Strategic Planning and Its Contribution to Organizational Performance: A Case of Selected Public Sectors in Yirgalem Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the contributions of strategic planning to organizational performances in the selected sectors of yirgalem Town. The study has also sorted out the context of strategic planning prior to its design. In addition, the research investigated the practices and challenges in the course of designing, implementing and over sighting the plan in the ex-post implementation. In order to systematically approach the problem. This approach was selected on the ground that it helps the selection of Case Study approach. To this effect, a case study is chosen as an overall approach for its ability to incorporate to qualitative and quantitative methods in the collection and analysis of data that focuses on the various issues of the study. Besides, in order to meet the objectives of the research, both primary and secondary sources of data were accessed using questionnaire, interviews and observations. Moreover, from 22 public sector organizations that have implemented strategic planning, 5 sectors were randomly selected from where 37 respondents were selected using simple random sampling and 13 were selected as key informants who were purposely considered.  The results show that though there has been a gap to improve, to a better degree there has been awareness creation prior to the design of Strategic Planning. However, results show that there was a gap in participating wider level of management and stakeholders in the course of designing the plan. This study also shows that the Strategic Planning has resulted in positive changes with regard to revenue collection, efficient service delivery and increased desire for qualified manpower. Finally, the researcher recommends that, in the planning processes to come in the future, the Town Administration should create adequate awareness for both employees and the stakeholders. It is also recommended that good performing units and employees should be rewarded so as to motivate the poorly performing ones. Moreover, further research is recommended as strategic planning multiple dimensions.

Keywords: Strategic planning, Organizational performance, Contributions