ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the background to, and practice of, strategic management and corporate planning in public sector organisations. It looks at key strategic management concepts and how they fit into the Australian Public Service (APS) public management cycle. Public sector bodies have been formulating organizational plans outlining their corporate charter, major aims and objectives, and implementation programs. This approach involves public managers taking a longer-term, broader view in order to anticipate and, if possible, shape changes in their environment. Strategic management can be described as the process of defining, selecting and performing activities that improve the longer-term performance of an organisation. Planners employ strategic management to plan, deliver and evaluate services to the public more effectively. The ultimate measures of success of strategic management in public, as well as private, sector organisations are survival, growth, improvements in stakeholder satisfaction, corporate vitality, profitability and competitive positioning.
