Section Two
The process of formal rational/comprehensive strategic
planning is typically composed of the following steps:
- Development of organizational philosophy and mission
statement - Environmental scanning
- Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats (SWOT analysis) - Formulation of strategic objectives
- Generation of alternative strategies for achieving
objectives - Evaluation and selection of strategies
This series of steps makes no mention of the political
aspects of strategic planning. Nonetheless, the formality of the
process and its emphasis on logic and quantitative processes
should not obscure the fact that strategic planning is conducted
by a dominant coalition. Because of the political nature of the
process, some aspects of a plan will be negotiated.^25
In contrast to formal/comprehensive strategic planning,
informal/incremental strategic planning emphasizes the
emergent and temporal nature of strategy and has a shorter-
term orientation.^26 According to Quinn, to a certain extent the
managed or logical incremental approach represents an
adaptive process, making changes and adjustments to strategy