Influences of Context and Process on Project Planning Success

This study reports results of a quan titative analysis of fifty-eight cases of deliberate efforts to produce ma jor change, or "projects." The results demonstrate that (1) the greater the potential impact on resource alloca tion patterns, (2) the greater the ex tent of problem identification efforts, and (3) the more extensive the use of problem solving as a conflict reso lution strategy, the more likely it is that project goals will be achieved and that the organization with prime responsibility for the project will be satisfied. The study provides an em pirical defense for the utility of planning and planners, and guidance on ways to improve planning prac tice.

[1]  Linda C. Dalton,et al.  Emerging Knowledge about Planning Practice , 1989 .

[2]  John M. Bryson,et al.  Initiation of Strategic Planning by Governments , 1988 .

[3]  E. Rogers,et al.  Innovations and Organizations , 1988 .

[4]  H. Baum,et al.  The Invisible Bureaucracy: The Unconscious in Organizational Problem Solving , 1989 .

[5]  M. Lindell,et al.  Planning for Uncertainty: The Case of local Disaster Planning , 1987 .

[6]  David C. Wilson,et al.  Top Decisions: Strategic Decision-Making in Organizations. , 1987 .

[7]  David John Hickson,et al.  Top decisions : strategic decision-making in organizations , 1987 .

[8]  Paul C. Nutt,et al.  A Strategic Management Process for Public and Third-Sector Organizations , 1987 .

[9]  J. Kaufman.  Teaching Planning Students About Strategizing, Boundary Spanning and Ethics: Part of the New Planning Theory , 1987 .

[10]  John Forester.  Teaching and Studying Planning Practice: An Analysis of the "Planning and Institutional Processes" Course at MIT , 1987 .

[11]  Donald J. Calista.  Linking Policy Intention and Policy Implementation , 1986 .

[12]  P Morris,et al.  Research at Oxford into the Preconditions of Success and Failure in Major Projects , 1986 .

[13]  D J Del Bueno,et al.  Power and politics in organizations. , 1986, Nursing outlook.

[14]  K. Christensen.  Coping with Uncertainty in Planning , 1985 .

[15]  Richard E. Klosterman,et al.  Arguments for and against planning , 1985 .

[16]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[17]  P. C. Nutt.  Types of organizational decision processes. , 1984, Administrative science quarterly.

[18]  Lawrence Susskind,et al.  Mediated Negotiation in the Public Sector: The Planner as Mediator , 1984 .

[19]  J. Kartez,et al.  Crisis Response Planning Toward a Contingent Analysis , 1984 .

[20]  Ernest R. Alexander,et al.  After Rationality, What? A Review of Responses to Paradigm Breakdown , 1984 .

[21]  B. Tuchman,et al.  The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam , 1984 .

[22]  A. Marty.  Getting to YES. Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In , 1983 .

[23]  J. M. Mayo.  Sources of Job Dissatisfaction Ideals Versus Realities in Planning , 1982 .

[24]  John W. Payne,et al.  Contingent decision behavior. , 1982 .

[25]  E. Berscheid,et al.  Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills. 2nd ed. , 1982 .

[26]  H. Wolman,et al.  The Determinants of Program Success and Failure , 1981, Journal of Public Policy.

[27]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Organization-Sets, Action-Sets, and Networks: Making the Most of Simplicity , 1981 .

[28]  Andrew H. Van de Ven,et al.  Problem Solving, Planning, and Innovation. Part I. Test of the Program Planning Model , 1980 .

[29]  John Forester,et al.  Critical Theory and Planning Practice , 1980 .

[30]  Cohen Mw.  Arguments for and against MBO. , 1980 .

[31]  Elizabeth Howe,et al.  The Ethics of Contemporary American Planners , 1979 .

[32]  John M. Bryson,et al.  A Contingent Approach to Strategy and Tactics in Project Planning , 1979 .

[33]  L. Beach,et al.  A Contingency Model for the Selection of Decision Strategies , 1978 .

[34]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  The External Control of Organizations. , 1978 .

[35]  George C. Hemmens,et al.  The Practitioner's View of Social Planning , 1978 .

[36]  D. A. Conway,et al.  The Art of Problem Solving , 1978 .

[37]  William N. Dunn,et al.  Planned Organizational Change: Toward Grounded Theory , 1977 .

[38]  L. Christman.  Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness , 1977 .

[39]  N. Gilbert,et al.  Dynamics of community planning , 1977 .

[40]  Paul C. Nutt.  Models for Decision Making in Organizations and Some Contextual Variables Which Stipulate Optimal Use , 1976 .

[41]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Planners in Transition: Report on a survey of alumni of M.I.T.'s Department of Urban Studies, 1960–71 , 1976 .

[42]  A. Filley.  Interpersonal conflict resolution , 1975 .

[43]  Michael B. McCaskey,et al.  A Contingency Approach to Planning: Planning with Goals and Planning Without Goals , 1974 .

[44]  T. J. Cartwright,et al.  Problems, Solutions and Strategies: A Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Planning , 1973 .

[45]  H. Sapolsky.  The Polaris System Development: Bureaucratic and Programmatic Success in Government , 1972 .

[46]  Donald A. Krueckeberg.  Variations in Behavior of Planning Agencies , 1971 .

[47]  Francine F. Rabinovitz.  City politics and planning , 1969 .

[48]  Alan Altshuler,et al.  The city planning process : a political analysis. , 1969 .

[49]  L. Carter.  The arguments for and against , 1968 .

[50]  William M. Evan,et al.  Toward a Theory of Inter-Organizational Relations , 1965 .

[51]  N. Beckman.  The Planner as a Bureaucrat , 1964 .