Public Sector Employees Experiences Executing Strategic Management in A Political Environment

Public Sector Employees Experiences Executing

Strategic Management in A Political Environment

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Public sector organizations began adopting strategic management in

the early 1980s (Johnsen, 2015; Poister, 2010). Although public and private

sector organizations both engage in strategic management, most research in

the area has been focused on private companies, whereas public sector

organizations have been overlooked (Axelsson, 2016). Though there has

been a recent increase in academic interest in public sector strategic

management, there has been little empirical research into how it is practiced

by public sector executives (Johnsen, 2015).

Political processes are more pervasive in public sector organizations

than in the private sector (Abbas & Awan, 2017; Fu, 2012; Johnsen, 2015).

Public sector resources are often determined and allocated through political

processes within legislative and executive branches (Johnsen, 2015). The

political nature of resource allocation may influence the ability of public

sector organizations to implement the strategies developed by their

executives. Thus, there is a need to understand how those executives

experience those influences.

The results of this qualitative phenomenological study may add to

knowledge on strategic management in the public sector regarding how

political influences are experienced by employees. To facilitate the gain in

knowledge, I used the descriptive phenomenological psychological method

(Giorgi, 2009). Findings from this study may increase understanding of

political influence on individual and group decisions associated with

strategic management. These findings may result in positive social change

through improved spending and accountability of government revenues.

The remainder of this chapter includes the background of the topic,

the general and specific problem this study addressed, and the purpose of

this study. This chapter also provides the research question and conceptual

framework that guided this study. Finally, this chapter provides a description

of the nature of the study, definitions of key terminology, assumptions,

delimitations and limitations of the study, and the significance of the study

to practice and social change.

Background of the Study

Strategic management in the context of the public sector has been

studied by several researchers. For example, Hansen and Ferlie (2016)

assessed two models of strategic management in the public sector: Porter’s

strategic position model and the resource-based view of strategy. The

applicability of these models is partially based on the degree of

administrative autonomy public organizations have, which is determined by

politicians (Hansen & Ferlie, 2016). Johnsen (2015) also studied the

relationship of strategic management thinking and actual strategic

management behavior in the public sector, evaluating challenges like short

tenures of executives, frequent changes in political agendas, and instability

in coalitions. Further, Van der Voet (2016) examined public sector

organizational change and the impacts of bureaucratic features and

concluded that future research into public sector organizational change

should focus on their organizational environment. Finally, though

performance management is essential for strategic management (Johnsen,

2015), the greater the degree of external political influence, the less likely a

government agency is to successfully implement performance management

activities (Lee & Kim, 2012). The negative relationship between political

influence and successful implementation of performance management

demonstrates the importance of understanding the broader relationship

between political influence and strategic management. The studies outlined

in this section illustrate the political nature of strategic management in the

public sector and the need for further research on the topic.

The public sector has unique leadership challenges. Leadership in the

public context requires the ability to address complex public policy issues as

well as the use of negotiation and conflict resolution to balance political

interests and values (Fu, 2012; Hansen & Ferlie, 2016). Although each

public sector organization has a specific function, they have common

leadership requirements including developing and communicating strategic

direction, considering the needs of a range of external and internal

stakeholders, scanning the environment for issues, and influencing policy

decisions and practices (Tizard, 2012). Further, public sector leaders must

maintain the confidence of elected officials and their staff, who represent the

public they serve (Tizard, 2012). These leadership challenges differentiate

the public sector from the private sector. Moreover, they support the

necessity of leadership research specific to the public sector.

Another challenge for public sector leaders is that they must focus on

being stewards of the limited resources available to them. Their sector has

public and political pressure to deliver more services with fewer resources.

Funding reductions may result in reduced services, restructuring of service

delivery models, staffing reductions, and other significant changes (Tizard,

2012). Further, the availability of public sector organization resources is

often determined through political processes such as legislative budget

approvals (Johnsen, 2015). The political nature of resource allocation

influences the ability of public sector organizations to implement strategy.

There is a need to understand how public sector executives experience these

influences.

There is also a need for significant levels of collaboration in the public

sector. This includes collaboration with private sector organizations, elected

officials, other public sector leaders, and social organizations (Tizard, 2012).

The primary reasons for collaboration include obtaining political buy-in, off-

setting risk, obtaining skills and expertise that are not organic to their

organization, creating choice or competition, and addressing issues that can

only be handled through collaboration (Tizard, 2012). Importantly, public

sector leaders face a political context in addition to the normal managerial

issues faced in most organizations (Fu, 2012). In this study, I examined how

public sector executives negotiate that political context to conduct the

strategic management of their organizations.

Finally, bureaucratic, institutional, and cultural factors encourage

public sector organizations to manage with a focus on day-to-day issues

versus planning strategically. Political processes are more pervasive in

public sector organizations than in the private sector (Abbas & Awan, 2017;

Fu, 2012; Johnsen, 2015). These processes are inherent to both the internal

environment of public sector organizations and the external environment

they operate in. Empirical evidence has shown that government agencies

with formal protections from political authorities, or higher levels of

autonomy, have a greater propensity to implement the conditions necessary

for strategic management (Lee & Kim, 2012). There is a difference between

strategic planning and strategic thinking, and there is a lack of research on

the practice of strategic thinking by public sector organizations (Johnsen,

2015). Additionally, the level of strategic planning capacity differs greatly

among government agencies (Lee & Kim, 2012). Gaining an understanding

of the specific experiences of executives throughout the strategic planning

process lends itself to the approach used in this study.

Problem Statement

The general problem is that the consequences of political influences

on the strategic management of the public sector are not fully understood by

its stakeholders (Tama, 2018; Tama, 2017). There are an estimated 22.3

million public sector employees in the United States (U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, 2018). Those employees, as well as the American public, are

impacted by the practice of strategic management that is rudimentary

compared to that in the private sector. Recent increases in social and

financial pressures have bolstered the need for strategic management in the

public sector (Poister, 2010). A further understanding of the political

influences in public sector strategic management is essential to

understanding its effective execution (Baskarada & Hanlon, 2017; Tama,

2018).

The specific problem is that the public does not fully understand the

consequences of political process influences on the strategic management of

Maryland agencies. Strategic management in the public sector is complex, as

it combines administrative, managerial, and political rationalities (Mazouz et

al., 2016). Strategic management also requires participation from actors of

different types within organizations such as senior leaders, planners,

financial professionals, and consultants (Johnsen, 2015). Researchers have

identified that political approaches to strategic management can result in ill-

defined strategies, ambiguity, and lack of commitment from public sector

employees (Favoreu, Carassus, & Maurel, 2016). These results are

exemplified by strategic management in

Maryland (Nirappil & Hernandez, 2017; Spivack, 2015). An investigation by

Maryland’s Office of Legislative Audits in 2004 revealed that agencies may

comply with the legislated reporting requirements rather than using the tools

for actual strategic management (Meyers, 2011).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to

identify and report the lived experiences of public sector employees who

have been subjected to political influence while engaged in the strategic

management of their organizations in Maryland. I used the descriptive

phenomenological psychological method as described by Giorgi (2009). The

phenomenon is the specific elements of the political environment that impact

the strategic management of Maryland organizations. Purposive and

snowball sampling (Griffith, Morris, & Thakar, 2016) were used to identify

qualified participants. Data were collected via open-ended questions in

semistructured interviews of 15 participants or until data saturation is

achieved (see Ravitch & Carl, 2016). The participants consisted of managers

and senior leaders who regularly participated in at least one of their state

agency’s strategic management activities.

Research Question

The overarching research question was “What are the lived

experiences of public sector employees who encounter political influence

while engaged in the strategic management of their organizations in the State

of Maryland?”

Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework is a synthesis of concepts used to provide a

broad understanding of a phenomenon (Imenda, 2014). Conceptual

frameworks are helpful to the researcher in the data collection,

interpretation, and explanation processes where there is no dominant

theoretical perspective (Imenda, 2014). The development of the conceptual

framework should include relevant literature that reflects the political,

cultural, environmental, and social concepts of the phenomenon being

studied (Jabareen, 2009).

Strategic management requires participation from various stakeholders

who may have conflicting interests (Johnsen, 2015; Mazouz et al., 2016),

which is why I chose stakeholder theory as part of the conceptual

framework. Freeman (1984) detailed the relationship between three business

problems in his work on stakeholder theory: value creation and trade, ethics

of capitalism, and managerial mindset. Firms are comprised of stakeholders

who often have conflicting demands. Organizational leaders have a moral

obligation to manage the competitive and cooperative relationships of those

stakeholders (Freeman, 1984; Parmar et al., 2010). Freeman compared

stakeholders based on the dimensions of interest and power. The interest

dimension is categorized by market stake, equity stake, and social stake,

whereas the power dimension is categorized by economic power, political

power, and voting power (Gomes et al., 2010).

Economic theory of the firm, the second part of the conceptual

framework for this study, is primarily used in economic and management

disciplines. However, strategic management in the public sector combines

managerial, administrative, and political rationalities (Mazouz et al., 2016).

Public sector managers balance the economic requirements of customers, the

government, and the public in their decision-making processes (Fu, 2012).

Coase (1937), who authored the seminal work on economic theory of the

firm, attempted to answer several questions about organizations including

“Why do they exist?,” “How are they created?,” and “How do they perform,

compete, and behave?” (Peng et al., 2016). Coase focused on actual behavior

of firms in the market as opposed to the anticipated behavior of firms

predicted by pure economists. The theory provides a basis to examine the

rationality of public sector organizational decisionmaking. Additionally,

because research has been focused on private sector firms (Peng et al.,

2016), the application of the economic theory of the firm in this study may

address this gap in the literature.

The conceptual framework for this study was based on stakeholder

theory and economic theory of the firm to represent the challenges of public

sector managers to balance the needs of their multiple stakeholders while

considering the economic realities of their sector. The synthesis of

stakeholder theory and economic theory of the firm accommodates the

political nature of the public sector including the roles of organizations,

political actors and the groups they represent, public sector stakeholders

such as the public, public sector resources such as tax-revenue, and the

researcher.

Nature of the Study

For this study, I used a qualitative methodology. The researcher in

qualitative research seeks to explore a phenomenon rather than testing

hypotheses (Levitt et al., 2018). Qualitative research is usually identified as

constructivism from an epistemological perspective. Constructivism is the

view that truth and knowledge are the result of perspective (Cottone, 2017).

The study of political influences on strategic management was suited for a

constructivist epistemology, as constructivism is an appropriate

methodology to understand strategy (Mir & Watson, 2000).

I used a descriptive phenomenological design for this study. The

purpose of phenomenological research is to identify and report the lived

experiences of the individuals being studied (Vagle, 2018).

Phenomenological research has the aim of gaining a rich understanding of

how a phenomenon is experienced without concern for quantifying or

generalizing (Vagle, 2018). A phenomenological design was selected

because it would be difficult to measure how individuals experience political

influences using a quantitative method. Although it may be possible to

quantify attributes of political influence, I sought a deeper understanding of

the lived experiences of public sector employees. Empirical research in this

area would have been difficult because the variables are difficult to measure

directly. Further, the number of variables would make it difficult to identify

causality (Wu, Yanping, & Pengcheng, 2014). The descriptive

phenomenological psychological method is specific to human consciousness

(Giorgi, 2009). I selected a descriptive phenomenological over other

phenomenological methods due to its alignment with psychology as opposed

to philosophy. The psychological concepts of the narrative self and the social

mind align with the concepts of influence (Jones, 2003).

Types and Sources of Data

Semistructured interviews provided the data for this study. This study

involved interviews of public sector employees involved in the strategic

management of government agencies in Maryland. Planning and other

strategic management activities require interactions between various levels

of organizational hierarchy (Johnsen, 2015).

The influence of politics was revealed in participants’ lived experiences.

Maryland government participants were chosen because the Maryland

state government has legislated requirements for strategic management.

Maryland implemented a strategic management program in 1997 titled

Managing for Results (MFR), which required Maryland’s 20 executive

departments to conduct strategic planning, performance management, and

performance-based budgeting. Its requirements are similar to the

Government Performance and Results Act of the federal government.

Maryland executive departments each have a secretary who is appointed by

the governor of Maryland with the consent of the legislature (Maryland

Department of Budget and Management [DBM], 2017; Gray, Jackson,

Kramer, & Zimmerman, 2014). Maryland has over 248 executive branch

agencies led by the governor. The exact number of Maryland employees

directly involved in strategic management can only be estimated, as DBM

only provides guidelines for the implementation of MFR (Gray et al., 2014).

An estimate of 1,000 employees is based on the minimum requirements for

each executive branch agency to have a MFR coordinator, a budget director

to verify the budget request, and a chief executive to verify the contents of

the documents. However, the number of potential participants could exceed

2,000 employees based on the usual participation of agency senior leaders,

financial professionals, and planners (Mazouz et al., 2016; Johnsen, 2015).

Definitions

Political activities: Political activities include legislative actions,

appropriation processes, administrative procedures, compulsory reporting,

performance and financial audits, agency design, and oversight hearings.

Further, they include actions by politicians to appoint, influence, or remove

individuals from leadership positions in government agencies (Bello &

Spano, 2015).

Strategic management: Strategic management is the alignment

of external demand with internal capabilities in the form of plans,

positions, patterns, plots and perspectives (Johnsen, 2015).

Assumptions

There are several assumptions related to the conduct of this study.

Assumptions are factors outside of the researcher’s control but are essential

to the existence of the research problem. Further, they are factors that the

researcher can expect to be true or expect to happen (Simon, 2011). The first

assumption is that participants answered interview questions honestly. This

assumption is based on the voluntary nature of participation in the study as

well as informed consent procedures. I explained the potential benefits of the

study during the introduction and informed consent procedures. The

participants were also informed of the confidentiality of their responses,

efforts to keep them anonymous, and that they could end the interview or

choose to not answer every question. The second assumption was that

strategic management would continue to be stressed and practiced by

Maryland throughout the conduct of the study. This assumption was based

on existing legislated requirements for strategic planning, performance

management, and performance-based budgeting within the state (Maryland

Office of Legislative Audits, 2004).

Scope and Delimitations

Delimitations are characteristics of the study that identify the

boundaries and limit the scope and are characteristics within the control of

the researcher (Simon, 2011). The scope of the study was delimited to

strategic management programs required by Maryland’s Office of the

Governor and Office of Budget and Management. Purposive sampling was

used to gain participants from the population of current and former

Maryland state government employees involved in strategic management

(Groenewald, 2004). The starting point for the sample was the Maryland

DBM’s list of agency coordinators for its MFR Program. The participants

met the following criteria: they served in their positions for at least 1 year

prior to their interview and they were responsible for or regularly

participated in their organization’s strategic management activities.

Participants who were excluded included current employees directly

appointed by the governor such as the chief executive officer or executive

director of an agency. Politicization is more likely for chief executives then

for other senior leadership positions, therefore they are more likely to be a

source of political influence than a recipient (Ennser-Jedenastik, 2016).

