Strategic planning is regarded as a popular management approach adopted by public, private and non-profit organisations today to set priorities and steer future development. It helps define the mission of the organisation and establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame for implementation within the organisation’s capacity. The management of the organisation uses the plan to make the most effective allocation of resources against key priorities.

To discuss strategic planning as a successful management approach adopted in public and private organisations and its positive results on organisational performance, Prof Richard M WALKER, Dean of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences wrote a research article entitled “Does Strategic Planning Improve Organisational Performance? A Meta-Analysis” jointly with Prof Bert GEORGE and Joost MONSTER. It was published in 2019 and won the 2019 Louis Brownlow Award from Public Administration Review. The research was recently cited in US President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget released in March 2022, in the chapter “Delivering a High-Performance Government” in the volume “Analytical Perspectives”, as evidence to support the US Government’s use of strategic planning and priority goal-setting to define organisational effectiveness.

In the research article, a random-effects meta-analysis of 87 correlations from 31 empirical studies and tasks was undertaken to reveal that strategic planning has a positive, moderate or significant impact on organisational performance. Meta-regression analysis suggests that the positive impact of strategic planning on organisational performance is strongest when performance is measured as effectiveness and when strategic planning’s formality is measured as formal strategic planning. The positive impact is observed across sectors (private and public) and countries (US and non-US contexts).

The citation by the US President is a recognition of the research efforts of Prof Walker and his research collaborators. It also proves that the use of strategic planning can be effectively applied in both private and public sectors across international settings. The research findings have a great impact on public policy and management, and encourage social scientists to explore a deeper level of strategic planning in public administration and the effective management of government.