Research On The Phenomenon Of Effectiveness Attenuation Of University Strategic Planning In Secondary Colleges

University strategic planning is an important means to lead and promote the rapid development of universities.Secondary colleges are the main bodies of the university’s strategic planning and the important analysis units of the university’s internal governance.How do the colleges implement strategic planning in daily teaching,research and management activities? Can the expected planning goals be achieved by being broken down into departments and teams? From the perspective of policy implementation,it needs to be studied from a view within the secondary colleges to open up the "black box" of planning implementation.The Institutional Analysis and Development(IAD)framework is used as the theoretical framework in this research.The process of university strategic planning in secondary colleges is analyzed to find the factors that cause attenuation from various aspects such as external factors,action arena,actors,and modes of action.First,a preliminary observation of the attenuation phenomenon was conducted through a questionnaire survey.The subjects of the survey were mainly staff from the Planning and Development Offices and Disciplinary Construction Offices of many universities across the country.The interviewees had a relatively deep understanding of university strategic planning.The results of the questionnaire show that implementation and evaluation are weak in strategic management,and the interviewee who directly participates in the planning work has a deep perception of planning compared with those who are not directly involved in the planning work.The change from strong to weak is significant.Then a case university was selected to conduct an in-depth analysis.The case university S is a comprehensive,research-oriented university.Coding and comparative analysis was conducted between the university plan and college plan texts.Through the strategic planning effectiveness evaluation framework based on objective management,an evalution was conducted in all secondary colleges.After a cluster analysis,4 typical colleges were selected in different clusters and different disciplines for further interviews.According to IAD framework,the interview content was coded and refined,and the impact of various factors on the implementation of strategic planning was analyzed,including: the academic system and policy environment in the external environment,the community attribute of the colleges,the control,attention,and execution in the action arena,the core interests and endogenous motivation of actors,information advantages,as well as the interaction patterns between university and secondary colleges.It’s found in this study that the attenuation of university strategic planning in different colleges is different.According to the main internal factors and external environmental characteristics,we divide the attenuation types into three categories: "learned helplessness","involution",and "breakthrough" types.Among them,the "learned helpless" colleges are at the marginal status of the academic system,with loose management and execution,and the attenuation of planning in these colleges is the most severe.In other types of colleges,university strategic planning also attenuates to varying degrees.Considering the types of planning effectiveness attenuation of different secondary colleges and the reasons of different modules of IAD framework,a "university planning effectiveness transmission framework" was constructed in this study.In order to reduce the attenuation of university strategic planning,we raise three suggestions.Borrowing the concept of signal transmission in the communication system,the university’s strategic planning is compared to top-down transmission of signals.The three suggestions correspond to signal modulation at the transmitter,signal relay in the transmission line,and signal monitoring in the auxiliary line:(1)Design compatible planning system,based on the principle of incentive compatible,at the beginning of formulating university strategic plan,with full consideration of different colleges and scholars;(2)Strengthen the guidance of college plan during the implementing process.Improve executive power of middle-level managers;(3)As the closed-loop of strategic management,carry out effective planning monitoring and evaluation,and use Institutional Research technology to support planning monitoring and evaluation.