The focus of this study was political influences on the strategic

management activities of state agencies. Political influences on other

organizational activities were excluded from the scope. Semistructured

interviews allowed participants to fully express how they have experienced

political influences while executing their strategic management

responsibilities. I sought their experiences relative to aspects of political

influence including formal controls such as the promulgation of legislation,

appropriation processes, and oversight hearings as well as less formal

controls such as reporting requirements, procedural requirements, and

agency organizational structure (Furlong, 1998). I also sought their

experiences with informal oversight such as personal telephonic

communication and private meetings versus formal oversight such as public

meetings and hearings (Ogul, 1976). Understanding the lived experiences of

public sector employees pertaining to political influence may assist policy

makers and the public in understanding barriers to effective strategic

management.

Semistructured, in-depth interviews were used for data collection,

which inspired participants to provide voluminous data necessary to support

the descriptive phenomenological psychological method. The study was

limited to 20 participants or until data saturation was achieved (Ravitch &

Carl, 2016). I achieved data saturation with 15 participants. Qualitative

phenomenological design makes larger sample sizes impractical as it

requires in-depth and lengthy interviews (Geoenewald, 2004).

Limitations

Limitations are weaknesses in the study that are generally out of the

researcher’s control (Simon, 2011). There were three limitations identified

for this study. First, the study was limited in methodology because it only

featured qualitative data. Future studies using quantitative data may address

this specific limitation. Second, the study was limited by its sample’s

restriction to only Maryland state government employees. This limits the

generalizability of the results to other public sector organizations. The third

limitation was unintended biases due to the researcher being the primary

data collector. Bias were mitigated through an interview guide that was field

tested to evaluate its design prior to its use (Ravitch & Carl, 2016).

Significance of the Study

The focus of this study was on how political influence is experienced

by public sector employees engaged in strategic management. The focus was

not the quantity nor magnitude of the political influence but how public

sector employees experience the influence. These experiences are inclusive

of, but not limited to, how the influence was administered, the perceived

consequences to the employee, and if it created a conflict for the employee.

Stakeholders’ demands of public sector organizations continue to increase

(Johnsen, 2015). Political stakeholders have power over public sector

organizations through many instruments including executive orders, rule-

making, appointments, and budgeting (Fu, 2012). Findings from this study

regarding the experiences of public sector employees may increase the

public’s understanding of these instruments’ influence on individual and

group decisions associated with strategic management, which can result in

improved spending and accountability of government revenues.

Significance to Theory

This study’s significance to theory is my application of stakeholder

theory and economic theory of the firm to address a gap in literature

regarding how the effective execution of public sector strategic management

is influenced by politics (see Baskarada & Hanlon, 2017; Tama, 2018). The

study of public sector strategic management should be focused on the

organizational environment that is political and complex (Van der Voet,

2016). The conceptual framework may address the call for strategic

management theories to integrate theories, establish evaluative criteria, and

explore new logic and methods (Bao, 2015). Significance to Practice

If public sector organizations’ planning activities are influenced by

politics, the performance of these organizations may be improved through an

awareness of these influences (Hansen & Ferlie, 2016; Miller, 2015). The

results of this study may benefit public officials, senior leaders in public

sector organizations, and government budget and management professionals

by identifying influences they may be unaware of. The results of the study

identified influences that had positive results as well as influences with

negative results. Scholars in the disciplines of business, management,

strategy, public administration, and political science may also be interested

in the results of this study.

Summary

The context of this study on the influence that political processes have

on the strategic management of public sector organizations was outlined in

this chapter. This chapter also included the framework of the study used to

understand political influence on strategic management: stakeholder theory

and economic theory of the firm. This chapter also contained an overview of

the gap in the literature related to the phenomenon and a statement of the

research question. Chapter 2 provides a review of current literature on

political influence and strategic management in the public sector as well as

the use of phenomenology as the method of the study.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Strategic management has become a common practice in the public sector.

However, its ability to positively impact the performance of organizations is

unclear (Favoreu, Carassus, & Maurel, 2016). The public sector is partly

characterized by political processes, including decoupled strategic planning

and budget management (Abbas & Awan, 2017; Fu, 2012; Johnsen, 2015).

Political influences can undermine the routine execution of decision-making

processes in the public sector through undefined strategies (Bello & Spano,

2015; Favoreu et al., 2016). In this qualitative phenomenological study, I

explored the lived experiences of public sector employees who were

subjected to political influence while engaged in the strategic management

of their organizations in Maryland.

Although numerous researchers have studied strategic management in

the public sector, a further understanding of the political influences may

influence its effective execution (Baskarada & Hanlon, 2017; Tama, 2018).

Maryland’s strategic management program comprises elements that may be

subject to political influence such as performance-based budgeting,

performance management, and planning. In this chapter, I discuss this

study’s literature search strategy, relevant literature on the conceptual

framework, other researchers’ perspectives on public sector strategic

management, relevant literature on political influence, and gaps in the

literature.

Literature Search Strategy

The literature reviewed for the study was gathered from the databases

accessed through the Walden University Library, local libraries, and

purchased publications. The databases included the ABI/Inform Collection,

Sage Journals, Business Source Complete, Emerald Management, Science

Direct, and Elsevier. The keywords searched included strategic

management, public sector strategic management, public sector strategic

planning, political influence, public sector performance management,

oversight of the bureaucracy, performance-based budgeting, stakeholder

theory, and economic theory of the firm.

Conceptual Framework

Conceptual frameworks provide the researcher with a theoretical

approach to research problems that are difficult to explain meaningfully with

a singular theory (Imenda, 2014). Conceptual frameworks also help in the

data collection, interpretation, and explanation processes where a dominant

theoretical perspective is absent (Imenda, 2014). Theories from multiple

disciplines are often required to reflect the cultural, social, environmental,

and political concepts of the phenomenon being studied, with each concept

in the framework helping identify factors in the study as well as the

relationships between them (Jabareen, 2009). The conceptual framework of

the study is based on the stakeholder theory and the economic theory of the

firm.

Stakeholder Theory

Stakeholders are generally defined as organizations and individuals

that a firm relies on for the accomplishment of its strategic direction as well

as those that have an interest in the firm’s outcomes and processes (Freeman,

1984; Harrison, Freeman, & Sa de Abreu, 2015). Stakeholder theory

describes the relationship between three business problems: value creation

and trade, the ethics of capitalism, and the managerial mindset (Freeman,

1984). Stakeholders are based on the dimensions of interest and power

(Freeman, 1984). The interest dimension is categorized by market stake,

equity stake, and social stake. The power dimension is categorized by

economic power, political power, and voting power (Gomes et al., 2010).

An important concept of stakeholder theory is that all stakeholders

should be treated with fairness and honesty, rather than focusing on a subset

of stakeholders, such as customers, shareholders, or employees (Harrison et

al., 2015). The leaders of organizations have the moral obligation to manage

the conflicting demands of its stakeholders. For example, it may be fair to

treat an employee differently than a shareholder. This concept is relevant to

the present study, as it addresses the role of political influence in making

strategic decisions for organizations designed to serve the public. The

conceptual framework was used to focus this research study to learn the

lived experienced of public sector employees engaged in the strategic

management of their organizations.

Economic Theory of the Firm

Firms are created and exist in markets for specific purposes. Coase

(1937) questioned the purpose of firms, as the economic system depicted by

economists does not need centralized control. The system “works itself” and

is coordinated through pricing (Coase, 1937, p. 387). Contrary to the works

of other economists at the time, Coase explained that firms are still created

and serve an important purpose. The economic theory of the firm addresses

why they exist, how they are created, and how they perform, compete, and

behave (Coase, 1937; Peng et al., 2016). The economic theory of the firm

has been influential in the discipline of management, as it has shaped several

management theories including the theory of perfect competition, the theory

of transactional costs, and theory of industrial organization (Storchevoi,

2015).

Firms exist because they can economize transactional costs more

efficiently than markets (Coase, 1937; Peng et al., 2016). Public sector

organizations exist, as their transactional costs for some goods and services

are more efficient than that markets can offer (Peng at al., 2016). For

example, public services such as law enforcement, emergency medical

services, and sanitation are likely to be offered at a lower cost by the

government than private sector firms. The economic theory of the firm

provides a basis to examine the rationality of public sector organizational

decision-making. The theory can account for the behaviors that management

theorists feel are missing from the specific theories focused on strategy such

as the nature, scope, competitive advantages, and structure of the firm

(Storchevoi, 2015). Political influence may cause strategic decisions to be

made that are contrary to sound economic principles.

Literature Review Public Sector Overview

The public sector is the part of the economy that the government

contributes. The government provides essential services to citizens that

typically include public education, transportation, water, sanitation, health

services, and safety and security services (Smets & Knack, 2016).

Government revenues typically consist of collected taxes and debts issued to

finance these essential services. In the United States, government revenues

account for one-third of the gross domestic product (OECD, 2017). In 2015,

there were over a total of 14 million government employees in the United

States who work for the local, state, and federal governments (OECD, 2017).

The public sector is made up of more than the administrative agencies

under the control of the government’s chief executive. There are

organizations that are not administrative agencies that still have a connection

to the government (O’Connell, 2014). For example, the United States Postal

Service (USPS), Amtrak, the International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development, and the National Guard are organizations that have a

connection to the federal government but are not administrative agencies.

These organizations are aligned at the intersection between the role of the

government and either the private sector or another government. For

instance, the National Guard comprises state-level organizations that are

funded by the federal government. The president has the authority to

federalize the National Guard as necessary to respond to emergencies or for

military service (O’Connell, 2014). Additionally, Amtrak and the USPS are

agencies of the federal government that serve the needs of the public;

however, they are required to generate revenues that approximate or meet

their expenditures and require executive and legislative action to support

strategic management (O’Connell, 2014). The USPS has developed

strategies to address budget deficits for the past 10 years, with the strategic

plan for 2017 to 2021 dependent on Congress to pass postal reform

legislation (Government Accountability Office, 2017). These organizations

also operate similarly to the private sector, and their managers report similar

use of strategic planning and performance measurement (Rainey &

Bozeman, 2000). Although these organizations are different from

administrative agencies, they are still part of the public sector and are subject

to political influence. Therefore, the entire public sector falls within the

scope of the present study.

Strategic Management

Strategic management includes the decisions, commitments, and

actions for addressing a firm’s key challenges, which include which

businesses to engage in and which strategies to execute to make profits or

generate value for its owners (Ogrean, 2016; Storchevoi, 2015). It is

intended to enable firms to address future challenges, whether planned or in

response to the changes in their environment (Bao, 2015; Soloducho-Pelc,

2015; Storchevoi, 2015). Strategic management has two dimensions: the

overall effect and future effects. The overall effect refers to the growth and

survival of the organization. Future effects refer to the survival and growth

of the organization over time (Bao, 2015). Strategic management involves

the activities for assisting the firm to establish long-term objectives,

conceptualize overall direction, conduct planning, make decisions, allocate

resources, and develop emergent initiatives (Bao, 2015; Bryson, Edwards, &

Van Slyke, 2018; Johnsen, 2015).

Origins

The terms strategic planning and strategic management are often used

interchangeably. The term strategic planning is primarily used by

practitioners, whereas the term strategic management is used by scholars

(Davis, 2011). For the purposes of this study, the terms are not synonymous.

Strategic planning is a component of strategic management (Corneliu, 2013;

Davis, 2011).

Strategic planning was first used in the 1950s and grew in popularity

during the 1960s and 1970s (Davis, 2011; Petrova, 2015). Drucker

introduced the concept of management by objective in theory in 1954, and

Selznick introduced the concept of SWOT analysis in 1957. The term

strategic management was first used by Ansof in 1965 as he outlined the

concept of gap analysis (Petrova, 2015). The concept of strategic planning

was heralded as a methodology to address many business problems;

however, it lost favor with practitioners in the 1980s due to the belief that it

did not result in higher financial returns (Davis, 2011).

Strategic management as a practice and an academic discipline has

evolved since the 1960s. Initially, the development of its concepts, practices,

tools, and procedures primarily took place in the private sector (Bryson et

al., 2018; Johnsen, 2015). Its evolution is delineated into four phases

(Cristiana & Anca, 2013). Phase 1 transpired during the 1950s and 1960s

and consisted primarily of financial planning efforts that transitioned to

financial planning at the enterprise level (Cristiana & Anca, 2013; Davis,

2011). Phase 2 was characterized by forecast-based planning. The shift to

this phase expanded the planning horizon from annual-term budgets to that

of 3- to 5-year periods to account for projects lasting longer than a year

(Cristiana & Anca, 2013). The third phase took place during the 1980s and

1990s and was characterized by a shift to firms conducting the analysis of

their competitive environments. This led firms to consider strategic

alternatives and focus on the accomplishment of objectives. Firms also

began seeking competitive advantages through improved resource use and

competencies. Two academic journals pertaining to the subject were created

during this phase, namely the Journal of Business Strategy and the Strategic

Management Journal (Cristiana & Anca, 2013). The fourth phase began in

2000 and was characterized by a focus on ethics, corporate social

responsibility, and the development of global strategies (Cristiana & Anca,

2013). The discipline continues to evolve and grow, including its adoption

by the public sector.

Strategic management as an academic discipline has been subject to

criticism. Strategic management, compared to disciplines such as economics

and law, is immature (Cox, Daspit, McLaughlin, & Jones, 2012).

Additionally, researchers have argued that strategic management research is

too academic and is not sufficient to address the current needs of

practitioners in the contemporary environment (Bao, 2015). The poor

applicability of theory to practice, vague boundaries between theories, and a

lack of consensuses in strategic management theories hamper the ability of

strategic management research to assist practitioners in addressing future

challenges (Bao, 2015; Cox et al., 2012). This is supported by other

researchers who have observed that strategic management overlaps other

disciplines such as sociology, economics, and marketing (Thomas, Wilson,

& Leeds, 2013). However, the field of strategic management is recognized

by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (Cox et al.,

2012). Future strategic management research should focus on the growth and

survival of organizations instead of significance, curiosity, novelty, scope,

and actionability (Bao, 2015) as well as refine existing strategic management

theories, conduct further empirical research using refined research methods,

and conduct studies that have practical application in the dynamic global

environment (Cox et al., 2012).

Key activities. Strategic management is characterized by common

components: vision, mission, values, strategic planning, policies and

procedures, budgeting, objectives, and informational standards (Corneliu,

2013; Davis, 2011; Favoreu et al., 2016). The key activities associated with

strategic management include establishing the mission of the organization,

determining the strategic objectives, specifying the strategic choices,

identifying the required resources, establishing the timelines, determining

the competitive advantages, developing the broad strategies, designing a

global policy, and combining all those elements into the organization’s

overall strategy (Ciobanica, 2014; Davis, 2011). Managers use these

activities to address strategic drift. Strategic drift is the lag between changes

in an organization’s environment and the necessary adjustment in the

organization (Ayoubi, Mehrabanfar, & Banaitis, 2018). These key activities

fit into the three stages of strategic management.

Strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation

are the three stages of strategic management (Ayoubi et al., 2018; Cristiana

& Anca, 2013; Davis, 2011). Shujahat et al. (2017) described the Fred

David’s model as a three-stage model of strategic management. The term

strategic planning is commonly used to only refer to strategy formulation,

while strategic management is used to refer to all the three stages (Davis,

2011). The first stage is strategy formulation, which includes the vision and

mission development, determining the strengths and weaknesses, identifying

the opportunities and threats, establishing the objectives, and generating the

strategies. The second stage is strategy implementation, which includes

establishing the annual objectives, policy development, the allocation of

resources, and the motivation of the employees to execute the strategies. The

third stage is strategy evaluation, which includes performance measurement,

reviewing internal and external factors, and adjusting the strategies to make

corrections (Ciobanica, 2014; Davis, 2011; Shujahat et al., 2017).

