Strategic Planning and the Implementation of Federal Agency Strategic Plans

Abstract

This dissertations has three purposes. The first purpose is to define strategic plan implementation. How can we tell when an agency has implemented its strategic plan? Is there a decisive test for strategic plan implementation? The second purpose is to examine whether four selected federal executive branch agencies are implementing their strategic plans. The third purpose is to identify factors that contribute to, or interfere with, the implementation of federal agency strategic plans. This dissertations proposes a definition of strategic plan implementation and points out that the actual accomplishment of strategic goals is not required for implementation to have occurred. It identifies a total of 116 factors that support strategic plan implementation. 107 of these factors were derived from the literature review, and seven were derived from the author's research. The dissertations argues that the extensive body of literature on policy and program implementation can inform the study of strategic plan implementation, since strategic plans often call for the implementation or continuation of policies and programs. The author groups these 116 implementation factors into eight categories of factors, which are then used to construct a Model of Strategic Plan Implementation. The author found three of the four federal agencies participating in the research are implementing their strategic plans in accordance with the proposed definition of implementation. However, not all of the eight categories of implementation factors were present in those three agencies, leading to the conclusion that some factors, and some categories of factors, are more critical to strategic plan implementation than others. This led to a proposal to classify implementation factors as either critical, important, or helpful. Critical implementation factors are absolutely essential for strategic plan implementation to occur, such factors include establishing performance metrics and evaluating strategic plan implementation. Important factors are not essential for implementation to occur, but their absence would be difficult to overcome, such as basing strategic goals on a valid causal theory. Helpful factors assist with implementation but their absence can be easily overcome; examples of such factors include mapping the strategic plan implementation process and using intermediate-outcome goals.