ABSTRACT
As in the private sector, public sector organizations face increasingly turbulent operating environments. To succeed and survive, public sector managers need to progressively adapt and change in order to maintain an alignment between conditions of the environment and their organizational direction and capabilities. Strategic issue management is one discipline that, when practised effectively, can facilitate the ongoing management of this alignment process and of organizational change. This chapter will examine aspects of strategic issues management as one useful component of the change management process when applied to public sector organizations. First, the chapter will discuss general conditions facing the public sector, and explore the current operating environment. Second, it will provide suggestions on how to measure environmental turbulence in order to inform managers and prepare them for organizational change. Third, the chapter will look at strategic management, and in particular strategic issue management, as sets of tools and processes that can be effective and appropriate in the process of managing change in public sector organizations operating in high levels of turbulence.
