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