Although strategic planning is extensively used by public sector

organizations, it is not the only strategic management tool of value to the

public sector. Tools such as strategy mapping and balanced scorecard have

the potential to assist public sector organizations in balancing and

operationalizing the strategies to meet the needs of different stakeholder

groups (Johnsen, 2015).

Participants. Strategy development is a social activity based on the

interaction and cooperation between individuals within an organization

(Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018; Powell, 2014). Strategic management requires

the actors from throughout the organization, including senior leaders,

planners, financial professionals, and consultants. These participants

synthesize their knowledge and experiences from their respective functions

in the organization into the planning process (Axelsson, 2016; Bryson et al.,

2018; Johnsen, 2015; Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018). Strategic management is a

social phenomenon that is 75% personal and 25% impersonal (Powell,

2014). The study of the social aspects can be examined using the scientific

methods from other academic disciplines (Power, 2014; Wu et al., 2014). In

the public sector, citizen participation can provide the staff with information

about the issues and concerns to inform the development of solutions

(Bryson et al., 2018). Broad participation throughout the organization can be

beneficial to the process, as it encourages shared ownership and the

commitment to strategies (Bryson et al., 2018; Favoreu et al., 2016).

Strategic management is clearly a social activity where the interactions are

as important as the processes.

Strategy formulation is enhanced by an emergent process that is

decentralized (Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018). Some participants assume multiple

roles in strategic management. For example, some senior leaders serve as

process sponsors, lending power and authority to processes in addition to

allocating resources. Process champions assist in the day-to-day

management of the processes. The sponsors and champions provide

leadership, energize participants, and encourage the use of performance

information (Bryson et al., 2018). These leadership roles contribute to the

successful integration of practitioners from throughout the organization

(Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018), and such integration is necessary for the

management of the variety of strategic approaches.

The participants throughout an organization’s hierarchy do not merely

and passively deliver the strategies developed by senior leaders. Managers

design and implement solutions in response to emerging problems (Ayoubi

et al., 2018). They make adjustments to promulgated strategies based on

their own experiences (Axelsson, 2016). Public sector employees integrate

disparate yet related strategies to each other when executing them. They

consider the intent of the strategies, relate similar strategies, and implement

them as the conditions warrant. Strategy implementation in the public sector

is incremental as opposed to radical. Career bureaucrats implement strategy

cautiously, making small adjustments to processes before fully

implementing them (Axelsson, 2016).

Dimensions. From the systems’ perspective, strategic management

includes two dimensions: strategic stance and strategic action. Strategic

stance includes the plans and intentions conveyed in documents such as

strategic plans and business plans. Strategic action includes the behaviors to

execute those plans (Axelsson, 2016; Johnsen, 2015).

The terms strategic stance and strategic action were coined by Boyne and

Walker (2004) in their study of the public sector strategy. These dimensions

are important, as organizations’ stated strategies and their actions may be

inconsistent.

Strategic stance has been examined by multiple researchers, including

Poister and Streib (1999), Albrechts and Balducci (2013), and Bryson and

Shively Slotterback (2016). The strategic stance dimension is characterized

by numerous features, including the following:

•The strategic thinking about situational requirements, purposes,

and goals

•A focus on both external and internal stakeholders

•The consideration of environmental factors, including strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

•The strategic thinking about the organization’s context,

including how decisions are made

•A focus on the future of the organization that considers how

strategies may influence it

•The consideration of the challenges to implementing strategies

that are developed

•The realization that although strategies are developed

deliberately, they are emergent when implemented (Bryson et

al., 2018).

Strategic stance can be succintly explained as the way an organization

routinely reacts to change in its environment (Pasha, Poister, & Edwards,

2018). These features are translated by the strategic management participants

into the mission statements, organizational goals, and strategies to

accomplish those goals. The success of a specific strategic stance is

dependent on its ability to flex effectively to changing political priorities and

agendas (Boyne & Walker, 2004).

Boyne and Walker (2004) compared three types of organizations

regarding strategic stance: prospectors, defenders, and reactors. Prospectors

are organizations that are innovative, actively search for new markets, and

constantly scan their environment for the changes to respond to. Prospectors

display entrepreneurial behaviors. Defenders are late adopters of innovation,

generally more conservative, and work to defend their established market or

portfolio of activities (Boyne & Walker, 2004; Pasha et al., 2018). Pasha et

al. (2018) differentiated between two types of defenders: differentiated and

lowcost. Differentiated defenders focus on maintaining their position by

focusing on loyal customers. Low-cost defenders focus on operational

efficiencies through standardization (Pasha et al., 2018). Reactors are

passive and only make adjustments to the strategy when their environment

forces them to. Reactors typically do not have a consistent strategic stance

and only react as necessary (Boyne & Walker, 2004; Bryson et al., 2018).

Strategic stance is meaningless if it does not result in strategic action.

Strategic action is the operationalization or actualization of strategic

stance. Five specific types of actions are used to realize strategic stance:

changes in markets, changes in services, seeking revenues, changes to the

external organization, and changes to the internal organization (Boyne &

Walker, 2004; Bryson et al., 2018). Strategic management cannot be

evaluated through the intentions expressed by an organization’s strategic

stance. It must be measured through the evaluation of both the strategic

stance and evidence of change through strategic action (Johnsen, 2015). The

combination of strategic stance and strategic action can be observed through

performance management processes integrated as part of strategic

management (Bryson et al., 2018).

Best practices. Although strategic management is a diverse discipline

that overlaps several others, several approaches have been assessed as best

practices. The strategic activities of an organization take multiple cycles of

deployment to facilitate organization and individual learning to make them

efficient (Ciobanica, 2014; Coffey, 2013). Previous studies on international

practices reveal that 3 to 4 years of learning are required to effectively

develop and deploy a constructive strategy (Ciobanica, 2014). Communities

of practice are beneficial to organizational learning during the deployment of

strategy (Schmidt, 2015). During that period of learning, participants

hopefully realize the best practices of utilizing a collaborative approach,

seeking opportunities to innovate and integrating the elements of the

strategic management system effectively.

The collaborative approach is based on the principles and concepts

from social network analysis and stakeholder management (Favoreu et al.,

2016). The social nature of strategic management lends itself to the

exchanges and interactions between networks of individuals and groups

(Axelsson, 2016; Favoreu et al., 2016). The collaborative approach to

strategic management is a structured process that facilitates the development,

evaluation, and implementation of collective strategies or solutions (Favoreu

et al., 2016). Collaborative approaches to strategy have demonstrated

success in both the private and public sectors. This is partly due to the

networks engaging in mutual learning, shared innovation, and shared

experimentation (Favoreu et al., 2016). Effective models of strategic

management include as many employees as possible in the organization’s

strategic activities (Ciobanica, 2014). Collaborative relationships in strategic

management require flexibility and soft management skills. Tools and

techniques including benchmarking, balanced scorecard, total quality

management, and other analytical techniques support the development of

collective strategies (Axelsson, 2016; Williams & Lewis, 2008).

Integrating the search for opportunities for innovation is important to

the practice of strategic management. Innovation can have an immediate

impact on the competitive position of an organization (Horn & Brem, 2012;

Kohl, Orth, Riebartsch, & Hecklau, 2016). The practice of innovating or

searching for opportunities is intended to identify new ideas for businesses

and is often referred to as creativity (Soloducho-Pelc, 2015). Demir,

Wennberg, and McKelvie (2017) describe innovation as one of five strategic

drivers of high-growth organizations. An organization’s strategic

management should facilitate the identification of opportunities and

innovation, that allow the firm to be unique. Strategic management should

not just seek to emulate the practices of other successful firms (Ciobanica,

2014). Moreover, to facilitate innovation, an organization must have a

systematic approach to gathering the intelligence on how the competition

acts and what results the competition achieves (Ciobanica, 2014; Kohl et al.,

2016). Intelligence is a backward-looking process to describe and evaluate

events, followed by a forward-looking process to predict future events.

Foresight is a discipline that assists organizations in identifying and

examining the signals about the future (Schmidt, 2015). The use of both

intelligence and foresight assist organizations in planning for the future.

Fully integrating the multiple components of strategic management is

the best practice. The strategic management system should consist of

integrated strategy development activities, performance management

activities, sustainability and lifecycle management processes, quality

management processes, and evaluation and audit procedures (Kohl et al.,

2016). The strategic management system should accomplish the functional

requirements of performance assessment, gap analysis, action planning,

monitoring and reporting, and knowledge management. The integrated

system should also fulfill the general requirements of general validity,

completeness, simplicity, transparency, and practicality (Kohl et al., 2016).

Strategic planning and performance measurement are important to be

integrated. Strategic planning activities should process information in a

manner that provides the foundation for performance measurement.

Performance measurement data can also inform future cycles of strategic

planning. Inadequate strategic planning hampers the successful utilization of

performance measurement (Balaboniene & Vecerskiene, 2015; Hall, 2017).

Therefore, the need for organizations to allow for multiple cycles of learning

from their strategic management system exists.

The best practices discussed in this section require specific conditions

to support their applicability to the public sector. Administrative autonomy,

performance-based budgets, and market-like conditions increase the

likelihood of conventional strategic management theories’ application to

public sector organizations (Hansen & Ferlie, 2016). These factors will be

examined later in this chapter.

Political Influence

The roles of politicians versus administrative staff have been

extensively studied and debated by scholars. Influence is the modification of

an actor’s behavior due to the behavior of another actor or group. Political

influence is the application of influence by a political actor on another actor,

that results in a modified decision (Arts & Verschuren, 1999, Bello &

Spano, 2015). The modification of the decision may result from the mere

actions, thoughts, or presence of the influencer. The influencer does not need

to actually intervene in the decision-making process (Arts & Verschuren,

1999). This concept of political influence is illustrated in the relationship

between politicians and career administrators who lead public sector

organizations.

The politics-administration dichotomy is a frequently used and

formally accepted model throughout the world, including the United States

of America (Bello & Spano, 2015; Rosser & Mavrot, 2017). The politics-

administration dichotomy is the separation of politics and administrative

state in the provision of government. In this context, the term dichotomy

implies that politics and administration are intended to be mutually

exclusive. However, scholars have disagreed if the distinction is between the

legislative branch and executive branch or political superiors and

administrative subordinates (Rosser & Mavrot, 2017). For the purposes of

the present study, political influence includes the influences on career

bureaucrats (administrators) by the elected members of the legislative and

executive branches, as well as political superiors (appointed administrators).

Public sector organizations tend to have authority concentrated with

either external bodies or at the top of the organization. This is especially true

for personnel matters (Rainey & Bozeman, 2000). At each level of

government, most employees are protected by merit-based personnel

systems. The merit system principles were introduced into title 5 of the

United States Code by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (OPM, 2018).

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 protects federal employees from

unethical treatment, including personal favoritism, arbitrary action, and

coercion for political purposes (PL 95-454, 1978). The protections of merit-

based systems increase the likelihood of influence being used, instead of

authority, to manage public sector organizations (Johnsen, 2015).

Bureaucratic autonomy, also known as administrative autonomy, is a

relevant concept to the present study on political influence. Movements such

as new public management and new political governance encourage the

empowerment of career bureaucrats through autonomy and accountability

(Bello & Spano, 2015). Bureaucratic autonomy is the ability of public sector

organizations to act according to their own intentions despite the wishes of

politicians (Walters, 2013). Bello and Spano (2015) suggested career

bureaucrats feel that decision-making processes and the setting of action

plans are influenced by politicians. Further, they also propose that career

bureaucrats also perceive that political interference limits their autonomy.

Some public sector organizations are created with higher levels of

autonomy, such as the USPS, as discussed earlier. At the state and municipal

level, similar authorities exist, such as the authorities created in many states

to collect tolls on highways. These agencies usually have greater control

over their own budgeting and decision-making processes. However, public

sector organizations with higher levels of autonomy may still be subjected to

political influence. It occurs through governing boards in addition to the

influence of other political actors (O’Connell, 2014; Rutherford & Lozano,

2018). The governing boards in the public sector are often appointed by

chief executives or other elected officials.

Political actors and instruments. The public sector is executed by a

combination of groups, including career employees, elected officials, and

individuals appointed by the elected officials. The political actors include

career bureaucrats, elected and appointed officials, and appointed

administrators (Bertelli, 2015; Furlong, 1998; Tama, 2017). Each of these

groups has the potential to influence the strategic management of the public

sector, using a variety of instruments.

The relationships between the groups of political actors involve

negotiations, accommodations, favors, conflict, and alliances. (Boateng &

Cox, 2016; Fu, 2012; Furlong, 1998). Municipal and state governments have

developed targeted reforms to improve the collaboration between career

bureaucrats and political appointees. Career bureaucrats have high levels of

commitment to their organizations; however, they have limited trust in

political appointees (Boateng & Cox, 2016). Despite their lack of trust,

public sector leaders conduct strategic management activities for both

performance and political reasons (Tama, 2018).

Strategy formulation in political contexts usually follow a bottom-up

approach: issues of strategic importance are introduced; interested actors

lobby and exert pressure on the political actors to address the issues; key

issues gain enough attention and support from the political actors, and finally

solutions are introduced in the form of public policy (Favoreu et al., 2016).

While public policy-making and strategic planning are closely

interconnected, they are not the same. Policy-making results in the statement

of the principles intended to influence and outline political protocol and

decision-making. Strategic planning, as discussed earlier, is a process of

defining the future direction of an organization regarding the objectives and

strategies to achieve them (Schmidt, 2015). The political approaches to

strategy formulation result in unstructured, discontinuous, and incremental

change. The political management of public sector organizations produces

ill-defined strategies, fosters ambiguity, fails to garner the commitment from

career bureaucrats, and are mostly clandestine (Favoreu et al., 2016).

Career bureaucrat responsibilities generally include achieving their

organization’s legislated purpose, developing strategies to achieve that

purpose, establishing the criteria for success, influencing public opinion, and

managing and improving their organizations (Bello & Spano, 2015). They

are typically professionals in their specialties and unbiased by politics in

their work and work to execute the programs and policies formulated by

political leaders (Ugaddan & Parks, 2017). Therefore, career bureaucrats

face unique leadership challenges. Leadership in their environment requires

the ability to address complex public policy issues and use of negotiation

and conflict resolution to balance political interests and values (Fu, 2012;

Ugaddan & Parks, 2017).

The legislative branch is responsible for defining the interaction

between the executive and legislative branches by promulgating laws,

regulations, and policies (Rosser & Mavrot, 2017). The president heads the

executive branch at the federal level, governors at the state level, and mayors

or executives at the municipal level. The chief executive has multiple

mechanisms to influence the bureaucracy, including the appointment and

removal of administrators, budgeting, the reorganization of organizations,

and through executive orders (Furlong, 1998; Kim, 2015). The judicial

branch has the limited ability to influence public sector organization’s

actions through the judicial review process, procedural rulings on the

organization’s ability to make decisions, and setting judicial deadlines for

the organization to complete an action (Furlong, 1998).

