Environmental Scanning Gaapifrs Clive Vlieland Boddy web ….docVIP

Environmental Scanning By James L. Morrison [Note: This text was originally printed as a chapter in A Primer for new Institutional Researchers and is reprinted here with permission from the Association for Institutional Research. The bibliographical citation is: Morrison, J. L. (1992). Environmental scanning. In M. A. Whitely, J. D. Porter, and R. H. Fenske (Eds.), A primer for new institutional researchers (pp. 86-99). Tallahassee, Florida: The Association for Institutional Research.] Issues Successful management of colleges and universities depends upon the ability of the senior leaders to adapt to rapidly changing external environment. Unfortunately, the lead time once enjoyed by decision makers to analyze and respond to these and other changes is decreasing. Traditional long-range planning models, with their inward focus and reliance on historical data, do not encourage decision makers to anticipate environmental changes and assess their impact on the organization (Cope, 1981). The underlying assumption of such models is that any future change is a continuation of the direction and rate of present trends among a limited number of social, technological, economic, and political variables. Thus, the future for the institution is assumed to reflect the past and present or, in essence, to be surprise-free. However, we know that this is not true, and the further we plan into the future, the less it will be true. What is needed is a method that enables decision makers both to understand the external environment and the interconnections of its various sectors and to translate this understanding into the institutions planning and decision-making processes. Environmental scanning is a method of accomplishing this. Brown and Weiner (1985) define environmental scanning as a kind of radar to scan the world systematically and signal the new, the unexpected, the major and the minor (p. ix). Aguilar (1967), in his study of the information gathering practices of managers, defin