Textual Features Of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning has gained importance and prevalence in organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit as well since it debuted in corporations in the 1960. Indeed, strategic plans service to guide an organization on the strategic direction it wishes to take, the specific goals and objectives to be achieved and the means of resourcing the activities identified as pertinent to implementing the strategy. Nonetheless, the formulation of strategic plans remains a daunting exercise to strategists and planners in the contemporary business world, because business situations surrounding an organization may be subjected to rapid and disruptive changes regardless of how predictable they might have appeared during the planning process. As such, …show more content…
Often, the terms used in a plan, and how they are utilized therein sheds light on the thoroughness of the planning process and the commitment to achieve the intended outcomes once the plan is implemented. In fact, Vaara, Sorsa and Palli (2010) argues that textual features of a strategic plan have ideological implications and performative effects that link mission statements to organizational performance. Further, according to Lohrey (2015), evaluations of the strategic plan provide an objective approach that can be employed to test the efficiency and effectiveness of the business strategies articulated in the plan. Further, such evaluations provide a way of determining whether the implementation of the strategic plan in congruence with the intended strategic objectives, which in turn would help identify which, when and what corrective are requisite so that the performance can be aligned with the business objectives. To this end, there must be in place criteria that would guide the assessor on what to look for in the strategic plan, which serves as a guide in the evaluation process. Specifically, the criteria should be succinct yet descriptive enough to articulate with specificity, how the plan is structures to facilitate the attainment of the set goals and objectives (Alexander, …show more content…
Five criteria have been identified to guide the analysis and include a) articulation of key performance indicators, b) presence of ethical guidelines to direct decision-making, c) alignment of objectives with mission, vision, and values, d) employment of technology, and e) skill audit. These criteria shall be used to evaluate various issues that the strategic plan should address with a view of evaluating the extent by which these issues have been addresses by the strategic