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School improvement planning has been a central part of school improvement initiatives for decades. Evidence suggests, however, that traditional planning processes are regularly superficial. In the USA, some principals have begun developing short-cycle planning designed to encourage school leadership teams and staff to develop, monitor and adjust plans throughout the academic year.

In this study of eight schools in one urban district, the authors analyzed multiple rounds of short-cycle improvement plans and principal interview data to assess the progress schools made implementing plans over the course of a semester, the ways in which plans were monitored and adjusted and the extent to which principals embraced short-cycle planning.

The authors found that many tasks from first semester plans were completed, which informed the development of plans for the second semester. Observational data were primarily used to monitor plan completion, although principals engaged in monitoring but relied on their leadership team to do so. Principals reported regular engagement with plans throughout semester, but plans were seldom adjusted within a semester.

The findings suggest that short-cycle planning is potentially a viable alternative to traditional annual planning as principals communicated being more engaged and adaptive. Still, the evidence also indicated that old habits might be hard to break as school leaders did not monitor and adjust plans frequently enough to guide improvement efforts in relative “real time.”

Limited research on root cause analysis exists in educational leadership. Accurately diagnosing and detailing root causes—the why—of organizational failure, as is relatively common in other fields, could improve principals' ability to devise situationally- and contextually-responsive solutions in their improvement plans. In this study, the authors analyze school improvement plans to provide insight into how principals use root cause analysis to identify their and their school's failures as a way to respond strategically with goals and action steps.

In this exploratory qualitative study, the authors develop coding schemes and leverage an existing rubric of school improvement plan quality to assess what principals identify as root causes for 216 priorities across 111 school improvement plans.

The overall quality of root causes submitted by principals was low, typically between “beginning” and “developing” stages. The majority of root causes aligned with priorities and desired outcomes, but fewer than one-third had a systems focus. Moreover, less than half of root causes suggested that school leaders played a part in the organizational failures. The vast majority of plans instead identified teachers as the root cause, foundational fault or “why” of the problem.

An increased understanding of root cause analysis conceptualization and development seems necessary if improvement planning is to be a strategic response to a school's most serious organizational challenges. The predominant approach to school improvement planning has focused almost exclusively on how to succeed or become better with little investment in identifying root causes of organizational decline or failure. This initial study of root cause quality in school improvement planning is a key first step in critically thinking about how improvement is to be achieved when failure is unconceived.

School improvement planning and implementation is one organizational process by which principals may positively impact school and student outcomes. Limited research, however, has explored how principal preparation programs prepare aspiring leaders for this common school leadership activity. This study examined aspiring principals engaged in the school improvement process by evaluating what they included in their school improvement plans (SIPs) that were developed as part of their field experience.

The authors examined SIPs aspiring principals collaboratively developed as part of their field experience. Using an abductive analysis method, combining both deductive and inductive coding methods, authors examined 77 SIPs in which aspiring principals used school level data in planning.

Each aspiring principal's SIP was contextually specific. No two plans were identical relative to who was targeted for improvement and how the plan was to be implemented, indicating aspiring principals can apply course-based learning and implement important data-driven decision-making skills in field-based school improvement projects.

Findings are exploratory and limited to SIPs developed by aspiring principals in one university program in one large urban school district context. The findings that specific requirements and program structures affected the aspiring principal's school improvement planning process as did the overall school context adds to current understandings of how course-based learning is applied. However, further investigations are needed.

Findings provide evidence of how school leadership preparation programs may impact leadership development relative to skills associated with school improvement planning. The findings also suggest the importance of detailed analysis of aspiring principals school improvement planning as a program evaluation process.

This study was the first to document the content of aspiring principals' field-based SIPS and how skills in data-driven decision-making were applied in a SIP field-based activity.

The objective of the study is to examine the extent to which pharmaceutical companies in India rely on traditional planning approaches rather than the new learning approach to strategic planning. In addition to that, the study also seeks to examine the perceived ability of the pharmaceutical companies in India to integrate continuous improvement goals and product quality into the overall strategic planning and success in implementing total quality management (TQM) programs examined through three particular continuous improvement mindsets.

The study collected data from select pharmaceutical companies in India through survey technique using a standardized questionnaire through online mode. A descriptive statistical analysis is performed to examine the extent of integration of strategic planning and continuous improvement in the select pharmaceutical companies in India.

The results of the study indicate that pharmaceutical companies in India still rely greatly on traditional planning methods for strategic planning. However, a shift is also observed toward adoption of best practice management and modern strategic management techniques. The study also demonstrates that continuous improvement goals and strategies are included into the corporate strategic planning.

The study employs only descriptive statistics, and no hypotheses are generated in the study because the objective is not to generalize the findings. The process of formulating quality goals and integrating them with strategy is typical to any company. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized. The findings of the study do not given any insights into the strategic quality management process due to online mode of data collection. Also, the focus on the study is on the internal management of quality in an organization and factors in the external environment or in the value chain outside the firm, influencing strategic management of quality are beyond the scope of present study.

Considering the significance of quality of products, an understanding of the link between quality and strategic goals helps the managers in pharmaceutical industry to align the strategic planning goals with quality goals ensuring that the entire organization moves in same strategic direction.

