Running head: STRATEGIC PLANNING 1

LM 4: STRATEGIC PLANNING

As strategic planning in higher education is becoming more popular, I question if it’s

development and implantation are legitimate, or are our administrators just using it as a means to

make a name for themselves at their current institution? According to Benjamin Ginsberg,

author of “The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It

Matters,” strategic planning is neither a strategy nor a plan, but just a waste of time, and I would

have to agree.

The idea of the strategic plan made its way into higher education during the 1960s when

institutional board of trustees with business and industry backgrounds began to “investigate the

applicability of business practices and procedures to the operation of higher education

institutions” (Yeager, J. L., El-Ghali, H. A., & Kumar S., 2013, p. 128). This idea of strategic

planning also appealed to many accreditors and government agencies as they associate planning

with transparency and accountability (Ginsberg, 2011). But despite board of trustees and

accrediting agencies using an institution’s strategic plan, who else on a campus finds use of this

document besides creating busy work for top administrators, faculty and staff, collecting dust on

a shelf, or even leveling out a desk on a crooked floor (which I have witnessed).

The major issue with strategic planning is the amount of time associated with the process,

which can be as lengthy as two years. Often, a new President’s first “job” is that of developing a

strategic plan. While this is a novel idea and can help with establishing the new administration’s

“assertion of leadership and a claim to control university resources and priorities,” the reality is

that higher education experiences a high rate of turn-over, and a president may never see his or

her strategic plan through from start to finish (Ginsberg, 2011). So instead of developing a one-

J Gore

STRATEGIC PLANNING 2

time, long-range plan, our leaders should be focusing their efforts on obtainable short and

medium-range plans that incorporate flexibility with the idea that institutions of higher education

are constantly growing and changing. This does not mean however, that institutions should

disregard the ways in which to create, organize and implement a strategic plan, but should

instead consider hiring a leader that is “able to perform, and enjoys performing, in a situation

where the goals are uncertain and the path for reaching them only dimly outlined, if at all” (Fish,

2004).

The other issue with strategic planning is that through shared governance, everyone on

the campus becomes involved: administrators, faculty members, staffers, trustees, alumni and

even students. While this co-optation seems like a good idea with buy in from all realms of the

campus, it can make control and leadership difficult to define. Each entity that is involved will

want their voice heard resulting in the creation of vague goals that do not translate into concrete

strategies and activities with appropriate timelines or measureable outcomes and achievements

(Rutgers, p. 4).

If the strategic plan continues to be favored by leaders and administrators in higher

education, we need to focus our attention on how to create and implement successful “blueprints

for the future.” To do so, institutions must develop plans that Ginsburg describes as having

“concrete objectives, a timetable for their realizations, an outline of the tactics that will be

employed, a precise assignment of staff responsibilities, and a budget” (2011). What we cannot

afford are leaders who decide to develop a strategic plan that makes them and senior

administrators appear busy, or that simply meet the requirements of accreditation and state

agencies. Higher education institutions need leaders and plans for the present, as well as the

future that produce meaningful, beneficial and measureable outcomes.

J Gore

STRATEGIC PLANNING 3

References

Yeager, J. L., El-Ghali, H. A., & Kumar S. (2013). A guide to the development of an

institutional strategic plan. In Schloss P. J. & Cragg, K. M. (Eds.), Organization and

administration in higher education (pp. 127-147). New York, NY: Routledge.

Fish, S. (2004, April 2). Plus ça change. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

https://chronicle.com/article/Plus-Ccedil-a-Change/44555/

Ginsberg, B. (2011, July 17). The strategic plan: Neither strategy nor plan, but a waste of time.

The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-

Strategic-Plan-Neither/128227/

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey. (n.d.). Strategic planning in higher education: A

guide for leaders. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Organizational Development and

Leadership.

Feedback:

I am happy you were able to take something from this that you should be able to use in your

daily job. Be sure you are really doing some proofreading (it's versus its, etc.), and be sure that

when you are using a direct quote, you include a page number. When you don't have a direct

quote, you only need the author and the year. Thanks!

J Gore