Devising Strategic Plans to improve Organizational Performance of Intergovernmental Organizations
| Published date | 01 May 2017 |
| Date | 01 May 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12380 |
Devising Strategic Plans to improve
Organizational Performance of
Intergovernmental Organizations
Ryan Federo and Angel Saz-Carranza
ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University
Abstract
This article discusses how intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) can use different strategic planning approaches in devising
strategic plans to improve organizational performance. Six strategic planning approaches from the business sector are high-
lighted in this study. Each of the strategic planning approaches specifically addresses a core aspect of the strategic planning
process. Thus, this article posits that an IGO must choose the most appropriate strategic planning approach depending on its
specific organizational design features: membership, control, scope, centralization, flexibility, and independence. We argue that
an IGO’s design features affect its decision-making, organizational performance orientation, and legitimacy, and these, in turn
should determine whether it opts for member-driven, results-driven, or environment-driven strategies. This article also explores
how IGOs can complementary combine distinct approaches to maximize the benefits from strategic planning by determining
how one approach compensates the limitation of another in devising strategic plans. This article ultimately produces a frame-
work to provide propositions for researchers, and a tool for IGO leaders to identify the optimum strategic planning approach
to help improve organizational performance.
Policy Implications
•As a guiding framework necessary in directing actions and assessing organizational performance, IGOs should devise for-
mal strategic plans that best fit their specific organizational characteristics.
•In devising strategic plans, IGOs should identify their member states’preferences, intended results, and environ-
mental needs to achieve improved decision-making, superior organizational performance, and enhanced organizational
legitimacy.
•When choosing strategic planning approaches to devise strategic plans, IGO chief executives should carefully consider the
organizational design features: membership and control; organizational scope and centralization; and organizational flexi-
bility and independence.
•IGOs with large membership and consensus-based control should opt for member-driven strategies, those with wide orga-
nizational scope and strong centralization should opt for results-driven strategies; and those with highly organizational
flexibility.
•IGO chief executives should combine stakeholder management and strategic negotiations for member-driven strategies,
strategic planning systems and logical incrementalism for results-driven strategies, and dynamic capabilities and Miles and
Snow framework for environment-driven strategies.
Introduction
For intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), strategic plan-
ning is not new, as evidenced by the number of IGOs that
have developed and published their strategic plans. Some
IGOs such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO),
World Bank, and World Health Organization (WHO) have
long-term strategic plans available publicly. In the strategic
management literature, business managers use numerous
strategic planning approaches in formulating strategies
(such as strategic negotiations, stakeholder management,
strategic planning system, logical incrementalism, dynamic
capabilities, and Miles and Snow framework, among others).
However, there is no existing research on how IGOs conduct
strategic planning. Neither the international relations litera-
ture nor the strategic management literature mentions
which strategic planning approaches IGOs use in devising
strategic plans.
Strategic planning is defined as ‘a deliberative, disciplined
effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that
shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and
why it does it’(Bryson, 2011, pp. 7–8). There is considerable
evidence demonstrating how organizations have reaped
benefits from strategic planning (Bryson, 2010), including
improved decision-making, superior organizational perfor-
mance, and enhanced organizational legitimacy (Bryson,
2011). Yet, many other IGOs still have not adopted strategic
planning. Recent organizational performance evaluations of
©2016 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Global Policy (2017) 8:2 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12380
Global Policy Volume 8 . Issue 2 . May 2017
202
Research Article
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