Although politicians have the ability to influence the bureaucracy, it is

conceivable that career bureaucrats exert their own influence on the

bureaucracy. Career bureaucrats have the advantage of information

asymmetry. They generally have more information and expertise on policy

issues than elected officials and can utilize that advantage to lead the

politicians to make the decisions they desire (Baekgaard, BlomHansen, &

Serritzlew, 2014; Berry & Gersen, 2017). However, Baekgaard et al. (2014)

concluded empirical evidence that politician preferences have a greater

influence on salient policy than career bureaucrat preferences. Those

findings suggest political influences on a public sector organization’s

strategic management may be more responsible for change than career

bureaucrat actions.

Political instruments. A level of shared authority usually exists over

public sector organizations by the executive and legislative branches (Bello

& Spano, 2015; Furlong, 1998). Public sector organizations are generally led

by administrators who are appointed by the chief executive and in many

cases approved with the consent of the legislative branch. Governments

around the world have been experiencing an increase in the influence on

administrators by politicians (Bello & Spano, 2015; MacDonald & McGrath,

2016). Each of the three branches of the government has several political

instruments that may be used to influence public sector organizations.

Legislative branch. The legislative branch exerts influence over

public sector organizations through controls, including statutory changes, the

appropriation process, and oversight hearings. The oversight by the

legislative branch can be categorized as informal and formal. Informal

methods include telephone calls, private meetings, and other contacts that do

not create a public record. Formal methods include the promulgation of

legislation, committee hearings, and other formal meetings (Furlong, 1998;

MacDonald & McGrath, 2016). Legislatures use these tools at the federal,

state, and municipal levels (Boehmke & Shipan, 2015). The legislative

branch also exercises influence through procedural requirements, such as

establishing reporting requirements, specifying the agency structure, and

developing the procedural requirements (Bjornholt & Larsen, 2014; Fu,

2012; Furlong, 1998; MacDonald & McGrath, 2016). An example of these

requirements includes the performance management programs to hold career

bureaucrats accountable, such as the Government Performance Results Act

(GPRA) at the federal level and managing for results at the state level (Bello

& Spano, 2015). Performance measures may be used by politicians to

explicitly communicate their priorities to the career bureaucrats who are

responsible for achieving them (Bjornholt & Larsen, 2014). Legislators have

the opportunity to use performance measures as a tool for the internal control

of organizations by ensuring that the organizational behaviors are aligned

with the stated public goals. Performance results can also be used to reward

the outstanding performance and sanction the poor performance of the

implementing career bureaucrats (Bjornholt & Larsen, 2014). Although

these characteristics may seem similar to the performance measurement in

the private sector, a major difference is the lack of autonomy in the public

sector. Most public sector organizations rely on appropriations from the

same legislators to fund the execution of their programs and strategies (Bello

& Spano, 2015; Bjornholt & Larsen, 2014). Therefore, the legislators have

the ability to communicate their priorities through performance measures

and only fund the strategies they support. This use of performance

measurement has the potential to serve as a political instrument that elected

officials and appointed administrators can use to influence the strategic

decisions made by career bureaucrats.

The legislative branch, at all levels of government, uses committee

hearings to influence public sector organizations. Oversight hearings exert

both formal and informal influence over career bureaucrats. Individual

legislators and their staffs may informally contact career bureaucrats before

hearings, in addition to the formal interactions that take place during the

hearing (Bello & Spano, 2015; MacDonald & McGrath, 2016). Hearings are

primarily instruments utilized to challenge and change policy. However, the

use of hearings differs in nature between unified control and divided

government. When the government is unified, meaning the same party

controls the legislature as the chief executive, oversight hearings are more

likely to focus on substantial policymaking. When the government is

divided, the hearings are more likely to be purely political in nature

(MacDonald & McGrath, 2016). Committee hearings, therefore, highlight

the intersection between the role of the legislature and the role of the chief

executive in managing the bureaucracy.

Executive branch. The president, governors, and mayors have

significant instruments to influence the public sector. These chief executives

typically have the authority to appoint administrators to lead government

agencies and board members to govern more autonomous organizations.

This appointment power allows for the installation of leaders of career

bureaucrats who are ideologically aligned with the chief executive (Bello &

Spano, 2015; Berry & Gersen, 2017; Kim, 2015; Rogowski, 2016). Agency

packing is an instrument by which a chief executive adjusts the design of an

agency to place numerous appointees in senior leadership positions (Berry &

Gersen, 2017). This instrument makes it possible for a chief executive to

replace an agency leader who makes decisions aligned with the best interests

of the organization and its stakeholders with one who is more aligned with

the chief executive’s preferences.

Chief executives typically have approval power over agencies’

guiding documents such as plans and budgets (Kim, 2015). The control of

these documents creates the potential for influence over strategic decisions.

Ex-ante influences include the ability to draft the initial budget proposal

(Berry & Gersen, 2017). For example, a chief executive can simply not

include an agency’s funding priority in the budget. Ex post influences

include the ability to control the actual disbursement of the budget regardless

of legislative appropriation (Berry & Gersen, 2017). For example, a chief

executive can ignore a legislative earmark. Chief executives typically have

the ability not to spend funds that are approved by the legislature (Berry &

Gersen, 2017). These influences may allow chief executives to influence the

strategic management of public sector organizations through the control of

their resources.

A major instrument of chief executives is the directive or executive

order. Directives and executive orders allow chief executives to take

unilateral action on policy decisions (Chiou & Rothenberg, 2016; Gitterman,

2012; Watts, 2016). Executive orders are used to manage the executive

branch and can cause administrative agencies to take specific actions. The

orders can be directed at all administrative agencies or specific agencies

(National Archive and Records Administration, 2018). Executive orders can

supersede the decision-making process of administrative agencies (Chiou &

Rothenberg, 2016; Watts, 2016). For example, President Obama issued

executive order 13467 in January 2017. The order amended the civil service

rules for all federal employees. The changes made by the executive order

would have normally resulted from the rule-making within the Office of

Personnel Management (Federal Register, 2017). More than 900 executive

orders have been issued by the U.S. presidents between 1994 and 2018. The

use of executive orders may clearly cause career bureaucrats to modify their

actions or take an action they would not have otherwise taken.

Public sector procurement is also subject to political influence from

the executive branch. Chief executives have relied on purchasing rules and

executive orders to establish policies that influence spending decisions

(Gitterman, 2013; Krause & Melusky, 2012). Those policies have been used

over time to influence public policy in areas such as equal employment

opportunity, disadvantaged businesses, the environment, and labor relations

(Gitterman, 2013). For example, a governor or the president can establish

rules that require a minimum percentage of work be allocated to veteran-

owned or minority-owned businesses. The execution of strategy in the public

sector often relies on the procurement of services and goods (Ciobanica,

2014). The ability of chief executives to influence procurement in the public

sector potentially increases their influence over the strategic management of

public sector organizations.

Chief executives typically have authority over agency rule-making

and enforcement actions. At the federal level, presidents have issued

executive orders to agencies requiring the rule-making efforts to be reviewed

and receive clearance from the offices in the White House. These reviews

allow the president to modify, delay, or deny the rule-making efforts

initiated by public sector organizations (Berry & Gersen, 2017; Kim, 2015).

This instrument makes it possible for a chief executive to overrule a career

bureaucrat who may be acting in the best interest of the organization and its

stakeholders.

Strategic Management in the Public Sector

The use of strategic planning in the public sector grew in both

popularity and need in the early 1990s. Social and financial pressures require

public sector organizations to focus on structuring to operate efficiently

towards attaining clear priorities and objectives. The GPRA in the U. S., the

Local Government Modernization Agenda

(LGMA) in England, and the Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances

(LOLF) in France each required public sector organizations to conduct

strategic management activities, such as strategic planning, performance

management, and performance-based budgeting. The purposes of strategic

management in the public sector include goal alignment, effectiveness, and

continuity of effort (Bryson et al., 2018; Favoreu et al., 2016).

GPRA was enacted in 1993 and required U.S. federal agencies to

engage stakeholders, including the Congress, to develop mission statements,

four-year strategic plans, and annual performance goals. It also mandated

performance measurement to evaluate their performance towards those goals

(Ho, 2007; Moynihan & Kroll, 2016). GPRA was reaffirmed and

modernized through the GPRA Modernization Act in 2010. The

modernization act expanded the strategic planning horizon to 5 years and

established chief operating officers and performance improvement officers

in each agency. The Modernization Act also established cross-agency goals

under a government-wide plan managed by the Office of Management and

Budget (OMB) (Moynihan & Kroll, 2016). U.S. states followed the federal

government’s lead. By the mid-2000s, 33 states had formal laws or statutes

requiring performance management, and the remaining 17 had some type of

administrative requirement (Moynihan, 2012).

Although legislation and policies have been developed to require

many public sector organizations to execute strategic management activities,

there are still organizational leaders that initiate those programs on their

own. Researchers including Kroll and Moynihan (2015) and Tama (2018)

unveiled that leaders are more committed to strategic planning activities they

have initiated compared to the ones required by legislation. Further, their

commitment can aid the planning process by communicating with other

participants to take the process seriously (Tama, 2018). Legislations and

policies that require strategic management often contain specific

requirements intended to meet the needs of political actors, not the leaders of

the organization conducting the planning (Moynihan & Kroll, 2016; Tama,

2018). These requirements often include time constraints, specific topics to

be addressed, and the production of reports for public consumption. Such

types of requirements can distract leaders from addressing the important

strategic issues faced by organizations and are less likely to address the

specific needs of the organizations’ leaders (Tama, 2018). However,

strategic management mandates have been found to support the adoption of

best practices by public sector organizations (Bourdeaux & Chikoto, 2008;

Tama, 2018). Tama (2018) recommends the development of legal mandates

that not only require strategic management but also give public sector

organizations the discretion to execute it in a manner that meets their needs.

Strategic management in the public sector is characterized by high

levels of collaboration. Most public problems require collaboration to

develop solutions; therefore, most public sector organizations collaborate

with other institutions to execute their missions (Lee, McGuire, & Kim,

2018; Tama, 2018). The strategic planning process can be positively

influenced through the engagement of multiple stakeholders. The inclusion

of multiple stakeholders with varying types of inputs increases the likelihood

of the planning process actually guiding the leaders to achieve the outcomes

(Lee et al., 2018). Previous studies have indicated that external stakeholder

participation in the development of an agency’s plans increases the

likelihood of them supporting a public sector organizations’ plans (Tama,

2018). These findings suggest public sector organizations and their leaders

should actively collaborate with their key stakeholders throughout their

planning efforts.

Public sector strategic management is sometimes motivated and

influenced by politics. Van der Voet (2016) argues that future research on

public sector organizational change should focus on the organizational

environment, that is complex and political. The strong support from political

actors can assist in strategic planning by providing agency leaders with the

autonomy, flexibility, and resources necessary to plan effectively (Tama,

2018; Yesilkagit & van Thiel, 2008). Public sector organizations with weak

support from political actors may engage in strategic planning to

demonstrate to external stakeholders that they are worthy of their support. In

instances where political actors have expressed concerns over an agency’s

performance, strategic planning may be used to show the management’s

commitment to correcting their shortcomings (Tama, 2018).

Strategic Management in Maryland

Strategic management is required by legislation in the State of

Maryland. MFR is an initiative launched in July 1997 that requires strategic

planning by executive branch departments (Meyers, 2011). The initiative

was codified into Maryland law 7 years later in July 2004. The law

designated the Maryland DBM as the lead agency for managing the MFR

process and the development of a state-wide comprehensive plan.

Maryland’s MFR guidebook describes the program as a framework for

planning, accountability, process analysis, and budgeting. It further explains

that the government is required to anticipate and plan for future

requirements, measure the performance in relation to the desired results,

make policy decisions that are effective, and use the results to improve the

performance (DBM, 2017). MFR integrated strategic planning with the

State’s budget process, resulting in performance-based budgeting.

Maryland’s executive agencies are required to submit their visions, missions,

goals, objectives, performance measures, and strategies as part of their

annual budget submission (DBM, 2017; Meyers, 2011).

The state-wide comprehensive plan communicates the governor’s

goals and contains the objectives, performance measures, and strategies from

across the executive branch that are aligned with those goals (Meyers, 2011).

In addition to the state-wide comprehensive plan, DBM is required to submit

an annual report to Maryland’s Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and

the House Appropriations Committee. The annual report summarizes the

State’s progress in achieving the governor’s goals (DBM, 2017). The state-

wide comprehensive plan and the associated performance report provide the

governor and the legislature with the potential for both ex-post and ex-ante

influences. The governor has the opportunity to influence agency goals,

objectives, and strategies through the development of the state-wide plan.

Further, the governor may influence strategy execution through the

budgeting and procurement processes.

The State of Maryland has an administrative body that oversees the

expenditure of major capital appropriations known as the Board of Public

Works (BPW). The BPW comprises the governor, treasurer, and comptroller

(BPW, n.d.). All the three members are elected officials. The BPW is

responsible for the development and adoption of procurement regulations,

approval of contracts exceeding $200,000, expenditure of general obligation

bond funds, and approval of real estate transactions. Further, the BPW has

the power to bar vendors from participating in the State’s procurement

process due to unethical behavior (BPW, n.d.). The BPW provides additional

opportunities to political actors to influence the strategic management of

Maryland’s agencies through formal and informal methods.

In 2015, the Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement was

established under the Code of Maryland Regulations. The objectives of the

office include the following:

•Providing data to policymakers about the cost-effectiveness and

efficacy of services

•Increasing the responsiveness and customer service levels of

government agencies

•Tracking and assessing the progress of agencies in meeting

strategic goals

•Promoting business process improvement strategies to increase

the efficiency and responsiveness of agencies (COMAR Sec

01.01.2015.26)

The Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement is staffed

entirely by political appointees. The executive order that established the

office directed all of Maryland’s agencies, commissions, boards, and

departments to cooperate with the office. Further, each agency head and

department secretary are directed to meet with and address the questions

from the office (COMAR Sec 01.01.2015.26).

Gaps in the Literature

Despite the multitude of research works on strategic management,

there remain gaps in the pertinent collective body of knowledge. This

literature review has contrasted the differences in the motives for using

strategic management and role politics plays. Several authors have argued

the need to specifically study the differences in the application of strategic

management in the public sector compared to the private sector.

The legislative and administrative requirements for public sector

strategic management were discussed earlier in this review. Hansen and

Ferlie (2016) have pointed out the need for further research on how public

sector organizations actually behave strategically. Strategic management is

intended to address the future challenges in an organization’s environment

(Bao, 2015; Soloducho-Pelc, 2015; Storchevoi, 2015). As summarized in

this literature review, legislative and administrative requirements can distract

leaders from addressing the important strategic issues faced by the

organization (Tama, 2018). Johnsen (2015) and Mazouz et al. (2016) support

the need for research in this area. Johnsen (2015) has differentiated between

strategic planning and strategic thinking and highlighted the lack of research

on the practice of strategic thinking by public sector organizations. It is

unclear if strategic thinking and strategic management tools have been

sufficiently adapted to the public sector to be effective (Mazouz et al., 2016).

