Term Paper on "Strategic Planning in Health Care"

Term Paper 3 pages (1039 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Strategic Planning in Healthcare

In their article Relationships between organizational characteristics and strategic planning processes in nonprofit organizations, Crittenden & Crittenden (2000) present a brief literature review of strategic planning in nonprofit organizations followed by an analysis of their own research into which factors most influence the strategic planning process in these organizations. The authors contend that longevity of the strategic planning process within a nonprofit organization is a greater predictor of its continual use over both its financial and member size, leadership experience, or board of directors' influence. Ironically the authors also found that the larger the organization, the more manual the process. From the analysis presented it appears that larger organizations have more volunteers, potentially even greater discretionary budgets to spend on administrators to manually handle the planning process. Smaller organizations are more likely to use computer-based applications and tools to assist in the strategic planning process. Larger nonprofit organizations can afford to put more people on the planning process, not necessarily making it more efficient, just making the manual steps executed faster. It can be inferred that larger nonprofit organizations, by not taking a process-centric view of planning are speeding up mediocrity of results in many instances. The authors also point out the differences between expressive or internally focused organizations and instrumental organizations that are outwardly focused. Not surprisingly when it comes to the strategic planning process, the authors' results show that instrumental organizations generate consistently more detailed and precise strategic plans, and also have stable, more traditional organizational structures. While the authors do not state the correlation value of these two attributes (instrumental organizations and traditional organization structures) the assumption of these organizations having been involved in strategic planning for a long period of time could be made. The authors content that nonprofit organizations struggle with the efficient use of resources due to a lack of experienced leadership from the commercial sector as well.

Internal vs. External Focus: Expressive vs. Instrumental Organizations

The ability of any organization to effectively monitor and interpret events in their external environment has a direct influence on their ability to plan effectively in both the short- and long-term. In the case of nonprofit organizations' propensity to scan the external environment, Crittenden & Crittenden (2000) define the myopic, inwardly focused organization as expressive, and the outward-focused, instrumental. A key finding of their research states that nonprofits that are external in focus tend to more precisely organize their strategic planning process, and also engender a higher level of ownership for the strategic plan itself between boards of directors, staff, key donors, volunteers and members by circulating the plan internally for review. These externally oriented nonprofits also look at direct and indirect competitive programs to their own, concentrating on their served constituencies with what appears to be the same intensity a commercial enterprise looks at attracting, selling and serving customers. In can be inferred that this external focus of nonprofit organizations that centers on the needs of those served galvanizes departments, boards of directors, volunteers and members to a common set of strategic goals. As a result, all members have ownership of the… READ MORE

How to Reference "Strategic Planning in Health Care" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Strategic Planning in Healthcare - Medical University Term Paper

Strategic Planning in Healthcare - Medical University of South Carolina

How does MUSC deliver its services?

As an academic institution, MUSC delivers its services in the form of education programs,… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (759 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Trends in Strategic Thinking for Health Care Organizations Essay

Strategic Thinking for Health Care Organizations

Accountable care organizations have not been around for that long, but they are already changing the health care landscape. These organizations are designed to… read more

Essay 2 pages (735 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Strategic Marketing and Health Care Research Paper

Healthcare Strategic Marketing

Marketing in the healthcare sector is an interesting endeavor to engage in, given that healthcare is considered an integral part of an individual's daily maintenance of his/her… read more

Research Paper 4 pages (1174 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Strategic Management of Healthcare Case Study

Strategic Management of Healthcare

Strategic Management in Healthcare

It is common to see residential clinics spin off from larger regional hospitals that have multiple areas of expertise and a depth… read more

Case Study 2 pages (600 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Healthcare Reform History of Socialized Medicine American Term Paper

Healthcare Reform

History of Socialized Medicine

American Health care history

Allopathic vs. Homeopathic Approaches to Healing

The medical industrial complex

The Affordable Care Act in Detail

Impact of the Affordable… read more

Term Paper 8 pages (2697 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>