Strategic Development in Higher Education: A Critical Systems Perspective

This paper addresses the question of what it means to adopt a systems approach to strategic development. It arose from reflection oil an ongoing case of an academic subject group from a UK business school, which has long been recognized for pioneering work in the field of systems thinking, using systems approaches in its own strategic development process. Critical reflection oil this example led to a shift in focus from thinking about how systems methodologies can be used to augment the strategic development process to consideration of why strategic planning has become so important in higher education establishments, such as universities, and the raising of important questions about the ontological status of the strategic development process. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Soils, Ltd.