The strong focus quality in pharmaceutical industry in India has given impetus to development of well-managed quality programs on the shop-floor to remain competitive and survive in the highly competitive global markets. However, no such study is conducted so far to understand the extent to which continuous improvement or TQM practices are integrated into strategic planning in the pharmaceutical companies in India.

This work explores the potential benefits of aligning the strategic planning process with a BPM program in a clinical research center (CRC). The purpose of this paper is to define a process for executing strategic planning oriented towards the promotion of a BPM program.

The method applied is action research. This allowed the solution of a practical problem and at the same time the proposition of a new approach to promote BPM in alignment with strategy, which was synthesized in the model presented.

The analysis and structuring of the strategic planning process, with the assessment of the as-is situation, were adequate as a preparation step for the first cycle of a BPM program in the CRC. Based on lessons learned along the research project, a model was proposed for the strategic planning process oriented towards promoting BPM.

The model was conceived from a single application at a CRC, through a cycle of action research. This is one of the limitations of this work. The model was not yet sufficiently tested in other contexts. This represents opportunities for future research.

The evaluation step in the action research cycle revealed that the organization in focus was satisfied with the results. New management practices in the organizations in focus were implemented as a result of this work.

Process improvement initiatives are a novelty in the CRC context, and this work may serve as a reference for CRC managers seeking to improve overall performance. The proposed model in this work indicates that a BPM program should start with strategic planning. An initial assessment of the as-is situation of the organization in focus was performed based on the analysis of the undesirable effects in the organization’s management practices, using a technique of the Theory of Constraints. The use of this technique facilitated the identification of solutions to the root causes identified in the assessment. The level of the assessment was deeper in comparison to results obtained with traditional tools used in strategic planning processes. The assessment supports the definition of actions oriented to solving the majority of the management dysfunctions of the organization in focus.

Strategic planning, in the form of school improvement planning, has become the dominant approach to school management in English schools. This has evolved from earlier forms of strategic planning and has significant inherent weaknesses that undermine the extent to which school improvement planning can contribute to the effective management of schools. The development of school improvement planning is examined in this article and its weaknesses analysed. Implied models of school management and leadership, the legacy of school effectiveness and improvement research and the role of the school principal are considered. Based on this analysis, an alternative approach to planning in schools and to school organisation and a more flexible approach to school organisation and leadership is proposed that is grounded in a shorter planning time scale and the development of structures that facilitate involvement, cooperation and collaboration.

This study aims to examine empirically how business in Taiwan has successfully implemented and benefited from ISO 9000.

Of 1,668 survey questionnaires mailed to companies with ISO 9000 certification, a total of 441 usable responses were used in the survey. Using the structural equation model, this study is grounded in a theoretical framework that links five key variables: top management support, quality planning, employee involvement, continuous improvement and firm performance.

The empirical results indicate that there is a positive relation between ISO 9000 and business performance. Keys to success include four constructs, namely top management support, quality planning, employee involvement and continuous improvement. These constructs are a series of chain, rather than parallel components.

This study constructs a conceptual framework that links the following key variables: top management support, quality planning, employee involvement, continuous improvement and firm performance. This study not only assesses the impact of these practices on firm performance, but also clarifies the process through which ISO 9000 implementation effects performance. Moreover, it provides an empirical framework for testing the well‐known PDCA cycle. The results should provide valuable information for dealing with similar managerial issues.

Continual improvement for competitive advantage is not the primary policy of organisations, either in theory or practice. A deductive rationale is presented for the emerging need to make “continual improvement for competitive advantage” the primary policy of any organisation. This is based on the inexorable acceleration of technical change and the Darwinian selective pressures of competition. Giving primacy to continual improvement naturally gives a different slant to company policies, strategies and objectives by subordinating them. Systematic continual improvement policy generates particular emphasis on people, planning, performance measures and procedures. Inductive study reaches similar conclusions but lacks the cogency of a rational framework. A continual improvement policy is a touchstone for the choice and use of planning and operational practices. A game plan for continual improvement is illustrated that integrates the planning, operation and evaluation of performance for the whole operation, its divisions and their personnel. The self‐assessment questionnaire technique offers a quick insight into an organisation′s preparedness for gaining competitive advantage through continual improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different dimensions of supply chain integration on performance, while considering both the interconnections between these supply chain integration dimensions and the effect of context. Specifically, the authors investigate the relationship between two enablers (communication infrastructure and cooperative behaviour) and two practices (planning information and joint improvement), and the moderating effect of supply complexity on their relationship with performance.

A survey among 145 Dutch and Spanish manufacturers is used to gather data on the buyer‐supplier relationship. Both the sample and two subsamples – for high and low supply complexity – are analysed using SmartPLS.

The paper finds that two dimensions – communication infrastructure and cooperative behaviour – enable the two collaborative practices: joint improvement and planning information. All mentioned supply chain integration dimensions, except joint improvement are related to performance, but specifically if the supply complexity is high. Among these dimensions the effect of cooperative behaviour is relatively high.

This paper adds to our understanding of how contingencies influence the supply chain. It is the first paper that investigates the moderating effect of the complexity of the process of delivery (supply complexity) on the effectiveness of supply chain integration practices.