Critically Discuss Strategic Planning Theory

 

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Assignment Details:-

• Topic :: Strategic Planning
• Document Type :: Essay (any type)
• Subject :: Administration
• Deadline :*: As Per Required
• Number of Words :: 2500
• Citation/Referencing Style :: Harvard

 

Written Assignment 1

 

Critically discuss strategic planning theory and how it relates to practice in the policing and emergency services sector. In this submission of this assignment, we are looking for you to analyse your own organisational strategic planning process against a backdrop of a comprehensive understanding of theory and best practice.

Concentrate on: –

• The significance of environmental and organizational awareness for managers and its influence on strategic planning.
• An analysis of your own organisational strategic planning process.
• Set against a backdrop of a comprehensive understanding of theory and best practice.

 

Introduction:

Man has always had a plan, from primitive man planning how to acquire food, shelter and clothing. Humans have always needed to have a plan. This has progressed through to our modern world, planning for daily activities such as work, education, paying bills, health to “what’s for dinner”. Our work environments are the same.

Planning, essentially, is the ‘organisation of a series of actions to achieve a specified outcome’

So, in modern terms and in relation to how we manage businesses we have had to develop a more organised andsystematic approach.

“Strategic planning helps determine the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, matching its resources to its changing environment and, in particular, its markets, customers and clients, so as to meet stakeholder expectations.“ Johnson and Scholes, 1993

 

Strategic planning is a broad concept that has been introduced into the normal practices of many of today’s businesses. Strategic planning can be defined as an organization’s process of defining goals, direction, and decision-making processes that effect the allocation of resources that include capital and people.

There are various concepts and theories around strategic planning, they have various theoretical frame works and are continually evolving. (e.g., Gordon, 1993: Koteen, 1997)

The simplest strategic model is creating a mission statement. Why does the business exist and why? Once the mission has been determined, you are able to then identify immediate goals and develop strategies that benefits the business to reach the requiredobjectives.

 

Maslow’s hierarchy theory is one of the theories that the work to fulfill the basic needs to esteem level. These help to motivate employees with provide the employees satisfaction level at work as they get better opportunities and feel happy at workplace. (Bridwell, 1976)This theory is developed by Maslow in 1946 and it is still in work in many businesses as the success rate of this theory applies in workplace get increase (Chand, 2017).

 

A SWOT analysis is a high-level model often used at the beginning of the strategic planning process. It identifies the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving a business goal:

• Strengths – aspects of the business that can help achieve the objective
• Weaknesses – aspects of the business that could hinder achieving the objective
• Opportunities – external factors that could help achieve the objective
• Threats – external factors that could hinder achieving the objective

Using a SWOT analysis can help you understand what you’re doing well and in what areas you can improve.

 

PEST — which stands for political, economic sociocultural and technological — defines your business environment. Your business is an island among all these forces. You must identify these components and examine how they impact your company.An addition to PEST, PESTLED encompasses the subgroups:

• Legal
• Environment
• Demographics

When you take PESTLED into consideration, you have a broader view of what pressures your company could face. In addition to alerting you to possible threats.

PESTLED allows you to identify and exploit opportunities. By analysing demographics,you can identify a population increase. This would create a need for housing. If the economics showed lower interest rates, this might be a sound opportunity to enter the real estate market. PESTLED allows you to identify potential financial moves. State Governments use a similar system for planning and resourcing emerging growth areas. How many schools, hospitals, emergency services will be required to service this new developing area.

 

Environmental factors can affect your strategic planning, Businesses need to be able to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Managers of today need to be able to anticipate, recognise and deal with change in the internal and external environment. Change is a certainty, and for this reason managers must actively engage in a process that identifies change and modifies business activity to take best advantage of change. This process is integral to strategic planning. Modern policing requires its managers to have this awareness and be able to recognise these factors and plan for them.

All businesses have an internal and external environment. The internal environment is very much associated with the human resource of the business or organisation, and the way

people undertake work in accordance with the mission of the organisation. To some extent, the internal environment is controllable and changeable through planning and management processes. Examples of internal environment include human resources, organisational culture, organisational structure and management

The external environment, on the other hand is not controllable. The managers of a business have no control over business competitors, or changes to law, or general economic conditions. However, the managers of a business or organisation do have some measure of control as to how the business reacts to changes in its external environment. External examples are economic conditions, the market, technology, political and, media etc. Policing is sometimes influenced by the political environment and media including social media.

Environmental factors can greatly affect your business strategy,

 

Political factors include how regulations and policies imposed by your national or local government might affect the way you conduct your business. For example, import and export tariffs may make it difficult or uneconomical to do business with certain countries. At a local government level, there may be restrictions on the kind of businesses permissible in certain locations, while in certain sectors of the economy, lobbying may be prevalent. Political factors effect policing through legalisation changes like the recent “lockout” laws in Sydney after a spate of serious assaults, this was repelled recently to changing political and community concerns and expectations.

