Section Threethe failure to plan for the succession of top managers. Part of
this failure of planning appears to be related to the unique
nature of the partnership form of these organizations.^18
The public sector has not been immune from these
problems. An example of a failure to plan is provided by the
construction of an expensive, state-of-the-art jail facility in Fort
Worth, Texas, as a solution to severe problems of inmate
overcrowding. Well into the actual construction phase of the
project, officials were shocked to learn that the facility, which
had incorporated recent innovations in design, would be much
more expensive to operate than they had assumed because the
design required high staffing levels. Since labor costs are the
most important cost in operating a jail, the effects of this
oversight were profound.^19
Other causes for failure to plan or failures in planning are
related to inadequacies in broader strategic management
processes. A survey has indicated that the most common
problem in human resource planning is a lack of precision in
business operating plans.^20 An example is provided by the
following statement from the vice president of personnel for the
Quaker Oats Company: “Little is gained by grafting a HR plan
to an unreliable business plan.”^21