This is further supported by Lee and Kim (2012) who have indicated that the

level of strategic planning capacity greatly differs amongst government

agencies. Many research studies have focused on public sector results but

have not clearly concluded that strategic management improves

organizational performance (Favoreu et al., 2016; Poister, 2010).

There is little published research on the impact of complex political

environments on public sector strategic management. As it has been outlined

throughout the literature review, strategic management requires extensive

interaction and collaboration between public sector organization

stakeholders (Johnsen, 2015; Powell, 2014). Van der Voet (2016) has argued

that future research should focus on the public sector organizational

environment, that is complex and political. Mazouz et al. (2016) have

explained the need to gain an understanding of how public policy

development incorporates the synthesis of the resources required, services

provided, and outcomes of public policy. However, many researchers have

attempted to simplify these concepts and disregard the relationship between

these three elements in their research (Mazouz et al., 2016). Johnsen (2015)

concluded there is a need for further research on the differences between

strategizing and policy-making, as well as the role played by elected officials

in strategic management. As outlined earlier in this review, elected officials

influence public sector organizations’ autonomy, legal authority, and

resources (Mazouz et al., 2016).

There is little published research that contributes to our collective

understanding of human interaction in the execution of strategic

management. Powell (2014) concluded there is a need for further research on

human behavior and moral responsibility in strategic management. Strategic

management research is primarily impersonal; however, the development

and execution of strategy are mostly personal. Strategic management focuses

on human problems such as problem-solving, goal-setting, decision-making,

and strategizing. However, the empirical research in management is

primarily concerned with hypothesis testing, measurement, and physical

theories (Powell, 2014).

Summary and Conclusions

Strategic management in the public sector has been extensively

studied since its widespread adoption in the 1980s. Researchers, including

Hansen and Ferlie (2016), Johnsen (2015), Lee and Kim (2012), and Van der

Voet (2016), have evaluated the use of strategic management and its

components by public sector organizations. Their research provides an

understanding of the discipline, including its history, applicability, and the

best practices in the public sector.

The political influence of the bureaucracy has also been studied

extensively for more than a century. Researchers, including Bello and Spano

(2015), Rosser and Mavrot (2017), Tama (2017, 2018), and Walters (2013),

have examined the methods and approaches used by political actors in their

attempt to further their agendas. Despite significant research on the political

influences in the public sector, there still exist gaps in the pertinent

collective body of knowledge. The research reviewed in this chapter outlines

the knowledge gained since strategic management has become a widely

utilized practice in the public sector. However, further understanding of the

political influences in public sector strategic management is essential to

understand its effective execution (Baskarada & Hanlon, 2017; Tama, 2018).

The conceptual framework conveyed in this chapter synthesizes the

stakeholder theory and the economic theory of the firm. It is intended to

facilitate the study of the specific political influences exerted on the public

sector employees engaged in the strategic management of their

organizations. The conceptual framework reflects the complexity of

balancing stakeholder demands with the economic challenges of the public

sector.

In the following chapter, I discuss the methodological aspects of the

qualitative phenomenological study. In Chapters 4, I summarize the data

collected and the findings from that data. Chapter 5 contains the study’s

conclusions, and recommendations for future research.

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to

identify and report the lived experiences of public sector employees who

were subjected to political influence while engaged in the strategic

management of their organizations in Maryland. The findings from the

present study address research gaps on the role political environments play

in public sector strategic management and how the human interactions in

such environments impact the execution of strategies (Johnsen, 2015;

Powell, 2014). The descriptive phenomenological psychological method

described by Giorgi (2009) was used to address the overarching research

question and fulfill the purpose of the study. This chapter of the study

contains information on the research methodology. It provides descriptions

of the research design and rationale, the role of the researcher, the

instrumentation used, the process of participant selection, data collection

methods, and data analysis. The chapter also outlines the ethical guidelines

that were adhered to and the ethical procedures that were used to ensure the

study’s validity and reliability.

Research Design and Rationale

A descriptive phenomenological design was selected for the present

study. The central research question was “What are the lived experiences of

public sector employees who encounter political influence while engaged in

the strategic management of their organizations in the State of Maryland?”

The results of this qualitative phenomenological study may add to the

understanding of how political influences are experienced by public sector

employees engaged in the strategic management of their organizations.

Phenomenological research is used to gain a rich understanding of

how a phenomenon is experienced and is not concerned with quantifying or

generalizing (Vagle, 2018). Several researchers have built on Husserl’s

original work and diversified phenomenology for research use (Giorgi, 2012;

Giorgi, Giorgi, & Morley, 2017; Vagle, 2018). Interpretive phenomenology

is the most popular (Giorgi et al., 2017), but I used the descriptive

phenomenological psychological method as described by Giorgi (2009) for

the present study. The descriptive phenomenological psychological method

is specific to human consciousness, meaning it can be used to study human

behavior (Giorgi, 2012). Phenomenological methods typically have three

major steps: the description of the phenomenon, phenomenological

psychological reduction, and seeking the essence of the experience (Giorgi et

al., 2017). The descriptive phenomenological method has five steps. With a

focus on the whole person, the participants’ descriptions provide the raw

data that is later analyzed by the researcher, which may prevent potential

bias (Giorgi, 2009).

Phenomenology is just one of several qualitative research designs.

Narrative research, grounded theory, case studies, and participatory action

research are other qualitative designs (Creswell et al., 2007). Narrative

research involves the study of written or spoken text that gives an account of

an event or series of events experienced by an individual or small group. It is

best used when detailed accounts or stories can help the researcher

understand the problem being studied (Creswell et al., 2007). This approach

was not selected because it would not have provided an understanding of the

lived experiences shared by the engaged public sector employees who

experienced political influence. Grounded theory requires the researcher to

develop a theory to explain the experiences of a large number of participants

and is best used where the existing theories to explain problems are

inadequate or nonexistent (Creswell et al., 2007). Because there are many

theories to explain the political influence in the public sector, this design was

not selected. Case study research is used to examine problems or phenomena

by focusing on individual or multiple cases as well as multiple data sources.

Case study designs are best used when a phenomenon or problem can be

bound by a place or time (Creswell et al., 2007). However, the present study

was focused on the details of the shared lived experiences of public sector

employees than the contextual conditions that factor into a case study.

Participant action research is used by researchers to produce social change

where the participants and researcher are engaged in a collaborative process.

The design is best used when a social or community issue needs to be

studied to encourage change (Creswell et al., 2007). This design was not

chosen because it was not aligned with the problem addressed in the present

study and was not likely to lead to a detailed understanding of the shared

lived experiences of the participants.

Role of the Researcher

I used a qualitative methodology, which involved exploring

phenomena rather than testing hypotheses (Patton, 2002). Qualitative

research comprises interpretive activities where a researcher directly

observes and engages with people. Such research is focused on people, their

experiences, and the context in which the experiences take place (Ravitch &

Carl, 2016). As the researcher for this study, I served as the observer and

analyst. The study design required me to establish effective relationships

with the participants to facilitate productive interviews because in a

descriptive phenomenological design the data is provided by the participants.

The researcher observes the participants as they describe their lived

experiences in their own words (Giorgi et al., 2017). In the

phenomenological reduction step, my observations and field notes played an

important role (Giorgi, 2009). As the researcher, I was also responsible for

the trustworthiness of the study. Therefore, I acknowledge my positionality

and used bracketing to mitigate its impact on data collection (see O’Halloran

et al., 2018). Bracketing is discussed in further detail in the Data Collection

Plan section of this chapter. Trustworthiness is discussed as a separate

section later in this chapter.

I was also responsible for identifying the potential participants,

recruiting them to participate in the study, and conducting the five steps in

the descriptive phenomenological psychological method (see Giorgi et al.,

2017). After collecting the participants’ descriptions through interviews,

each interview was transcribed verbatim. In Step 1, I read the transcription to

gain an overall sense of the situation. In Step 2, I assumed the scientific

phenomenological reduction attitude. In Step 3, I used scientific

phenomenological reduction to delineate the participants’ descriptions into

meaning units. In Step 4, I transformed the participants’ actual words into

expressions that highlighted the psychological meanings described by the

participants. In the final step, I expressed the psychological structure of the

experience using the highlights created in Step 4 (Giorgi et al., 2017).

Data Collection Plan

This section outlines the plan that was followed during the study. It

contains information on the selection and recruitment of participants,

instrumentation, field test procedures, data collection, and data analysis. The

data collection plan explains how the descriptive phenomenological design

was implemented to fulfill the study’s purpose and address the research

question.

Participant Selection Logic

The descriptive phenomenological design requires purposeful

sampling to identify the participants who have experienced the phenomenon

being examined by the researcher (O’Halloran et al., 2018).

Phenomenological research requires in-depth interviews to document and

describe the experiences lived by the participants (Creswell et al., 2007;

Giorgi, 2009; Giorgi et al., 2017). The researcher’s focus should be placed

on the quality of the data over the quantity of the data. The size of the

sample is evaluated by the quality and completeness of the information

conveyed by the participants (O’Halloran et al., 2018).

Qualitative research, including phenomenological design, does not

rely on large samples sizes to maintain the data integrity. However, data

saturation is critical to ensuring adequate data in qualitative research,

because it is the point where additional data no longer provides new

information (Williams & Morrow, 2009). Research has suggested a plan to

interview five to 25 individuals (Creswell et al., 2007) and that typical

phenomenological studies have samples that range from one to 10

participants (Starks & Brown-Trinidad, 2007). Maryland’s state government

is a large organization with over 45,000 full-time employees. Approximately

16,500 of those employees serve in management or executive service

positions (DBM, 2017). As the population of the potential participants is

large, there may be several hundred individuals who have experienced the

phenomenon of interest to the present study.

The plan to collect data was to use open-ended questions in the

semistructured interviews of 20 participants or until data saturation was

achieved (see Creswell et al., 2007; Ravitch & Carl, 2016). The

determination to use 20 participants was based on previous research

recommendations (Creswell et al., 2007; Giorgi, 2009). A power analysis

was not conducted, as data saturation was more important than generalizable

results to a larger population (see Creswell et al., 2007; Onwuegbuzie &

Leech, 2007). After conducting 12 interviews, I produced a list of initial

themes. Three additional interviews were conducted to confirm that no new

themes emerged. No additional themes emerged, therefore data saturation

was achieved with a final sample of 15.

The participants consisted of managers and senior leaders who

regularly participated in at least one of the state agencies’ strategic

management activities. The following criteria was met by each participants

in the study: (a) the participants were either a current employee of Maryland

or separated from the state service in the past 4 years; (b) the participants

were regular participants in at least one of their organization’s strategic

management activities; (c) the participants served in their current positions

for more than 1 year at the time of their interview; and (d) the participants

did not secure their positions through a political appointment. Strategic

management activities included strategic planning, performance

management, budget development, policy development, and organizational

development. The term political appointment in the present study referred to

the appointment of anyone who did not participate in any of Maryland State

Government’s competitive hiring processes.

Participant Recruitment

The participants of the present study were recruited from a pool of

current and recently separated Maryland State Government employees. The

ideal participants served in the following types of positions in their agencies:

program managers, department managers, deputy directors, directors, chief

financial officers, chief administrative officers, and chief operations officers.

I have professional relationships with hundreds of Maryland State

Government employees from my previous 20 years of service in Maryland

as well as previous consulting work. E-mails were sent to five potential

participants listed as their agency’s MFR coordinator with whom I have also

established relationships. Maryland’s list of MFR coordinators is publicly

available on the DBM website. I also posted an announcement of my

research on LinkedIn to garner the interest of the Maryland State

Government employees in my network. Snowball sampling was planned to

gain additional participants until data saturation was achieved; however, it

was not used because there were more volunteers than necessary (see

Griffith, Morris, & Thakar, 2016).

Instrumentation

The instrumentation for the present study included an interview

protocol, the written field notes taken during interviews, and the audio-

recordings of interviews. The interview protocol was field tested before its

employment. The procedures for the field test will be discussed in a

subsequent section.

Interviews. In-depth semistructured interviews were the primary data

collection instrument. It is the responsibility of the researcher using

descriptive phenomenology to allow the participants to fully present their

experiences and reveal their consciousness (O’Halloran et al., 2018).

Bracketing is used in phenomenology throughout the data collection process,

which is a self-reflective process used by the researcher to identify and set

aside their assumptions and a priori knowledge about the phenomenon being

studied. The process is intended not to get the researcher to abandon

preexisting thoughts and perspectives but to focus openly on the

participants’ accounts and descriptions of their lived experiences (Giorgi,

2009; O’Halloran et al., 2018; Starks & Brown-Trinidad, 2007).

All interviews followed the interview protocol. The interview protocol

consisted of a set of questions that each participant was asked; however, it

allowed for both elaboration by the participants and follow-up questions to

facilitate the gathering of a full account of their experience. Descriptive

phenomenology is different from other qualitative designs, as it relies on

descriptions from the participants as opposed to the researchers themselves.

The researcher must work to get the participants to carefully and precisely

describe their lived experiences while allowing them to reflect on their

consciousness (Giorgi et al., 2017). The interview protocol accounted for

these requirements and the associated time commitments.

Political influence and strategic management are both complex

phenomena. Participants required lengthy interview sessions to provide the

level of details necessary to address the purpose of the present study. Each

participant was asked to allow 60 minutes for the interview. The participants

were asked if they were willing to set aside an additional 30–45 minutes for

a follow-up interview to provide clarifications to any of the responses.

All the initial interviews were conducted in person. Face-to-face

interviews facilitate synchronous communication both in time and location.

This allows the researcher to take advantage of social cues and both parties

to react immediately to what the other says and does (Ravitch & Carl, 2016).

Follow-up interviews were not necessary. The interviews were conducted at

a time and location that were both convenient to and safe for the participants

such as a conference room or an office at the participant’s workplace or a

local coffee shop. As the interviewer, I took written notes in addition to

audio-recording each interview.

Field notes. Field notes were compiled during and following the

interviews to gather the observations that cannot be captured by the audio-

recording device. For example, participants articulated experiences that they

did not know the formal or technical name of. Notes were taken of what I

thought the participant was describing for later confirmation. Notes were

also composed to describe nonverbal actions that the participant made and

verbal statements that include sarcasm.

Supporting documentation. DBM publishes each agency’s budget

request as well as their MFR document on its website. The current year’s

and previous years’ submissions are openly available to the public. Those

documents were available to provide additional insight into the statements

made by the participants. These documents are official government records

and were used to assist the participants in recalling specific events.

Procedures for Field Test

The interview protocol was field tested to ensure its alignment with

the study’s purpose and its ability to examine the phenomenon of political

influence. A draft interview protocol was developed (see Appendix A) that

was intended to meet those requirements. A panel of experts was asked to

review the interview protocol to suggest modifications that would elicit

responses to the central research question presented in Chapter 1. The panel

was composed of three experts; all were methodological experts in

phenomenology and one was also an expert in strategic management. The

feedback from the panel of experts was used to revise the interview protocol

as necessary to align with the study’s purpose.

