This article discuses 3 main paradoxes experienced in the public sector.
- Paradox of purpose
The paradox is that when used politically, planning can sometimes seem more concerned with preservation of the status quo, rather than adaptation to the environment.
To maintain harmony, the organization may be forced to come up with highly ambitious strategic plan to please everyone instead of formulating a realistic blueprint to serve the organization into the future.
2. Paradox of performance
Public institutions may at times find it hard to formulate focused, clear and realistic strategic plans. This is because these public entities are faced by many conflicting interests from a myriad of stakeholders.
However, we’ve to note that this is the nature of all participatory planning processes. Hence, if planners do not put more efforts and diligence many of the public sector strategic plans will be vague. That means that they may not have specific actions in place.
3. Paradox of Process
This is yet another paradox experienced in the public sector. Strategic planning is organized in a way to allow both extensive analysis and wide public participation. However, in a participative planning process, informal discussions carries the day over detailed analysis. Supporters of this say that analytical data is just used to reveal what people already know.
