چگونه برنامه ریزی استراتژیک سازمان های شهرداری در جمهوری چک بهبود می یابند؟ How to improve strategic planning of municipal organizations in Czech Republic?

In some municipalities (mostly urban) and micro-regions of the area, strategic plans for future development of the territory do exist or are still processed and updated to help the regional management seek assistance in the strategy (optimal path) to address social, technical, economic, environmental, and other topical issues. The Strategic Plan is one of the basic tools of strategic management. It is a written document that is based on the knowledge of a village or area of the micro-region; it summarizes internal and external sources of the community and seeks balanced development in the long-time horizon. In the Czech Republic (CR), a binding and uniform methodology and content of the strategic plans of municipalities or micro-regions has not been approved yet. Their design is purely an individual matter for each strategic management of local government. The process of strategic management of municipalities and microregions is mostly carried out in three consecutive successive phases and their results will form the final strategic plan – analytical, strategic and implementation part. The fourth phase should then be a phase of control (monitoring), by means of which assess the fulfilment of the strategic plan. It is rarely a part of this document. In all the EU countries, regional development is supported and controlled by the individual states and regional institutions. This process is managed and planned. There is a significant shift in the paradigms of regional politics concerning increased importance of, for example, learning regions, creating innovative environment, or the support of networks and clusters (Bednářová, ۲۰۰۵). In the light of this new approach, the regional development goals are based on increasing competitive advantage and utilizing proactive, planned, and strategic manner of their implementation (Skokan, 2004). Strategic management in non-profit organizations is characterized by varied purposes and expectations of various groups, multi-source financing, and influence of donors, high proportion of resources from government or sponsors and also the fact that receivers of services do not necessarily have to contribute (Johnson and Scholes, 2000). Strategic management can be interpreted as a set of managerial decisions and actions of an organization that can be used to facilitate competitive advantage and long-run superior performance over other organizations (Powell, 2001, Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). Strategic management is a continuous complex process of managerial activities that determines the company’s targets and a strategic course to reach these specified targets, it participates on their realization and fulfilment (Tichá and Hron, 2010). Strategic management presents the collection of methods and approaches that are applicable to the regulation of regional development. The basic requirement of this process is to increase competitive advantage of the regions (Rolínek and Řehoř, ۲۰۰۸). The importance of strategic management is increasing also due to necessity to gain external sources for financing development of regions (Wright and Nemec, 2003, Rolínek and Řehoř, ۲۰۰۶). To gain financial sources for EU funds the municipalities must set their strategic plans, which should contribute to creation of better municipality’s competitiveness when solving particular developmental projects that will allow economical and territorial development (Řehoř, ۲۰۱۰). Quality improvement of municipal environment can be achieved through correct implementation of local strategies and application of new approaches and municipal managerial tools aiming for regional development (Balanced Scorecard, benchmarking, CAF model) (Řehoř, ۲۰۱۱). Strategic planning is a backbone of strategic management (Steiner, 1979). It provides systematic techniques and cohesion of organizational activities and on the other hand it defines future of the organization (Poister, 2010). Strategic management and strategic planning are not one-shot approaches. Instead, they are ongoing and fluid (Taneja and Pryor, 2013). Strategic planning is defined as a disciplined effort to make fundamental decisions and take actions that are guidelines for an organization; what it is, what it does and why it does it (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). It is a social process through which local communities cope with external and internal challenges (Healey and Khakee, 1997). Various authors provide sundry division of strategic planning process. Although these divisions are often quite dissimilar, principal phases that are common for most approaches can be identified. Literature (Berman, 1999, Dobrucká and Coplák, 2007). often mentions the first phase as preparatory, and above mentioned authors denote it a critical point of the whole process of strategic planning. The first phase is building partnerships. Among other phases are: analyses, common vision, strategic framework, implementation and monitoring, and evaluation and feedback (Haccou, 2007). Munive–Hernandex, et al. (2004) presents four phases of strategic planning: setting objectives, revising situation, formation of strategy and allocating resources and monitoring. Plant (2010) mentions 5 primary components that strategic plan should have: monitoring of environment, setting clear visions, defining ultimate state, setting benchmarks and selecting route to reach success. Strategic management activities are focused on reducing weaknesses of an organization and taking advantage of their strengths, in advance they should anticipate future problems and possible opportunities (Sedláčková and Buchta, 2006). Aims of development, created and realized, within strategic management bring comparative effect (Lednický, ۲۰۰۶) or competitive advantage to organizations (Vodáček and Vodáčková, ۲۰۰۹).