Strategic Management in the Public Sector: Concepts, Models, and Processes

Abstract

Lffective public administration in the age of results-oriented management requires public agencies to develop a capacity for strategic management, the central management process that integrates all major activities and functions and directs them toward advancing an organization's strategic agenda. Strategic management is concerned with strengthening the long-term viability and effectiveness of public sector organizations in terms of both substantive policy and management capacity. It integrates all other management processes to provide a systematic, coherent, and effective approach to establishing, attaining, monitoring, and updating an agency's strategic objectives. Strategic management is integrative in nature in the sense of (a) focusing attention across functional divisions and throughout various organizational levels on common goals, themes, and issues; (b) tying internal management processes and program initiatives to desired outcomes in the external environment; and (c) linking operational? tactical, day-to-day decisions to longer run strategic objectives. Particularly given the dynamic political and institutional environment within which many public agencies operate, an effective strategic management capability is essential for maintaining or strengthening the fit between the organization and its external stakeholders and managing for results within a clearly defined context of mission, mandates, values, and . . vlslon. Strategic management has been addressed in the public administration literature (Koteen, 1989; Nutt & Backoff, 1992; Rabin, Miller, & Hildreth, 1989; Steiss, 1985) but by no means as extensively as has its most critical component, strategic planning, or other management approaches such as total quality management. However, a more recent article by Mlnzant and Vlnzant (1996a) goes a long way toward refocusing appropriate attention on the role of strategic management in the public sector and discussing implementation issues and strategies in an instructive manner. The purpose of the present article is to raise awareness of the central importance of strategic management in government, define the critical elements in a holistic model of strategic management, discuss the strategic management process, and