Strategic Planning Process Essay

Introduction

The strategic management of an organisation is one of the key responsibilities of managers in any organisation and is critical in ensuring its employees understand the purpose of the organisation, the specific objectives set to achieve that purpose and the values that members of the organisation adhere to. (Jones & Hill, 2010)

In the context of police and emergency services, a strategic plan plays a key role in ensuring the organisation can deliver on its mandate of meeting the needs and expectations of the community it serves and its partner stakeholders.

The theory of strategic management is important to understand and implement as part of an organisations strategic planning process.

A strategic plan underpins an organisations

Managers are the linchpins in the strategy-making process and must take on responsibility for formulating strategies to attain a competitive advantage and for putting those strategies into effect. They must lead the strategy-making process.

Essentially the components of the strategic planning process include an initial assessment to identify an organisations vision and mission statements, a situational analysis followed by strategy formulation, implementation and monitoring. (Ovidijus, 2013)

An important part of the strategic planning process is decision making. People at all levels in organisations are required to make decisions on a daily basis. Many of these are not strategic decisions, however all decisions are important as the wrong decision especially in a policing and emergency services context can have catastrophic consequences both personally, for the organisation and for public safety. Bazerman (2013), suggests that for the formulation of rational decisions the following six (6) steps should be taken ether implicitly or explicitly:

1. Define the

Being successful in strategic planning as a manger depends on taking responsibility for the decision-making process and leading your organisation and employees through the decision-making process.

Police and emergency services are not in business to make profits; however, they are expected to use their resources efficiently and operate effectively to improve service delivery whilst not exceeding its budget. These organisations are expected set goals to measure their performance. Managers of these organisations need to map out strategies to attain these goals. The six (6) step decision making process assists Manager’s in the successfully navigating through the strategic planning process. (Jones & Hill, 2010)

Organisations with sound strategies tend to succeed over those that may do all the right things at the working level but have no method of unifying those ‘right things’ into a mutually supporting operation. (Schafer, Buerger & Myers, 2012)

Jones & Hill (2010), provides a five-step strategic planning process:

1. Select the mission and major corporate goals of the