Procedures for Data Collection

The central research question of this study was answered by the

semistructured interviews of the participants. The interviews were guided by

an interview protocol. The interviews were audio-recorded to improve the

capturing of the participants’ statements and reduce physical note-taking

during the interview sessions. A secondary audio-recorder was available

during each interview in case the primary one failed.

Once each participant confirmed their intent to participate in the study,

I made the necessary arrangements for the interview, including scheduling

the time and location and providing a preview of the informed consent

documents. Each interview was anticipated to take 45 to 60 minutes. That

period included the time necessary to answer any final questions about

informed consent and obtain the participant’s signature on the consent form.

The anticipated time was included in the implied consent form and discussed

with each participant during the scheduling of the interview. The interview

duration was confirmed during the pilot testing of the interview protocol.

The recruited participants were given a 4-week period to schedule their

interviews. Due to holidays during the data collection period, an additional

week was added to the interview period. The interviews were confirmed via

email and, where possible, a calendar invite for Microsoft Outlook or Google

calendar. Multiple interviews were scheduled on the same day where

possible to minimize the overall data collection period and trips to Maryland.

The initial interviews were all conducted face to face. I met the

participants at the time and location agreed upon and obtained their

signatures on the implied consent form. Having the participants play a role

in the selection of the location increased their comfort during the interview.

Potential locations included coffee shops near the participants’ offices or

residences. Those locations tend to have atmospheres we conversational

volumes are appropriate and pose less risk of the participants being

overheard by individuals they know (see Rubin & Rubin, 2012). The

interview protocol (see Appendix A) served as the guide for the interviews

and contained both the interview questions as well as the follow-up prompts

that I anticipate to be necessary. Each interview was audiorecorded, and field

notes were captured as discussed earlier in this chapter. The ending script

from the interview protocol was read verbatim and then the participants were

asked if they have any questions for me before I ended the recording. The

ending script reminded the participants that I would send them a transcript of

their interview for their review within two weeks following the interview.

Data Analysis Plan

A significant action concerning the data analysis occurred before the

collection of data. In phenomenological research, the researcher brackets

their personal experiences and beliefs and sets them aside (Giorgi, 2009;

O’Halloran et al., 2018). Bracketing should take place throughout the entire

data collection process, including before, during, and after the interviews

(O’Halloran et al., 2018). Bracketing requires the researcher to acknowledge

the past experiences, beliefs, and knowledge relevant to the phenomenon

being studied. The researcher should ignore their temptation to use those

experiences, beliefs, and knowledge during their exploration of the

phenomenon. The researcher should attempt to observe, note, and analyze

the phenomenon as it is revealed (Giorgi, 2009). Giorgi (2009) argues that in

psychology, bracketing requires only an attitudinal shift to focus fully on the

present without discarding the past. O’Halloran et al. (2018) have used

journaling and reflective memorandums to assist with bracketing. I

documented my experiences, beliefs, and knowledge about the research topic

in my journal to accomplish this task. Journaling allowed me to explore and

acknowledge my consciousness and positionality concerning the research

topic. This assisted me in assuming the attitude of phenomenological

reduction, which will be explained later in this section.

Each interview was audio recorded and transcribed. The service

provider Rev.com was used to transcribe the interviews. The field notes were

typed and manually combined with the transcribed interview. The combined

transcripts assisted me in the analysis. Phenomenology requires more than

just an analysis of the text, as nonverbal communication is essential to the

understanding of speech (Giorgi, 2009). My field notes added such aspects

to the transcripts.

Descriptive phenomenological method data analysis steps. Giorgi

(2009) describes five concrete steps to be followed in the descriptive

phenomenological method. I followed the five steps described by Giorgi

without exception. The five steps are as follows:

1) Read the transcribed description to gain a holistic sense of the

phenomenon. In this step, the researcher reads the entire transcript

without attempting to analyze the content (Giorgi, 2009).

2) The researcher assumes the scientific phenomenological reduction

attitude (Giorgi et al., 2017). Scientific or psychological

phenomenological reduction requires the researcher to reduce the

participant’s descriptions to those specifically related to the

phenomenon. Other descriptions are acknowledged as parts of the

participant’s consciousness but not related to the phenomenon.

This attitude is maintained throughout the remaining steps of the

data analysis process (Giorgi et al., 2017).

3) Meaning units are identified and parsed in the transcript. This step

requires the researcher to read the transcript with the goal of

identifying the psychological meaning units. Each time a

significant change in the meaning unit occurs, a mark such as a

slash is made in the transcript (Giorgi, 2009; Giorgi et al., 2017).

The result is that the phenomenon is expressed as a “series of

meaning units” (Giorgi, 2009, p. 130).

4) Transform the participant’s natural statements into expressions that

are phenomenologically and psychologically sensitive. This step

requires the researcher to convert the participant’s statements into

expressions that reflect the psychological dimension (Giorgi, 2009;

Giorgi et al., 2017). Though phenomena are experienced

individually and uniquely lived, Giorgi has argued most can be

described at the psychological level (Giorgi, 2009).

5) The transformed meaning units are used as the basis for describing

the overall psychological experience. This overall description may

be expressed differently than the original natural statements of the

participant due to the phenomenological reduction and

transformation to psychological terms (Giorgi et al., 2017).

Issues of Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness in qualitative research is evaluated by four criteria:

credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Cope, 2014;

Shenton, 2004). Credibility is related to internal validity and supported by

utilizing an accepted research method (Shenton, 2004). A credible study

describes phenomena in a way that readers can recognize. Transferability is

related to external validity. It is the ability of the findings from one study to

be applied to other situations (Cope, 2014). Dependability is related to data

integrity. A dependable study can be repeated and produce the same results

(Cope, 2014; Shenton, 2004; Williams & Morrow, 2009). A dependable

study contains evidence of sufficient quantities of quality data gathered

through a sound methodology (Williams & Morrow, 2009). Confirmability

is the ability of the qualitative research to convey the experiences of the

participants, not the researcher’s perspectives (Shenton, 2004). To ensure the

trustworthiness of the present study, comprehensive strategies were used to

ensure the four criteria are met.

The present study utilized the accepted research method of descriptive

phenomenological design. Husserl established phenomenology in the early

20th century. Thereafter, it has been refined by several researchers over the

past century (Giorgi, 2012; Vagle, 2018). As discussed earlier in this

chapter, Giorgi (2009) has refined the method further, by addressing the

potential bias from the researcher. Using this established method addresses

the credibility criteria of trustworthiness.

The transferability of the study is limited to its design and conceptual

framework. Phenomenological studies examine the shared lived experiences

of a population (Giorgi, 2009; Giorgi et al., 2017). The results are specific to

the lived experiences of the group studied and, therefore, are not

transferable. The conceptual framework articulated in Chapter 2 comprises

two well-established theories and can be used in further studies to examine

the same phenomenon in a different population. The design of the study is

also transferable to further studies on different populations.

The dependability of the study is significantly influenced by the data

collection methods expressed earlier in this chapter. The semi structured

interviews were audiorecorded and professionally transcribed. The

interviews were conducted utilizing a fieldtested interview protocol. The

data produced from the interviews are dependable, as the data collection

methods are likely to produce the same results if repeated (see Williams &

Morrow, 2009). The interview content can be verified through publicly

available documents, such as the agencies’ managing results submissions as

well as strategic plans.

The confirmability of the study is significantly influenced by the data

analysis method expressed earlier in this chapter. Bracketing was used to

mitigate the potential inclusion of my perspective in the study’s results.

Bracketing was memorialized in a reflective memorandum and included in

the appendices of this study. The descriptive phenomenological approach

was executed as described by Giorgi (2009) to encourage the accurate

reflection of the participants’ experiences in psychological terms. Each

participant was provided the transcript of their interview within two weeks

of its completion. The participants had one additional week to review the

transcript and determine if they wanted to withdraw their consent from the

study. Dedoose software was used to assist in the data analysis. These

strategies should allow the readers of the study to see the experiences of the

participants being conveyed without the influence of my experiences.

Ethical Procedures

The lack of ethical considerations in the past has led to the rise of

procedural controls to ensure research ethics in the present. These controls

include institutional review boards (IRBs) and ethics committees (Ravitch &

Carl, 2016). The present study includes human subjects; therefore, IRB

approval was required before data collection began. This section outlines

my planning for research ethics.

The recruitment materials of the study provided a brief description of

the study and the inclusion criteria of the participants. The volunteers who

respond to the recruitment materials received a verbal description of the

study from me, an explanation of its purpose, and how and why they were

being asked to participate. The present study included semi structured

interviews of the Maryland State Government employees involved in the

strategic management of their organizations. The intended participants did

not fit the description of vulnerable individuals as outlined by Walden

University’s IRB. Each participant went through the informed consent

procedures and signed an informed consent form acknowledging both the

understanding of their rights and indicating their willingness to participate in

the study. The informed consent form was written in English, as all

Maryland State Government documents are published in English. It was

reasonable to expect the participants of the present study to be able to both

read and speak English, as they are required to publish documents in the

same language. The present study used the sample consent form provided by

the IRB, and the form was only slightly modified to address the specifics of

the present study. The sample form contained the background information,

the procedures to be included in the duration of the study, an explanation of

the voluntary nature of the study, the risks and benefits of participating in the

study, the participant compensation description, the privacy information, and

the contact information for the researcher. The consent form was provided to

the potential participants once they agreed to schedule the interview, which

provided them time to review its contents before the interview. I contacted

the participants 48–72 hours before their scheduled interviews to remind

them of the interview appointment and asked if they had questions about the

informed consent form. At the scheduled time of the interview, I reviewed

the informed consent form with the participants asked them to attest their

signature on the form. The informed consent procedures are also briefly

covered in the interview protocol.

The interview protocol reminded the participants of their options to

refuse to answer the interview questions and terminate the interview at any

time. The participants were reminded that the interview is being recorded

and asked if they consent to the recording. At the end of the interview, the

participants were reminded that they would have the opportunity to review

their interview transcript and withdraw their consent for participation in the

study. The participants were reminded that it is not my intention to identify

them during the interview. The subjects of the questions were focused on the

participants’ professional experiences. It was unlikely to solicit descriptions

of criminal activities. The interview questions neither asked the participants

to identify themselves nor asked them to identify their specific agency or

work location. The only identification that took place during the interview

was the announcement of the participant’s interview number. The anonymity

and confidentiality of the participants and their statements were of the

utmost importance.

To protect the identity of the participants, they were only identified by

participant number during the recorded interview. The participant names and

numbers were segregated from each other. A roster containing the

participants’ identification numbers only contains the initials of the

participants. The informed consent form contains the participant’s full name

but not the participant number. The present study had a small number of

participants; therefore, this method was manageable. The participant roster

and informed consent forms were kept separately. The participant roster is

saved on a laptop which requires the use of a common access card for

access. The signed copies of the informed consent forms are being kept in a

locked file box in my home office. The audio recordings and transcribed

interviews are also stored on the common access cardsecured laptop. The use

of the Dedoose software did not require the identification of the participants.

These procedures should mitigate the risk of the intentional or unintentional

discovery of the information required to link a participant to their interview.

A confidentiality agreement was executed with Rev.com, the service used

for the transcription of the interviews.

The participants were provided with the disclosure of my one potential

conflict of interest in the informed consent form. I work for an international

consulting firm that has operations in Maryland. I disclosed to the

participants that I did not represent the firm I work for during the present

study, and the data collected was not intended to benefit the firm. I will

neither disclose the data collected during the study to the firm nor answer

specific questions that violate the participants’ confidentiality for anyone.

The data collected during the present study was focused on the lived

experiences of the participants engaged in the strategic management of their

organizations. The participants were asked about experiences involving

political influence. Although unlikely, it was possible the participants may

have experienced some psychological discomfort in the recalling of the

professional interactions with elected or appointed officials. No other

significant relationship and professional, physical, or legal risks were

expected. These risks were mitigated by the informed consent procedures

outlined in this section.

Summary

The descriptive phenomenological design as described by Giorgi

(2009) was intended to address the central research question of the present

study. The design was intended to assist me in capturing and analyzing the

lived experiences of participants employed by the State of Maryland. This

chapter contains the rationale for using this design, as well as provided a

description of the steps that were required to complete the study. The role of

the researcher has been explained, as well as how issues of trustworthiness

and ethics were addressed. This chapter completed the proposal and

provided the information necessary to obtain the permission to move

forward with the actual performance of the study. Following the approval of

the proposal, I received IRB approval and subsequently began collection of

data.

Chapter 4: Research Findings

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to

identify and report the lived experiences of public sector employees engaged

in the strategic management of their organizations in Maryland. The research

question for this study addressed the lived experiences of public sector

employees who encounter political influence while engaged in the strategic

management of their organizations. This chapter contains my summary of

the research findings.

Setting

After participants volunteered for the study, I contacted each

participant to coordinate a time and location for their interview. The

participants were asked to select a location that was convenient for them,

provided an environment suitable for conversation, and offered enough

privacy to prevent acquaintances for learning of their participation in the

study. The interviews with participants took place in the following settings:

seven (46.67%) took place in public locations including coffee shops and

small restaurants; five (33%) took place at private offices controlled by the

participants; one (6.67%) took place in a conference room at a business not

affiliated with the participant or me; and at the participant’s request, one

(6.67%) interview took place at a participant’s home. The settings were all

conducive to the conversational nature of the interviews.

None of the interviews were interrupted by nonparticipants.

Demographics

The study’s participants shared the experience of participating in the

strategic management of Maryland State Government organizations. The

participants consisted of nine (60%) Maryland State employees and six

(40%) former employees who met the study’s inclusion criteria outlined in

Chapter 3. Each of the former employees had separated from the state

service within the past 4 years. All the participants had served in their

current position for more than 1 year at the time of their interview, and all of

them began their service through one of Maryland’s competitive hiring

processes.

Those interviewed were all regular participants in at least one of their

organization’s strategic management activities; however, their

responsibilities were diverse. Four (26.67%) of the participants were directly

responsible for strategic planning and performance measurement programs.

Three (20%) participants were C-suite level executives responsible for

providing executive direction. The eight (53.33%) other participants were

responsible for policy development, procurement, finance, workforce

development, compliance, and program management. The group of

participants had an average of 18.6 years of service with Maryland’s state

government, ranging from 6 to 40 years. There were two (13.33%)

participants with more than 30 years of service, five (33.33%) with 20-29

years of service, four (26.67%) with 10-19 years of service, and four

(26.67%) with fewer than 10 years of service.

Data Collection

Data collection took place from December 7, 2018 to January 4, 2019. The

interviews ranged from 19 minutes to 45 minutes with an average duration

of 31 minutes. Data were collected via semistructured interviews with each

participant. The interview protocol (see Appendix A) served as the only data

collection instrument for each interview. There were no refusals to answer

any of the questions; however, there were three (20%) participants who had

limited experience with the budgeting process and two (13.33%) additional

participants who had limited experience with the procurement process.

Data saturation was achieved after interviews with 15 participants.

The process to confirm data saturation was outlined in Chapter 3. To check

for data saturation, I conducted 12 interviews and produced a list of initial

themes. I then conducted three additional interviews to check for the

emergence of new themes. Data saturation was confirmed when no new

themes emerged in the three additional interviews. Although it was my

intention to use snowball sampling (see Griffith, Morris, & Thakar, 2016), it

was not necessary because there were more volunteer participants than

required to meet data saturation.

