New development: Strategic planning in interesting times—From inter-crisis to intra-crisis responses

Abstract

This new development article discusses how emerging types of crises provide opportunities for -and necessitate the undertaking of-strategic planning as a form of intracrisis response. This supplements existing literature and approaches to strategic planning that conventionally emphasize its value in relatively more stable conditions or mostly as a platform for pre-crisis preparedness.URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rpmm Public Money & Management Strategic planning in interesting times: From an intercrisis to an intracrisis response ImpactStrategic planning has been shown to positively affect organisational performance in the public sector. As an intensive, long-term oriented, and deliberative process, strategic planning is often viewed as an essential practice, yet mostly in relatively stable or non-crisis contexts (even when undertaken as a platform for ex-ante crisis preparedness). However, emerging crisis types (such as creeping crises) come with a novel melange of features that disrupt conventional norms of public administration, crisis governance and policymaking. Drawing on the theories of creeping crises, strategic planning, and empirical observations, this article discusses how such crises are recently creating windows of opportunity for intracrisis strategic planning. This driven by these crises' inherent nature which causes disruptions for key elements of pre-existing strategies such as capabilities, goals, and policymaking paradigms. This also emphasizes that within such crisis conditions, practitioners should dedicate sufficient time to undertake intracrisis strategic planning, rather than exclusively engage in an adhoc and stopgap crisis responses.