Section Twothe status quo, through resistance to change, are evident in
symptoms such as excessive defense of existing resource
allocations, information hoarding, and excessive control of the
planning process through manipulation of agendas. Attempts to
maintain the status quo also may be evident in symptoms such
as padding budgetary requirements.^108
Other causes of problems in the strategic planning process
include mismatches between the tasks of planning and
individual managers’ skills. Strategic planning requires thinking
in terms of the organization as a whole and relationships
between the organization and the numerous factors that affect
it within its environment. The ability to see patterns at the
macro level is more important than processing bits of
information to find the solutions to micro-level problems. One
of the symptoms of such mismatches is a propensity to slip
back into operational issues and the inability to complete tasks.
A final problem is lack of top-level executive commitment to the
strategic planning process. Symptoms of this problem include
managers’ attempts to read between the lines to determine top
managements’ real views on the importance of the process.
Compounding these difficulties is the typical absence of
rewards for superior planning performance.^109