Each semistructured interview was audio-recorded using the Rev

audio recording application for mobile devices. A laptop with microphone

was available during each interview in case the mobile device failed. The

interviews were transcribed using Rev.com. I reviewed each transcript for

accuracy and forwarded the documents to the participants for their review.

This process of member checking allowed the participants to confirm the

accuracy of the transcripts.

I scripted field notes during and following each interview. The field

notes were used to annotate nonverbal communication such as changes in

tone, posture, and eye contact. Field notes were also used to annotate

apparent changes in mood. The field notes were combined with the interview

transcripts following member-checking by the participants. Each transcript

was then loaded into the Dedoose application to facilitate data analysis.

Data Analysis

I conducted data analysis in accordance with the descriptive

phenomenological method as described by Giorgi (2009). I uploaded each

interview transcript into the Dedoose application prior to the analysis and

used it throughout the data analysis process. I began the descriptive

phenomenological method by reading each transcript to gain a holistic sense

of the phenomenon. I read the entire transcript without attempting to analyze

the content. This step allowed me to immerse myself in the data and to see

descriptions of phenomenon that I did not hear during the interviews. The

second step of the analysis required psychological phenomenological

reduction. I reduced each transcript to the participant’s descriptions related

to the phenomenon of strategic management in Maryland. The transcripts in

the Dedoose application were modified to remove the nonrelevant

descriptions.

The third step of the analysis required the identification and parsing of

meaning units within each transcript. I read each transcript with the goal of

identifying the psychological meaning units and separated each transcript

into a series of meaning units, simplifying the identification of clusters of

meaning. Clusters of meaning are phrases and patterns that are significant to

the topic being studied (Groenewald, 2004). Coding within the Dedoose

application was employed to identify those clusters within each transcript.

The fourth step in the approach described by Giorgi (2009) is to transform

the participants’ natural statements into expressions that are

phenomenologically and psychologically sensitive. The fifth step is to take

the transformed meaning units to describe the overall psychological

experience (Giorgi et al., 2017). During the fourth and fifth steps, I

elaborated each cluster into themes that are summarized in this section.

The participants’ descriptions of their lived experiences were

elaborated into five themes. Each participant conveyed their experiences

using their own natural statements. I was able to identify leadership tenue,

managing for results, strategic management resources, influence, and

political skills as concepts experienced by multiple participants. Each theme

is explained further in this chapter. The participants’ contribution to each

theme is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Contribution to Themes

Themes

Participan

Leadership

Tenure

MFR Resources Influence Political

Skill

1 Yes Yes Yes

2 Yes Yes Yes

3 Yes Yes Yes Yes

4 Yes Yes Yes Yes

5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

7 Yes Yes Yes

8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

9 Yes Yes Yes

10 Yes Yes

11 Yes Yes

12 Yes Yes Yes

13 Yes Yes Yes Yes

14 Yes Yes Yes Yes

15 Yes Yes Yes Yes

Note. Themes were identified through data analysis of participant interviews.

Theme 1: Leadership Tenure

The short tenure of elected and appointed officials was identified by

14 (93.33%) of the 15 participants as a challenge for strategic management.

Appointed officials frequently change in conjunction with the changes at the

gubernatorial level. Participants indicated that the short tenures presented

challenges with making long-term plans (longer than 3 years) when change

frequently occurs at 4 years. These 14 participants expressed

apprehensiveness in their descriptions of their lived experiences. The nature

of the participants’ experiences reveal participants may have been uneasy

about their ability to fulfil their organizations’ missions and deliver services

for their stakeholders. Further, four participants (26.67%) indicated that

elected officials are hesitant to conduct planning in the fourth year of a term.

For example, Participant 7 stated,

I think it constrains it a little bit because depending on where we are

in that election cycle. Right after the new administration comes in, if

you’ve got a 4-year or 5-year project you can get it through. If you’re in the

election year cycle or something, it’s more short-term thinking. The most

dominant emotions revealed were pessimism and anticipation. The four

participants’ descriptions revealed pessimism about the ability to plan and

execute major strategies in the later portion of an elected or appointed

official’s term. The participants described the need to anticipate change.

Participant 14 conveyed the following experience:

So, your plans will shift and change, based on the new leadership of

government that comes into play. Sometimes it might not affect

certain agencies. And sometimes it does. But you must be ready to

change. And you must be able to say, “Is the change difficult? Is it

going to cost you more resources?”

Theme 2: Managing for Results

This theme contains topics the participants believed to be important

about the MFR program. The 12 participants (80%) familiar with program

generally expressed contentment with MFR and its requirements. These

participants appeared to accept the need to comply with the program’s

requirements despite their opinions of its effectiveness. They acknowledged

that the program is well intentioned. Seven (58.33%) of the 12 participants

familiar with the program acknowledged that it was intended to lead

agencies to conduct strategic planning and performance management.

However, five of these seven (71.43%) indicated that recent changes

including page limitations and a focus on page formatting have reduced the

overall effectiveness of the program. These five participants expressed

dissatisfaction with the recent changes. Two of the seven (28.6%)

participants familiar with MFR expressed frustration in their descriptions of

their experiences. For example, Participant 3 stated, “I think the idea of it

was absolutely the right thing to do . . . But sometimes I got frustrated that

you were just measuring for the sake of measuring rather than measuring to

achieve results.” Participant 6 supported that position by stating, “I think it

was good when it started and at this point, it’s kind of a wasted effort . . .

And I think at this point, we’re just measuring things for the fact of

measuring.” Participant 4 stated, “I don’t think most state agencies would

conduct strategic planning without it. That said, it has problems. We became

very focused on formatting and stopped focusing on the content in my

opinion.” Thus, the participants indicated content with the program’s

original purpose but dissatisfaction with the program’s current execution.

Theme 3: Strategic Management Resources

Theme 3 contains topics the participants believed to be important

about their ability to procure the materials and services necessary to execute

their strategic management responsibilities. The participants expressed

satisfaction with their ability to acquire the materials and services they

identified as important to strategic management. When asked if their agency

was able to acquire the enablers necessary for strategic management,

Participant 1 stated, “Yeah, we basically, if we needed it, if it has some

effect on the department, then we procured it.” Thirteen of the 15 (86.67%)

participants concurred that they could acquire everything they needed to

conduct strategic management. However, two (13.33%) participants that

were C-suite executives were not as committed to saying yes. Participant 10

stated, “We have a procurement process that is in place, but that

procurement process has to also be taken into consideration with other

priorities for the entire state, which sometimes may cause a conflict.” This

participant elaborated further, indicating that procurements are sometimes

delayed or deferred for lengthy periods of time.

The most dominant emotion conveyed was satisfaction. Participants

acknowledged and accepted Maryland’s complex procurement process. For

example, Participant 1 stated, “in most positions, and especially in

procurement, and inventory . . . you have certain guidelines and procedures

that have to be followed. It’s not the same as in the private sectors.” Five of

the 15 participants (33.3%) acknowledged the procurement function is

executed by experienced professionals outside of the functional area

responsible for strategic management.

Theme 4: Influence

As discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2, influence is the

modification of an actor’s behavior due to the behavior of another actor or

group (Arts & Verschuren, 1999; Bello & Spano, 2015). The participants

described different methods of experiencing political influence. All 15

participants experienced some form of political influence.

Cluster 4.1: Formal communication. Six of the participants (40%)

experienced formal communication. Those six participants (40%) described

experiences that revealed public statements by elected officials such as the

governor, as well as by appointed officials in the cabinet, are effective at

influencing their decisions. As I outlined in the literature review, chief

executives typically have approval power over agencies’ guiding documents

such as plans and budgets (Kim, 2015). The participants’ descriptions of

their experiences with formal communication were indicative of their

acceptance of that form of influence. For example, while describing public

statements from a governor, Participant 3 stated, “That’s a kind of like

normal influence that you kind of expect and want. Because, agencies feel

good, too, in aligning themselves with a bigger picture.” Other participants

indicated their acceptance by describing their experiences as routine

occurrences. For example, Participant 5 described the routine nature of

rewriting strategic plans based on changes in elected officials. Participant 5

stated, “as good as nature may be of that particular older plan, because of

who’s on the cover, it’s sort of discounted.” This participant continued to

describe workarounds to mitigate the work required for this routine

occurrence.

Three participants (20%) described experiences where a governor

stated a priority publicly to the media that led the participants to modify the

priorities of their agencies. Participant 3 stated, So, the Governor will put

out his or her priorities and say, “During my term in office, this is what I

want to address.” So as a state agency head, you kind of have an obligation

to both your boss and your agency to make sure you’re aligned.

Statements by those participants demonstrate that influence can have

positive impacts. Elaborating on the previous example, a participant

described an energy efficiency priority communicated by a governor that

allowed their agency to implement an unplanned energy efficiency project

more quickly than they could have otherwise. In another example, the

participant realized increased support for a program they managed after a

public statement by the governor. The participant indicated that leaders

sought to expand the program from its founding agency to other agencies

across the state.

Cluster 4.2: Informal communication. The participants described

experiences where influence was communicated informally through direct

messages from elected and appointed officials, as well as by their staffs. The

participants’ descriptions conveyed a range of psychological states. Three of

the seven participants (42.9%) that experienced informal communication

described dissatisfaction. For example, Participant 2 stated “I didn’t like the

ultimate outcome. I felt . . . that those funds could have been used to help

local agencies that serve citizens within the state . . . If I could have changed

it, I really would have.” Three of the seven participants (42.9%) frustration

with their experience. Those three participants described situations where the

business decision made by the participant did not match the political

decision which was ultimately executed. One of the seven participants

(14.3%) described surprise and satisfaction. The participant stated “It was

kind of a nice decision. I personally thought after it was done. . . . Yeah, we

shouldn’t have complained about it, so much.” It was actually kind of a nice

outcome.”

Seven participants (46.67%) provided examples of elected and

appointed officials influencing business decisions for political purposes that

were communicated informally. Those modifications included changing the

implementation of a business decision to follow significant political events

such as an election, influencing procurement decisions, and influencing

policy decisions that impact large groups of stakeholders. For example, three

participants (20%) described situations where staff from a governor’s office

agreed with a business decision but instructed them to delay the

implementation of the decision until an upcoming election had past. Three

participants (20%) described examples where an agency made a procurement

decision that was modified for political purposes. In one of those examples,

the agency found a lower cost for an item from a vendor outside of the state

but was instructed to use a Maryland-based firm despite the higher cost.

Another participant described an approved wage increase for one of the

state’s unions while other unions did not receive the same increase. From a

business perspective, the participant felt their agency would have approved a

smaller across the board increase for all its unions.

Theme 5: Political Skill

Throughout the interviews, participants indicated that they believed

they needed to develop skills over their careers to manage elected and

appointed official as stakeholders. As identified in the literature review,

leadership in the public sector often requires the ability to address complex

public policy issues, the use of negotiation and conflict resolution to balance

political interests and values, the ability to effectively communicate strategic

direction, and the ability to influence policy decisions and practices (Fu,

2012; Tizard, 2012; Hansen & Ferlie, 2016). The interview protocol did not

have a specific question about political skills; however, five (33.33%)

participants introduced the topic. For example, while describing a change in

state leadership from one political party to another, Participant 8 stated,

The policies were the same, again, because they’re political party

neutral. It was just how to ensure that the policies could be

established through the planning effort, through messaging and

understanding what was important to each of the different political

parties.

Participant 8 continued to describe that they learned over time to effectively

communicate strategies in a manner which aligned with the priorities of each

political party. Participant 14, a senior leader within their agency, stated,

“Your skillset has to be such, and your mindset has to be such, that you

know the process of what change means in government, when the highest

level gets changed.” The participants’ descriptions indicate that they

anticipate the need for change throughout their careers. It may further

indicate that they are acceptant of the type of change associated with

political cycles.

Evidence of Trustworthiness

As outlined in Chapter 3, trustworthiness in qualitative research is

evaluated by credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability

(Cope, 2014; Shenton, 2004). To ensure credibility, the study strictly

followed the descriptive phenomenological method described by Giorgi as

outlined in Chapter 3. Using that accepted qualitative research method

supports the trustworthiness of this study.

The dependability of the study is supported by the quantity and quality

of the data gathered. I conducted semi structured interviews with each

participant using an interview protocol that was field tested by experts in

phenomenological research. Those interviews were audio recorded and

transcribed through a professional transcription service, Rev.com. I provided

each participant with the opportunity to check the contents of the transcript

of their interview to ensure its accuracy. This process promoted the quality

of the data gathered. The process to ensure data saturation described in

Chapter 3 was followed extensively. Twelve interviews were conducted and

analyzed. Data saturation was confirmed after three additional interviews did

not reveal any new themes. This process ensures that the quantity of data

was sufficient to support the dependability of this study.

Transferability is the ability of the findings from this study to apply to

other situations (Cope, 2014). I used triangulation to evaluate the

transferability of the data. Each of the 15 (100%) interviews contained

similar clusters that led to the development of the themes presented earlier in

this chapter. The themes are consistent with the synthesis of relevant

scientific research I presented in Chapter 2. The consistency of interviews

with each other and the consistency of the themes to the previous research

support the transferability of these findings to other situations.

Finally, the confirmability of this study is its ability to convey the

experiences of the participants, not the researcher (Shenton, 2004). The

processes outlined to support the credibility, dependability, and

transferability of this study also support its confirmability. I maintained

documentation of the processes to provide an audit trail for examination if

necessary.

Study Results

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to

identify and report the lived experiences of public sector employees who

encountered political influence while engaged in the strategic management

of their organizations in the State of Maryland. Five themes emerged in the

data as a result of the coding of participants’ responses. Quotes from the

participants were provided to support the themes and provide context.

The participants were asked to describe their experiences encountering

political influence while engaged in the strategic management of their

organizations in the State of Maryland. Theme 2 MFR, Theme 3 Resources,

and Theme 4 Influence are all connected directly to political influence. All

the participants (100%) described being the recipients of political influence

while executing their duties as described in Theme 4. The participants’

experiences included influences from formal methods such as public

statements from elected officials and informal methods including private

communications from staffers. The participants also conveyed multiple

psychological states including acceptance, frustration, dissatisfaction, and

contentment during their descriptions of their experiences. For example,

participant 1 stated “I feel like sometimes, depending on the governor, it

seemed like the state employees . . . weren’t relative.” The participant

continued to elaborate on the situation stating, “I mean the management was

fine, but they were just there, and it was just like they didn’t have anything

to do with their mission.” That participant was not alone in commenting on

appointed leaders. For example, Participant 2 was asked a follow-up

question about a senior leader. The participant stated “Actually, I was

impressed with his credentials, but as administrations changed, and you

work with different people, it varied . . . and sometimes I did not feel that

way.” That participant continued to describe a series of appointed leaders

which they felt were not qualified. Participant 2 elaborated further by stating

there were leaders “that I did not feel were qualified, but that were there as a

fulfillment of a political favor.” Those two participants appeared to express

indifference towards appointed leaders. Participant 14 provided an additional

perspective through their description of their experiences. Participant 14

stated the following:

But politics is a sticky thing, you know? And sometime, I just, I

try to be, not so much neutral, but I am loyal to whatever my

duties and responsibilities are, and that has kept me on the

straight and narrow, because I’m doing everything by what the

black and white says, the book. . . . And that way, it doesn’t

make a difference who’s in office, who’s at the head of the

agency, my job is the same.

