Elements of Strategic Planning and Management in Municipal Government: Status after Two Decades

• Author: Gregory Streib,Theodore H. Poister
• Published date: 01 January 2005
• Date: 01 January 2005
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00429.x

Elements of Strategic Planning and Management in Municipal Government 45

Theodore H. Poister

Gregory Streib

Georgia State University

Elements of Strategic Planning and Management in

Municipal Government: Status after Two Decades

This article focuses on the use of strategic planning and management processes in municipal

governments with populations over 25,000. Strategic planning has been used in municipalities for

20 years now, but little is known about how it is used and the results obtained. In particular, we

explore whether municipal governments tie other components of the overall strategic management

process to their strategic plans. Findings do not show a dramatic expansion in the use of strategic

planning, but there is some evidence of growing sophistication, as demonstrated by links to other

management and decision-making activities. Managers were enthusiastic about their experiences

with strategic planning and largely satisfied with their achievement of goals and objectives. Over-

all, we find a raising of the bar as far as strategic planning is concerned, but the use of compre-

hensive strategic management is only beginning to develop in a small number of leading-edge

municipalities.

Strategic planning was introduced into the public sec-

tor 20 years ago, with much of the early literature focusing

on local government applications (Dodge and Eadie 1982;

Eadie 1983; Sorkin, Ferris, and Hudak 1984; Denhardt

1985). Over the past two decades, academics and practic-

ing professionals have shown a sustained interest in strate-

gic planning, and it has become a centerpiece of orthodox

public management. Indeed, a recent study of the public

management literature from a practitioner’s perspective

found strategic planning to be the most frequently discussed

topic in at least one major public administration journal

(Streib, Slotkin, and Rivera 2001). Beyond strategic plan-

ning itself, over the past several years interest has also fo-

cused on the broader process of strategic management in

the public sector (Vinzant and Vinzant 1996a; Poister and

Streib 1999; Zanetti and Cunningham 2000).

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993

requires federal agencies to develop strategic plans and tie

them to budgets and performance measures, and many

states have imposed similar results-oriented requirements

through legislation or executive mandates (Broom 1995;

Melkers and Willoughby 1998; Aristigueta 1999). Thus,

60 percent of a sample of state agencies responding to a

1995 survey reported using some form of strategic plan-

ning (Berry and Wechsler 1995). In contrast, there is no

blanket requirement for local government jurisdictions to

use particular approaches to planning and management.

However, a decade ago, another study found that nearly 40

percent of municipal jurisdictions with populations over

25,000 had engaged in strategic planning on a citywide

basis (Poister and Streib 1994). On the other hand, a num-

ber of authors have detailed the difficulty of using strate-

gic planning effectively in local government settings

(Swanstrom 1987; Gargan 1989; Streib 1992; Backoff,

Wechsler, and Crew 1993)

Strategic Planning and Management

The purpose of strategic planning is, as Eadie (2000)

suggests, to maintain a favorable balance between an or-

Theodore H. Poister is a professor of public administration in the Andrew

Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, where he special-

izes in strategic planning and management, performance measurement, and

quality improvement processes in government agencies, particularly at the

state and local levels. Poister’s new book,

Measuring Performance in Gov-

ernment and Nonprofit Organizations

, was recently released by Jossey-Bass.

E-mail: tpoister@gsu.edu.

Gregory Streib is a professor of public administration in the Andrew Young

School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, where he specializes in

local government management and applied research methods. His research

addresses strategic planning, pay for performance, health care cost reduc-

tion, performance measurement, reinventing government, and the implemen-

tation of e-governance initiatives. E-mail: gstreib@gsu.edu.