ABSTRACT
A strategic planning process for online education can be particularly formidable, because every college and university has its own identity, a sense of self, history, development tradition and mission. While strategic plans were often well–conceived, well–researched and clearly conceptualized, the largest barrier to the introduction of modern management principles to higher education was that the organizational culture in academia was completely different and at times antithetical to corporate organizational culture and those differences were accentuated by strategic planning. While the pressure to change in higher education has intensified over the past 20 years, and strategic planning and management is potentially a tool to help manage that change, the institutional barriers to employ strategic planning and management have not dissipated. Incorporating strategic planning processes into the ongoing management of colleges and universities has proven to be challenging but now is a routine activity for many institutions.
