Conference Agenda

This paper investigates how strategic planning is conceptualized and practiced in Icelandic public administration, drawing on three surveys conducted in 2025 among ministries, municipalities, and public agencies. The study builds on theories of strategic planning in the public sector (Bryson, 2018; Poister, 2010) and policy capacity (Wu et al., 2015), examining the extent to which public organizations adopt structured, participatory, and forward-looking planning approaches.

The findings reveal that while strategic planning is widespread across the Icelandic public sector, its institutionalization and integration vary significantly. Ministries and agencies are more likely to employ formalized planning processes — including vision development, scenario planning, and performance goal-setting — than municipalities, where planning tends to be less systematic. However, across all three levels, the strategic–budgetary nexus remains weak, echoing critiques of “decoupled” planning systems in the literature.

Despite growing expectations for participatory governance and foresight in an era of complex policy challenges, political actors (e.g., parliamentarians) and citizens appear only marginally involved in the planning process. These findings raise questions about the democratic legitimacy and adaptive capacity of strategic planning efforts.

By applying a multi-level lens to a small-state context, this paper contributes to the literature on strategic public management and sheds light on the implementation gaps and institutional dynamics that shape the real-world use of strategic planning tools.

​Strategic planning has become essential for enhancing governance and public policy effectiveness at the local level. It provides a structured, goal-oriented approach that aligns long-term objectives with operational priorities, leading to efficient resource allocation and fostering participatory decision-making processes. However, the integration of strategic planning into municipal governance varies significantly. While some municipalities adopt it as a core element, others address long-term issues through fragmented approaches, often limited by technical or financial constraints. This variability is influenced by factors such as municipal size, administrative capacity, political leadership, organizational culture, and stakeholder involvement.​

Existing literature has explored strategic planning in large cities, often within smart city strategies or innovation-led governance frameworks. Studies have also examined its role in sustainability and climate change policies, highlighting challenges like institutional fragmentation, limited departmental coordination, weak political leadership, and insufficient integration across policy areas. These studies emphasize the need for adaptive, context-sensitive, and participatory approaches to ensure effective strategic planning.​

Despite these insights, there is a notable gap in understanding strategic planning in medium-sized municipalities, particularly in Spain. Research has predominantly focused on capital cities or those known for innovation, overlooking municipalities with populations between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. These municipalities constitute a significant portion of Spain's administrative landscape and face unique challenges in designing and implementing long-term strategies, often due to limited access to technical expertise, financial resources, and institutional networks.​

This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the formalization, involved actors, and prevailing approaches in the strategic planning processes of medium-sized Spanish municipalities. We conducted a nationwide survey targeting local public officials to understand how these processes are approached. Our findings offer a comprehensive overview of strategic planning in this underexplored segment, providing insights to strengthen strategic capacity and governance at the local level.​

Methodology

We employed an empirical approach, designing and distributing a structured questionnaire to public officials in Spanish municipalities with populations between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. This focus stems from the need to understand strategic planning in local governments that are significant in territorial and demographic terms but have received limited academic attention.​

The questionnaire, developed specifically for this research, comprises sections that gather information on various aspects of strategic planning in public entities. A pilot test with a small group of municipalities ensured clarity and relevance. The final version was distributed via email to institutional contacts in the selected municipalities. Data collection began on February 15th, with follow-up reminders to enhance response rates, continuing until the conference deadline to ensure comprehensive data.​

All responses were aggregated to ensure anonymity. The descriptive and exploratory analysis provides deeper insights into how strategic planning processes are developed in medium-sized Spanish municipalities.​

The basic problem in strategy is to achieve a good fit between the organization and its anticipated but uncertain future environment, particularly by seizing opportunities. Other problems are to be addresses in ongoing operations and administration, but do not concern strategy.

One common observation in public organizations in Norway, at least, is that despite long experience with strategic management as well as with strategic planning regulations, and well-known strategic issues such as an aging population, many public sector organizations seem to have poor fit for the future. The main issue to be analysed in this paper is, therefore, the puzzle that even though strategy theory, processes, and tools are well known in practice and have been well known for a long time—and strategic planning are even often mandated in public management regulations—we know little about how “rational” the strategic planning is and how well the use of management tools fits the strategic issues facing the public sector organizations. In short: how well do public sector organizations’ strategic management fit the strategic issues and the expected future environment? Another way to put the question is: do public organizations’ strategic planning mainly conform to planning norms today and less to achieve a good fit in the future?

This paper analyses which strategic issues local government organizations have identified, conceptualized as the 17 UN development goals, and which management tools the organizations have chosen, possibly to address these issues. Moreover, this paper explores possible determinants for this “fit”, for example political factors, financial resources, organizational size, and current demography and expected changes in demography in the short, medium, and long range.

The data comes from three sources. The first source is Statistics Norway, which provides different administrative data on politics, finances, demography, and demographic forecasts, for all the 356 municipalities in the Norwegian local government. The second source is a government funded survey of local government organization in Norway, conducted in 2024, which provided data for use of some management tools in 2024 for ca 270 (76 %) of the municipalities. The third source is a survey conducted in 2025, which provided data as well as free text responses, on strategic planning, strategic issues, and management tools in 2024 in 149 (42 %) of the municipalities. The relevant data were extracted and pooled for the analysis. The analysis utilizes factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression or other multivariate methods such as structural equation modeling (SEM).

Preliminary regression analysis of the use of performance management and strategy tools in ca 270 municipalities indicates that strategic planning is common, big organizations use more management tools than small organizations, but known strategic issues such as big changes in demography do not seem to impact the use of strategic management tools, possibly pointing to decision making decoupled from strategic issues and poor strategy fit in the future.

This paper contributes to enhance knowledge on strategic planning practices for the short, medium, and long range, and strategic management in public sector organizations.