CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 The role of strategic planning in government
structures, among other stakeholders at local government level, as they participate in the strategy formulation. Furthermore, during strategy planning an opportunity is created to understand the views of stakeholders, and to understand and interpret an organisation’s environment through the eyes of its stakeholders (Berry 2007:331; Eadie 1983:448). The organisation’s environment is taken into account because the environment is a learning area and influences the process.
The emphasis in the above paragraphs is on the ‘perspective-in-meaning’ held by different authors, which is important in coming to an understanding of the meaning implicit in the various processes of strategic planning. The meaning defines the ‘what’ of the literature under review and thus sets the parameters that ensure that the process for this study/research is understood. The focus of the coming section is on the ‘how’ and it looks at the role of strategic planning in local government.
In post-apartheid South Africa, the formulation of the Integrated Development Plan defines the new function of local government, which emphasises democracy, accountability, and the involvement of stakeholders in matters of local government (RSA 1998:58). A municipality, as a local sphere of government, has now to conduct its affairs in a manner, which is consistent with its integrated development plan (RSA 2000:44). Any inconsistency can result in the community questioning the budget and other plans.
Thus, as Mintzberg (1994a:104) states, the strategic planning process gives an opportunity to stakeholders to articulate and elaborate on strategies or visions during strategic planning.
This presents strategic planning as a complex, collective, participatory, and flexible process during which stakeholders develop negotiated and tailored strategies, and detailed plans to achieve the vision of an organisation (Eadie 1983:447, Mintzberg 1994a:104 and Kabir 2007:6). Thus, the strategic planning process becomes an opportunity to bring about positive change.
Denhardt (1985:176) states that participation in strategic planning opens the possibility of building new understanding among stakeholders in the organization. It can also bring about change in attitude instead of just resulting in a written strategy document. Denhardt (1985:176) states that embarking on strategic planning can bring about both direction and commitment. Based on such understanding, the MIDP, as a strategic plan, presents the strategic direction of a municipality. It is seen as a plan that ensures that the designed outcomes are reached.
The plan strives to achieve the objects of local government as set out in Section 152 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (RSA 1996b: 84). It also creates the constitutional obligations that are to be achieved in accordance with Section 152 (2). The constitutional and statutory obligations and order placed upon or prescribed to municipalities are to prioritise the basic needs of the community and “to promote social and economic development” (RSA 1996b:84). Furthermore, municipalities are to assume a primary role and should be responsible for providing basic municipal services and public goods to people living within its locality. The provision of the services and goods are matters of interest to citizens, community organisations and other stakeholders, and are a matter of public duty for a municipality.
The involvement of stakeholders was a subject of enquiry in the study by Poister and Streib (2005:48) on the use of strategic planning. The study found that there has been involvement of citizens and other external stakeholders during the strategic planning processes in US
local governments. In South Africa, absence of stakeholder participation might undermine the legitimacy of a MIDP as this might not allow for the emergence of new facts and opinions.
Effective organisational communication in the process improves stakeholder participation and involvement. Maier (2000:251) stresses the importance of stakeholders “listening to [one another], addressing conflicts and creating commonly accepted priorities “and developing shared strategy as a key result or strategic planning outcomes. Berry (2007:342) refers to Osborn and Plastrik’s (1997) four strategies to improve the quality of organisations, which include listening, clarity of purpose and organisational culture as among the four strategies that are “compatible with an effective strategic planning process”. Maier (2000:251) states that “a complex and structured process of communication [among] stakeholders” results in
“sound and effective strategic planning”. Furthermore, Maier (2000:251) points to a need for a feedback mechanism that has to be established for learning purposes, which may reinforce a positive or negative loop wherein there can be stability or instability in a local governance system.
The MIDP, as a developmental planning tool, integrates decision-making processes within municipal government. This is borne out of a realisation that public sector organisations, such as local government, have to forge directions that must be pursued for the benefit of stakeholders. Berry (2007:331) and Denhardt (1985:175) state that this is not made easy by the fact that they are also operating in a changing environment. Halachmi (1993:126) states that some local governments are “geared to restore the fit with governmental environment rather than to determine the destiny of the community”.
Flores et al. (2008:570), citing Bennet and O’Brien (1994) maintain, “strategic planning is a necessary condition for enhancing learning”. Brews and Hunt (1999:903) who state,
“planning may be a necessary precursor to successful [learning]”, concur with this view.
They state that organisations plan to learn as they learn to plan in early years. They also note a “strong planning/performance relationship”. This, they say, support other studies by Eisenhardt (1989), Goll and Rasheed (1997) and others, which report “a positive relationship between formal planning processes and performance” (Brews and Hunt 1999:903).
De Geus (1988:70) thinks of “planning as learning and of corporate planning as institutional learning”. This is contrary to what is stated by Ansoff (1991) who regards planning and learning as being poles apart. De Geus (1988:70) asserts that systems are continuously engaged in learning, as every decision-making process in organisations is a learning process.
Further, he notes the role played by the culture and structure of the organisation in learning.
He states that “the best learning takes place in teams[/groups] that accept that the whole is larger than the sum of the parts’ and there is a need to alter “existing mental models” (De Geus 1988:74).
Berry (2007:331-332) states that strategic planning helps an organisation to develop a clear sense of mission. This shows how critical the strategic planning process is as it highlights how the process of developing a strategic plan helps local government to develop a clear vision, which, with its mission, determines the desired outcomes. The focus on the vision, mission, and desired outcomes in strategic planning defines what, why, when and how an organisation plans for its future. This emphasises what Peter Drucker (1964:6) states on the issue of effectiveness versus efficiency, when he says that “the pertinent question is not how to do things right but how to find the right things to do, and to concentrate resources and efforts on them”. This means the focus of strategic planning should be to find the right things to do, and to focus resources and energies on these things. Gordon (2005:28) advises that a vision and long- term goals should be part of an accepted strategic plan as this can “facilitate the budget process and make the difficult funding decisions clearer and more defensible”.
What is stated above highlights that the MIDP identifies strategic goals, service delivery inputs, outputs and developmental outcomes, and provides details on how the budget will be used. As such, the role of strategic planning is rather more than just “a rigid recipe for producing ...strategic plans“(Bryson 2010:259). Instead, the strategic planning process includes goal/objective setting, situation analysis, consideration of alternatives and selection of strategic options, implementation and, lastly, monitoring and evaluation. Furthermore, Bryson (2010:259) advocates that strategic planning should be understood as a “managerial practice or [a] set of practices...“ The benefits will be presented in the next section.