New Trends on Strategic Planning: Virtual Environment, Tech Innovation, Globalization & Organizational Performance

Abstract

Strategic Planning (SP) in today’s dynamic and complex global environment needs to adopt new approaches about the design and implementation phases including major factors like new information technology as it related to Virtual Environment and directing the different stakeholders and people working in different physical locations. The paper will look at key factors that differentiate traditional approach to strategic planning and one that fits virual environment. It will address factors like innovations in the SP process, how to handle the virtual teams, new look at strategic planning from the process perspective compared to traditional goal perspective, impact of SP on high performance organizations in virtual environment, and the role of the three Cs: Cooperation, Collaboration and Coordination in the strategic planning process. The paper also examines a few key components of the new virtual environment that affect SP within the globalization context like the impact of advanced technology in the form of internet, use of personal computer and other mobile devises leading to diversification of work locations, home offices, Tele-working and virtual teams as work units and how new tools needed for Strategic Plan (SP) be utilized for in both planning and implementation phases. Changes in monitoring and accountability mechanisms, use of more flexibility and formidable performance and productivity assessment criteria, leaning towards more process-oriented planning and finally the new perspectives on the applications of the 3Cs (Cooperation, Collaboration, and Coordination) in the planning processes calling for more formidable devises for functional alignment of various parts of the organization, inter and intra-organization communication, boundary spanning are among the relevant key factors to be explored.