Those three participants expressed confidence that while appointed leaders

change, the overall missions of their organizations do not.

Summary

In Chapter 4, I presented an analysis of the data collected from the

participants. The semi structured in-person interviews provided 465 minutes

of audio recordings containing the experiences of the 15 participants. Five

themes emerged from the data which were consistent with each other as well

as with the literature review presented in Chapter 2. In Theme 1, the

participants addressed the research question by describing their lived

experiences related to the relatively short tenures of elected and appointed

officials who attempt to influence them. In Theme 2, the participants

addressed the research question by describing their experiences with

Maryland’s legislatively mandated strategic planning requirement. In Theme

3, the participants addressed the research question by describing their

experiences with procuring strategic management enablers. In Theme 4, the

participants addressed the research question by describing their experiences

receiving political influences through both formal and informal methods. In

Theme 5, the participants addressed the research question by describing

political skills connected to their lived experiences. The consistency of the

data and the adherence of the study to the descriptive phenomenological

method support the trustworthiness of this study. Chapter 5 will contain my

interpretation of the study’s findings. Chapter 5 will also present a summary

of the limitations on the study’s trustworthiness, implications for positive

social change, and future research recommendations.

Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of

public sector employees influenced by politics while engaged in the strategic

management of their organizations in Maryland. Prior researchers have

concluded that political influence can occur even without an actual

intervention into the decision-making process (Arts & Verschuren, 1999;

Bello & Spano, 2015). Researchers have also concluded that political

approaches to strategic management can result in ill-defined strategies and

ambiguity (Favoreu et al., 2016). The results regarding strategic

management in relation to this study’s purpose, problem, and central

research question can improve understanding of the connection between

influence and strategic management decisions. Findings of this study may

help identify types and sources of political influence and its potential

impacts on public sector employees.

Descriptive phenomenology was selected to as the method to collect

and interpret the lived experiences of the participants from their perspective.

Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 participants. These

interviews provided the rich data that were analyzed to provide the findings.

Five themes emerged from the data that were consistent with each other as

well as with the literature review presented in Chapter 2: leadership tenue,

managing for results, strategic management resources, influence, and

political skills. Theme 1, leadership tenue, was comprised of the

participants’ descriptions pertaining to strategic management challenges

related to the short tenue of elected and appointed officials. Theme 2, MFR,

was comprised of the participants’ descriptions pertaining to purpose and

execution of the legislatively mandated strategic management program.

Theme 3, strategic management resources, was comprised of the

participants’ descriptions of their experiences with procuring the services

and products necessary for strategy implementation. Theme 4, political

influence, was comprised of the participants’ descriptions of their

experiences pertaining to influence from elected and appointed officials.

Theme 5, political skills, was comprised of the participants’ descriptions of

the skills they identified as necessary for success in their political

environment. The interpretation of the data is grounded in the conceptual

framework comprised of stakeholder theory and economic theory of the

firm. In this chapter, I present my interpretation of the study’s findings, its

limitations, implications for positive social change, and recommendations

for further research.

Interpretation of Findings

This study’s results align with several concepts in the literature. For

example, the participants’ experiences with MFR support previous research

studies conducted by Moynihan and Kroll (2016) and Tama (2018). These

researchers identified that legislation and public policies requiring strategic

management often contain requirements that meet the needs of political

actors, not the organizations conducting the planning. The participants’

experiences are also consistent with the research of Ciobanica (2014), who

suggested that the execution of strategy in the public sector often relies on

the procurement of services and goods, and the ability of chief executives to

influence procurement in the public sector potentially increases their

influence over the strategic management of public sector organizations.

Finally, the participants’ experiences are consistent with studies conducted

by Fu (2012) and Ugaddan and Parks (2017), who stated that public sector

leaders require the ability to address complex public policy issues and use of

negotiation and conflict resolution to balance political interests and values.

The analysis and interpretation of the participants’ responses led me to

make three conclusions. First, Maryland state government employees

perceive both positive and negative impacts from political influence on

strategic management. Second, consistent with the literature review,

Maryland state government employees perceive that legislation that required

strategic planning and performance management in Maryland has

encouraged further strategic initiatives. Finally, although Maryland state

government employees experience political influence, they have developed

skills to mitigate those influences and execute their agency missions. I will

elaborate on each conclusion and describe their relationships to the reviewed

relevant literature in the following sections.

Positive and Negative Impacts of Political Influence

The findings confirmed that participants experienced political

influence through both formal and informal methods, in concordance with

the literature review presented in Chapter 2. Participants described

experiencing influence through formal methods including public statements

by a governor as well as statement in formal meetings by the governor and

cabinet officials. According to the participants, public statements motivated

them to align their initiatives to match those of elected officials making the

statements. Participants identified informal methods including phone calls,

small-group private meetings, and personal conversations with staff

members of elected officials. The seven participants (46.7%) who

experienced informal communication appeared anxious when describing

these interactions. The most frequent emotion communicated by these seven

participants appeared to be contempt. The participants identified examples of

positive and negative impacts on their agencies, regardless of the method of

influence. The participants who conveyed positive impacts from political

influence expressed surprise over the results.

Previous research has identified that the strategic planning process can

be positively influenced through the engagement of multiple stakeholders

with varying types of inputs, which is supported by the participants’

experiences (Lee et al., 2018). There were three examples provided by

participants where a political actor influenced a business decision that

resulted in a positive outcome for another group of stakeholders.

Potential negative impacts of political influence were identified in the

literature review. For example, Bello and Spano (2015) and Favoreu et al

(2016) concluded that political influences can undermine the routine

execution of decision-making processes in the public sector. Seven

participants provided examples of political factors influencing decisions to

delay the execution of business strategies for political purposes.

Strategic Thinking

Consistent with the literature review, legislation that required strategic

planning and performance management in Maryland has influenced both

appointed officials and careerists to think strategically. For instance, Tama

(2018) concluded that legislative and administrative requirements can

distract leaders from addressing the important strategic issues faced by the

organization. Addressing these strategic issues is the intent of strategic

management (Bao, 2015; Soloducho-Pelc, 2015; Storchevoi, 2015). The

participants identified strategic management activities that they developed

based on their experiences and knowledge of best practices. This is

exemplified by the number of nonlegislated strategic activities the

participants engage in. For example, Participant 4 and Participant 5

described a cross-functional team they developed within their organization to

evaluate progress towards the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Thirteen of the 15 participants (87%) identified strategic management

activities that they engaged in within their organizations that exceeded the

requirements established by MFR. The participants concluded that MFR was

ineffective as a strategic management tool based on their experiences. Seven

of the participants (46.7%) expressed that their agencies had developed

strategic plans in addition to the efforts required by MFR.

Political Skills

Fourteen (93.33%) participants expressed challenges with the frequent

changes in political actors. The participants described planning efforts that

were suspended due to changes in elected officials, plans with shorter

planning horizons than the participants preferred due to election cycles, and

the need to justify previously developed long-term organizational plans to

newly appointed officials. Previous research has indicated that collaborative

relationships in strategic management require soft management skills,

flexibility, and other analytical techniques to support the development of

collective strategies (Axelsson, 2016; Williams & Lewis, 2008). The

participants described experiences where they had the need to manage

stakeholder expectations, negotiate the legislative process, use persuasion to

convince new leadership to continue the direction of previous leadership,

and ability to adapt to new political philosophies while executing the

mission of their agencies. The participants’ descriptions of their experiences

are consistent with the findings of Axelsson (2016) as well as the findings of

Williams and Lewis (2008). The participants’ descriptions of their

experiences support the need for strategic management training specific to

the public sector.

Limitations of the Study

The limitations to this study included its design, its geographic

boundary, time restraints, and my personal biases. The design of this study

was a descriptive phenomenological psychological approach as described by

Giorgi (2009). The descriptive phenomenological psychological approach

generally involves small numbers of participants that have a shared lived

experience. This study was limited to 15 public sector employees who

shared the experience of engaging in strategic management in Maryland

State Government.

The design of the study required a purposive sampling technique

(Griffith, Morris, & Thakar, 2016). Although it was my intention to use

snowball sampling (see Griffith, Morris, & Thakar, 2016), it was not

necessary as there were more volunteer participants than required to meet

data saturation. However, the study’s inclusion criteria combined with my 20

years of service led to a pool of participants where 100% had at least general

familiarity with the researcher. This led to a level of comfort between each

participant and me that may have facilitated a more forthright and open

interview. Replicating the results of this study may be difficult with a

different study design.

The study was limited in geography to the State of Maryland. As

outlined in Chapter 3, Maryland has specific strategic management

requirements that made it ideal for this study. Transferring the study’s results

to other locations is a limitation due to differing legislated requirements,

organizational cultures, and political ideologies. The inclusion criteria

required volunteers to be regular participants in their organization’s strategic

management processes, and not be a political appointee. These criteria may

limit the generalization further as excluded segments of the population may

have differing experiences.

The study was also limited by time restraints. The participants

volunteered their time to participant in the study. Participants were asked to

plan for 60-minute interview. The average interview lasted 31 minutes.

Fifteen interviews produced 465 minutes of recorded interview data. This

substantial amount of data required significant time to transcribe, organize,

analyze, and interpret.

This study was also limited by researcher bias. As outlined in Chapter

3, I spent 20 years as a Maryland State Government employee. My

responsibilities included strategic management activities including strategic

planning, performance management, and policy development. I also directly

experienced political influence several times over my career. To manage this

bias, Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological approach was strictly followed.

Bracketing, a self-reflective process, was used to identify and set aside my

assumptions and a priori knowledge about the phenomenon being studied

(see Giorgi, 2009; O’Halloran et al., 2018; Starks & Brown Trinidad, 2007).

Bracketing was conducted before, during, and after data collection and

documented in my research journal. Potential themes were documented as

they emerged throughout the data collection process. Finally, the Dedoose

application was used to maintain objectivity throughout data analysis.

Recommendations

To further research in the discipline of strategic management,

specifically in the public sector, several recommendations for future research

are below. Recommendations include specific considerations to further

investigate the topic of this study, as well as general research to advance our

collective understanding of the discipline within the context of the public

sector. As outlined in Chapter 2, the public sector has unique leadership

challenges which impact the execution of strategic management. The

recommendations that follow consider those unique challenges, as well as

previous research reviewed.

The focus of this study was not to quantify the attributes of political

influence nor its influence on strategic management. The participants

described experiences where they expressed varying levels of acceptance of

political influence. In the future, researchers should examine public sector

employee attitudes about varying methods of political influence and how

they impact the strategic management of their agencies. Researchers should

also consider expanding this study to different geographies and populations.

The participants described experiences where they felt the need for

political skills and competencies. As discussed earlier, the participants

conveyed experiences where they had the need to manage expectations, use

negotiation, use persuasion, and adapt to new political philosophies.

Although Fu (2012) examined political competencies and skills using a

population of United States federal government participants, I recommend

those competencies and skills be examined in the context of state and

municipal governments. It is recommended future researchers examine the

causality between strategic management requirements and strategic thinking.

Researchers should also consider a model of strategic management

competencies for public sector employees. Implications

Positive Social Change

Actions based on applying information from Themes 4 & 5 from this

study have the potential to create positive social change related to the use of

government resources and accountability. The results of this study reveal

that Maryland State employees engaged in the strategic management of their

organization are very likely to experience political influence. The

participants identified that strategies communicated in public statements by

elected officials can influence careerist at the agency level. Six of the

participants (40%) provided examples of these statements aligning actions

across the government to support the elected official’s desire. Public

statements may be a tool align employees engaged in strategic management

across an entire government. Based on this finding, I recommend elected and

appointed officials use public statement to communicate important statewide

goals, objectives and strategic initiatives to employees. This may lead to

positive social change if political actors can effectively use public statements

to align careerist actions to prepare for the future needs of their

organizations.

Theme 2 contains some support for previous claims that legislated

requirements for strategic management can lead to strategic thinking.

Thirteen of the 15 participants (87%) revealed strategic management

activities above the requirements legislated in MFR. Government

organizations without legislated strategic management requirements may

benefit from well-crafted legislation. The GPRA Modernization Act at the

federal level made changes to the legislation to make it reflect the maturation

of the strategic management discipline (Moynihan & Kroll, 2016). Based on

this finding, I recommend legislators and chief executives within state and

municipal governments consider updating existing strategic management

legislation to reflect contemporary strategic management best practices. I

further recommend that legislators for states and municipal governments that

do not have existing strategic management should enact legislation which

requires subordinate agencies to conduct contemporary strategic

management best practices. Positive social change may be achieved if

similar modernization efforts occur at the state and municipal levels.

Methodological

The design of this qualitative study was based on the descriptive

phenomenological approach as described by Giorgi (2009). As outlined in

Chapter 3, descriptive phenomenology is different from other qualitative

designs due to the use of descriptions from the participants as opposed to the

researchers themselves. The use of descriptive phenomenology in this study

demonstrates its utility as an effective design for the exploration of ill-

defined and complex problems. The utilization of a qualitative method for

this study is significant as the complexity of the key concepts of strategic

management and political influence were not reduced to statistics.

Theoretical

The conceptual framework for this study was based on stakeholder

theory and economic theory of the firm. Theme 1 and Theme 5 provide

insights into how the experiences of Maryland State Government employees

manage stakeholders while engaged in strategic management. Fourteen

participants (93.33%) described how they balance the wants and needs of

elected against the needs of other stakeholders. All the participants also

provided insight into the managerial mindset of senior leaders executing

strategic management. This supports stakeholder theory as described by

Freeman (1984). The findings of the study also reflect that the participants’

agencies are businesses with specific missions that create value for the

citizens of Maryland. All the participants in this study described decisions

using the terms business decision and political decision. This consideration

of value-proposition by the participants supports economic theory of the firm

as described by Coase (1937).

Conclusion

Millions of public sector employees in the United States, as well as the

American public, are impacted by the practice of strategic management in

public sector organizations. Previous researchers have argued social and

financial pressures have bolstered the need for public sector employees to

plan for future challenges within their organizations. Many governments

have legislated requirements for their agencies to conduct strategic

management activities including strategic planning, performance

management, and performance-based budgeting. These requirements in the

context of the public sector are subject to political influences.

In this dissertation research study, I examined the lived experiences of

public sector employees who have been subjected to political influence

while engaged in the strategic management of their organizations in the State

of Maryland. Three conclusions were made as a result of the data analysis:

first, Maryland State Government employees perceive both positive and

negative impacts from political influence on strategic management; second,

Maryland State Government employees perceive that legislation that

required strategic planning and performance management has encouraged

further strategic initiatives; and finally, Maryland State Government

employees have developed skills to mitigate political influences and execute

their agency missions. Recommendations for future research include the

expansion of this study to different geographies, quantitative examinations

of the extent of political influence on strategic management, and

examinations of the specific skills and competencies that enable effective

public sector strategic management.

Public Sector Employees Experiences Executing Strategic Management in A Political Environment

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