Decision-Making Processes Employed in Strategic Planning of Land Bank of the Philippines: A Case Study

Abstract

As we approach the end of the 20th century, more and more challenges are facing today’s business corporations and other societal institutions considering the rate of change of technology. It is an environment of rapid change that planning should influence and control the direction of change for planning continually scans an organization’s internal and external environment so as to make adequate reaction to these changes. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shaped and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it. The purpose of strategic planning is to provide management with a framework in which decision can be made which will have an impact on the organization. At every stage of strategic planning process, decisions however are needed. Decision-making is the heart of strategic planning. A plan can not exist unless a decision is made. Likewise, without planning, no rational decision can be made. And an understanding of how these decisions are made and how they can be improved would greatly affect the stakeholders of an organization. It is therefore with these conditions that the researcher conducted a description of decision process in the context of strategic planning, having this as her general problem: How is decision making process done when conducting strategic planning in Land Bank of the Philippines. In order to answer the general problem the researcher has come up with these specific problem: (1) How is strategic planning done in the bank, (2) What is the decision making pattern of the planning group when conducting strategic planning, (3) What are the factors that affects the group decision making process of the group, (4) What are some of the decision making techniques employed by the planning group when conducting strategic planning. The focus of this research paper is the description of the decision-making process at the same time, also the described the strategic planning process of Land Bank. This study also aims to specify the decision making pattern of the planning group and determine the factors that affect the decision making group. Also this study would like to identify the decision-making techniques employed by the planning group. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, the researcher used the case study-descriptive type of study. An interview scheduled was set and 20 sets of questions were deployed. The findings taken from the analyses and interpretation of data were provided by the statistical treatment of ranking, frequency and percentage. The following were the obtained results which answered the objectives of this study: (1) Strategic planning in an universal bank such as Land Bank follow this ideal sequence of strategic planning activities: (a) Establishment of mission or concept of business (b) Preparation of the firms strengths and weaknesses (c) Preparation of environmental forecast (d) Identification of the opportunities and threats in the formulation of long term objectives (f) Statement of strategies (g) Formulation of policies and standard operating procedures and (h) Preparation of long term / annual budget. (2) The decision making process practiced by the respondents are as follows based on ranking: (a) Definition of the problem (b) Diagnose the cause of the problem (c) Specification of Objectives (d) Development of the course of action (e) Establishment of criteria (f) Appraise solution and (g) Implementation of the best alternative (3) The most influencing factor that affect the decision making of the respondents is the nature of the task at hand. This is followed by the culture / tradition of the organization and by the norms / culture / tradition of the group. (4) The decision making techniques employed by the respondents are the brainstorming techniques, the criteria rating technique and the paired choice technique.