Seminar in Strategic Management
California State University, Northridge
Summer  2000
MPA 632B
Professor  Matthew Cahn

Friday     6/23 & 7/14    6:00 pm - 9:00 pm   
Saturday 6/24 & 7/15    9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday   6/25 & 7/16    9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Phone:  (818) 677-6518
matthew.cahn@csun.edu

Seminar Description

Strategic management is the act of integrating rational strategy into organizational management.  This, of course, is more difficult than it sounds. Management as a discipline has traditionally been geared toward "managing" or "controlling" the organizational environment.  Such control has relied on distinctive rewards and punishments.

In private for-profit sector organizations, managers have largely been free to manage an organization according to a profit criterion.  Public and private non-profits organizations have had more complex management criteria.  Dwight Waldo (1953) suggests that studying public organizations and their management is like studying elephants with your eyes closed.  Depending on where you feel, you will discover a wholly different animal.

Graham Allison, former dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of the classic The Essence of Decision (1971) reminds us of Political Scientist Wallace Sayre's line that public and private management are fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects.  Allison study of public management concludes with the following lessons:

"The notion that there is any significant body of private management practices and skills that can be transferred directly to public management is... wrong."  Further, while "performance in many public management positions can be improved substantially," this improvement will not result from "massive borrowing of specific private management skills or understandings."  Finally, Allison concludes, "the effort to develop public management as a field of knowledge should start from the problems faced by practicing public managers."  (Allison, 1980, in Stillman p. 291.)

Recent efforts at maximizing efficiency in public sector organizations have centered around TQM, Reinventing Government, and ultimately, Strategic Planning.  While these management approaches do border on trend surfing, often replacing substance with sound-bite management, in reassessing the dominant management approaches of the past half century, and re-articulating important lessons, such approaches may provide limited utility.  But BEWARE!  These approaches, like Disraeli's notion of statistics above, are often misused to give management a strategic edge when seeking concessions from staff.  Thus, it is critical that effective managers and staff  recognize the positive and negative elements within these approaches.
 
This seminar focuses on strategic planning as a tool for increasing organizational focus and efficiency.  As Bryson points out, Strategic planning is "a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it" (1995, p. x).  This process, when done correctly, reflects a zero ideological base, with no outcome predetermined.  As such, the input of all stake holders has merit, and influence.

Reading

Bryson: Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (1995)
Bryson and Alston: Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan (1996)

Course Evaluation & Requirements

Seminar Participation:           50%
Written Evaluation Papers:    50%

The course employs the traditional +/- grading system.  Requirements include participation in working groups, discussion, and completion of evaluation papers.  There are no midterms and there is no final exam.

Course  Outline

Friday Evening 6/23:  Course Introduction

Technical Details (email exchange; contact lists; overview of syllabus)
Evolving Issues in Public Management

Saturday 6/24: Strategic Planning as a Management Tool

Rules to Strategic Planning
Plan the Planning
Clarify Organizational Mandates
Mission Statement
Assess Organizational Environment
Identify and Frame Strategic Issues
Formulate Strategies to Manage these Issues
Review Plan
Organizational Vision for Future
Develop Implementation Process
Reassess Strategic Planning Process

9   am:   Review rules to S.P.
11 am:   Working groups: Organizational Mandates & Mission Statement
3  pm:   Discussion and Assessment

Sunday 6/25:  From Mission to Reality

10 am:   Working Groups: Stakeholder Issues; Environmental Opportunities
1 pm:   Meet by Working Groups: Strategic Issues; Implementation

Completed SWOT Analysis and Strategic Plan Due 7/14

Friday Evening 7/14: Strategic Planning as Policy Making

Discussion and Assessment of SWOT and Strategic Plans
Resource Implications in Defining Values

Saturday 7/15:  Strategic Planning in Policy: The Case of the Environment

Review Cohen & Kamieniecki
Their Approach as Compared to Bryson
Policy Implications
Discussion and Assessment

Sunday 7/16:  Strategic Management in Retrospect

S.P.: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Cooperation or Coaptation
S.P. in our Future
Discussion and Assessment

Presentation of Group Work

Back to Syllabi

Home    Vitae    Classes    Special Programs     Eco-Literacy Project      Applied Policy Areas
Research     Politics and Policy    Environmental Policy and Management    California Studies

Matthew Cahn
Department of Political Science
California State University Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA  91330-8254
(818) 677-3488
matthew.cahn@csun.edu