Much of our planning to date in higher education has focused on questions of internal effectiveness and efficiency, but, given the period of rapid social change we have entered, it is imperative that we improve our abilities to assess changes in the external environment and examine their implications for higher education. In this way we will be able to develop better goals, strategies, and plans to take advantage of emerging opportunities and head off potentially damaging developments. The chapters in this sourcebook consider the problem of assessing the external environment in planning and are primarily concerned with the contributions that traditional institutional research methods and perspectives make to institutional planning. The purpose of this volume of New Directions for Institutional Research is to describe a variety of futures research techniques and to illustrate their utiltiy for strategic planning.

Applying Methods and Techniques of Futures Research: New Directions for Institutional Research (J-B IR Single Issue Institutional Research)

Education & Teaching

Morrison, James L.

Boucher, Wayne I.

Renfro, William L.

Schools & Teaching

Jossey-Bass

<p>Emerging issues in the external environment have more influence on the future of corporations than do their CEO's and strategic management team. As a result, corporate executives must anticipate and manage emerging external issues in addition to their traditional internally focused responsibilities. Renfro has provided the first comprehensive chart of these new, uncertain waters. From environmental scanning, to issues research, to developing priorities and issue action strategies, Renfro brings state-of-the-art concepts and methods down to practical applications with his pioneering models of the life cycles of public issues at the national and state level.</p>
<p>Once the issues management process is presented and explained, Renfro turns to two important concepts: how to design and build an issues management function in an existing organization; and second, the changing role of the issues media in the evolving public issues process. Backed with timely examples of successes and failures in managing emerging issues, Renfro distills two decades of experience into a series of guidelines. Renfro also reviews the most popular pitfalls--fast cats, fat cats, black, and copy cats--in building an issues management capability.</p>

Issues Management in Strategic Planning

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

Quorum Books

Appraises futures research as a tool for dealing with social, economic, political, and technological changes. Features new strategies in planning, forecasting, and environmental scanning.

Futures Research and the Strategic Planning Process: Implications for Higher Education (J-B ASHE Higher Education Report Series (AEHE))

Higher & Continuing Education

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Books by Renfro, William L.