| dc.description.abstract | Strategic planning is a vital step in the process of decision making in an organization. It is
useful in the identification of the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats facing an
organization. It enabled the organization to achieve its desired goal in line with its
objectives, mission and vision. Most organizations are comfortable with their status quo
and are not keen to re-engineer new strategic plans that would lead to unknown new
positions in the dynamic environment. Strategic planning relates to the positioning of the
organization in the industry and relating the organization to its environment in a way that
will assure continued success thereby achieving a competitive edge over other
competitors. The study sought to understand the practice of strategic planning at
TechnoServe. This was based on the theory and practice of the open system theory and
dynamic capability theory on the strategic management. The findings of the finding form
the study established that most companies used forecasting as s practice in the
formulation of their strategy other than the environmental aspects at the time of
formulation, their vision and mission also gets reviewed after 3-5 years. In addition, the
directors are the most significant people in organizations that make the decisions,
strategic planning process is mainly controlled by the management of an organization for
most organizations; implementations plans is always a well formalized process and all
departments are involved in the planning of a strategy. The study also established that the
efficiency of the planning for strategy is increased when the strategies are linked to the
organizations mandate. The study recommends that further research will need to be
conducted in order to establish the evidence based link and practice of planning in
organizations. The research project was a case study of TechnoServe whose objective
was to determine strategic planning practices. In order to answer the questions that was
asked, primary and secondary data was collected. The primary data was obtained through
a one on one interview while the secondary data was obtained through TechnoServe
website, TechnoServe strategic plan document and various other program documents.
The data was collected and analyzed by use of content analysis. The study established
that TechnoServe uses a strategic plan and that its objectives are aligned to the vision,
mission statements. The organization strategic plans were not totally inclusive when it
comes to employee involvement. The research literature shows that TechnoServe has a
corporate strategic plan that is formulated at the top and then cascaded to the lower levels
of the organization. The strategic planning at TechnoServe does not involve all
employees also the different countries. Policy makers should involve other staff members
during strategic planning. Employees should participate in strategic planning of the
organization. The limitation of the study is that it is done in home office at Washington
DC without involving the staff. Further studies should be carried out for strategic
planning practices and the implementation in Non- Governmental Organizations. | en_US |
