implementation?
5. To what extent are special personnel capabilities and/or training required?
6. Are significant organizational adjustments required to achieve effec- tive implementation?
The organizational climate is a critical variable in assessing the feasibility of implementation. Strategies or program options that go against the grain of existing missions and/or organizational behavior patterns are likely to encounter difficulties in implementation.
The degree of influence exerted by a bureaucracy is dependent on (1) political support, (2) organizational vitality, (3) leadership, (4) the nature of the organization’s task, and (5) the skills and expertise of the members of the organization. Several characteristics of the bureaucratic structure that also should be of interest include organizational history, traditional and legal bases, agency incentive systems, degree of decision-making autonomy, agency norms, and operation procedures.
Public officials often must rely on institutional mechanisms and procedures to increase the likelihood that agency staffs will act in a manner consistent with program standards and objectives. In addition to standard mechanisms of personnel control—recruitment and selection, assignment, advancement, and promotion—a wide variety of sanctions and symbolic or material rewards may be applied. Effective use of these mechanisms requires open and distinct lines of communication, both horizontally and vertically.
Community climate or client ethos is equally important to the choice of strategies or program options. While reflected to some degree in the assessment of interest groups, community climate is a broader and often more nebulous concept than interest group attitudes. Consideration of community climate involves a general assessment of recent events and trends that may impinge on the range of options under consideration. For example, a recent crisis may lead to support for one of the program choices. The manager, in turn, can use this support to aid in mobilizing resources. Exploring the horizon for catalytic social and economic events may aid in the implementation process.
The success of any new strategy or program rests ultimately on its acceptance by that portion of the community that it serves. Public opinion can be extremely influential in determining whether and how a strategic change is implemented. It is important to know the extent to which public opinion has been mobilized for or against the strategy or program and the degree to which community elites (such as business and social leaders), favor or oppose implementation.
Past performance of the designated agency is an obvious factor in de- termining the feasibility of implementation. Regular and systematic evaluations of performance are rare, however, and choice of the implementing agency or
agencies may be predetermined. The following questions may be helpful in perceiving potential barriers to implementation, arising from the perceptions of those who will be called upon to implement the program.
1. Does the new strategy/program conflict with employees’ values?
2. To what extent does the strategy/program require changes in the attitudes or behavior of government employees?
3. To what extent does the strategy/program threaten jobs?
4. What will the reaction of organized labor be to this new strategy/
program?
5. What will be the difficulties associated with overcoming the natural resistance to change?
Characteristics that might either hinder or help a strategy/program become operational can be identified by asking the following questions.
1. Can the relative advantage be observed (that is, the degree to which the new strategy/program is perceived as better than the idea it is designed to replace)?
2. Is the innovation compatible with existing values, past experiences, and the needs of the client groups?
3. Is the innovation perceived as being too complex to understand and use?
4. Can the innovation be initiated on a limited, experimental, or pilot basis?
5. Are the results of the innovation observable to others?
Although the relative advantage of a new strategy or program may be measured in economic terms, factors of social prestige, convenience, and satisfaction are often of equal importance. A program that is not compatible with the prevailing values and norms of the community may experience considerable difficulty in achieving acceptance. Some innovations are readily understood by most members of the client groups. Others are not, and consequently, will be adopted more slowly. New ideas that can be tried on an "installment basis" will generally be adopted more quickly than those that must be accepted all at once.
The easier it is for an individual to see the positive results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt it.
These dimensions of implementation are not always of equal importance.
In some cases, one or more of these factors may have little significance for successful implementation. In other instances, one aspect—such as political support or technological uncertainty—may be so vital that an indication of difficulties in this dimension would be sufficient to eliminate an otherwise attractive strategy or program option.