 

Environmental concerns have become important in recent years, with the wider impact of doing business increasingly recognized by consumers as a factor in their buyer behaviour. Responsible business owners should look for ways to minimize the environmental impact of their operations. For example, many businesses are looking for ways to lower the impact of their energy consumption. The positive effect of a responsible environmental attitude is that it may attract new customers who prefer to purchase more ethically derived products. Policing felt this impact differently with climate protests occurring across the country causing significant responses from policing jurisdictions.

 

The strength and performance of the local, national and international economy can all impact a business, presenting both opportunities and threats. Different types of taxation and other duties can also hit your bottom line hard, so a deep understanding of the fiscal environment is essential in order to prepare viable financial forecasts. The current global pandemic will have long term effects for Australia’s economy which in term will affect policing responses.

 

Sociological attitudes and profiles are constantly changing. Developing a demographic profile of your consumer base will help you understand what motivates them. Keeping abreast of issues such as gender bias, ethnic origin and religion, as well as being conscious of social norms and lifestyle expectations, can help you with your marketing strategy.

The only thing permanent about technology is change. With advances in technology developing at a seemingly unstoppable rate, keeping up to date with changes could help you develop a market advantage in the face of competition. Technological change is most evident in how we communicate, with smartphones and tablet computers becoming commonplace. Businesses should look at ways to harness technological potential to identify and service new and emerging markets.

 

Businesses across the world operate in a web of legal obligations and restrictions. Some of these relate to internal obligations such as those dealing with health and safety, while others have a wider impact on matters as diverse as waste and environmental management, import and export restrictions and or consumer protection laws. As part of a PESTLE analysis, businesses should develop a broad knowledge of all legislation that impacts their business to minimize the risk of non-compliance leading to litigation.

 

Modern policing requires police departments to occasionally scrutinise its beliefs and assess the methods by which it provides the services and responses to the communities it serves. Strategic planning allows for a process to examine the effectiveness of a police jurisdiction to deliver its product and to the community that it serves. The systems that are used to deliver these services and examined and planned for as part of this strategic planning process. Both public and private agencies have an obligation to their service population, and without such planning, agencies risk failing to meet the needs of their customers. Therefore, strategic planning is an integral part of modern agencies concerned about fiscal responsibility and adequate service delivery (Haines 2000)

The New South Wales Police Force like all other major police jurisdictions has a current strategic plan. The current Statement of Strategic Intent states: –

Our Vision: A safer NSW

Our purpose: To prevent, disrupt and respond

The current document links in with the NSW Government’s Premier and State Priorities. The NSW Police Statement of Strategic Intent details “Our vision, purpose, values, priorities and strategies (what we want to achieve). This strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a series of objectives or a particular goal. It sets out the high-level overview of the police response from the NSW Police Executive. (NSWPF Commissioner of Police July 2020 – Strategic Plan for 2020-2023.)

Belasco (1990) advocates that organizations should adopt the strategy of creating their own tomorrow.Strategic planning allows the organization to chart the prefer red course of events for that organization and to take steps to make this happen. In short, through strategic planning, law enforcement organizations transcend from the position of reactive management to pro-active management.

 

A review of the NSWPF Strategic Plan

The current vision (mission statement) is “A Safer NSW” with an overarching purpose of Prevention, Disruption and Response. These three pillars focus the NSWPF in allowing them to prevent crime, maintain public safety and engage the community.

Capability of the organisation is factored into the process. This capability is linked to developing a capable and resilient workforce to maximise performance. Further it is also about building effective systems to future-proof service delivery and enhancing leadership to build an agile and innovative organisation.

Prevention: Relates to safeguarding and strengthening individuals, communities, assets and infrastructure to deter crime, improve personal safety and build resilience. Early intervention for at-risk individuals and groups is targeted at limiting escalation, minimising harm and positively influence behaviour. Diverting minor offenders and at-risk groups, such as young people and Aboriginal people, to reduce re-offending and avoid unnecessary contact with the criminal justice system.

Disruption: Simply this is about interrupting criminal behaviour to break criminal networks and bring offenders to justice.

Response: This relates to delivering a professional policing services to maintain community confidence.

An analysis of the NSWPF Strategic plan should encompass the following

 

1. 1. What has worked and what hasn’t worked in the past 12 months?
2. What has changed in the business environment?
3. What do we take out and what new things do we put into the strategic plan?
4. Review Vision/Mission statement and its impact on decision making.
5. Review the current strategic plan and relevant business plans against new opportunities and risks.
6. Investigate what has been missed and what should be incorporated into the revised strategic plan.
7. Investigate any strategic assumptions that have changed and their impact on the strategic plan.
8. Discuss strategies for ensuring that the strategic plan is carried out at the various levels (Board, staff, committees etc), including reviewing the strategic plan regularly, and strategic thinking processes.
9. Strategies for embedding the strategic plan into performance measures and job descriptions at all levels of the organisation.