International Journal of Commerce and Management

Strategic planning in emergent market organizations: empirical investigation

Hussam A. Al-Shammari Raef T. Hussein
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empirical investigation", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 18 Iss 1 pp. 47 - 59
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Strategic
Strategic planning in emergent planning
market organizations:
empirical investigation
47
Hussam A. Al-Shammari
Management Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA, and
Raef T. Hussein
Marketing Department, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
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Abstract
Purpose – This study is designed to examine strategic planning practices in Jordanian
manufacturing organizations (JMOs). Two issues are of primary concern here. The first is related to
the extent of using strategic planning in JMOs, while the second issue is concerned with the
infrastructure necessary to implement successful strategic planning.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via a questionnaire that was administered
to the CEOs of the 37 manufacturing firms included in this study. Out of the 37 questionnaires
distributed, 28 were returned representing a response rate of 76 percent.
Findings – Results reveal that 39 percent of JMOs are implementing strategic planning, whereas 61
percent are not. Results also indicate that while JMOs managers possess strong and positive attitudes
toward strategic planning; these attitudes have not been translated into real commitment. A low to
moderate level of commitment, low level of participation, and moderate strength of information system
are found in this study.
Originality/value – So far, only limited empirical research has been conducted to explore strategic
planning practices in Jordanian business organizations (JBOs). Our current study is among the
few pioneering studies that have contributed to the enhancement of our understanding of strategic
planning practices in JBOs.
Keywords Strategic planning, Business planning, Emergent strategy, Manufacturing organizations,
Jordon
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Complexity and dynamism have become the most differentiating aspects of today’s
business environment. The twentieth century, particularly its second half, has been
marked by unprecedented technological, competitive, political, social, and marketplace
changes that cut across the global business landscape. Middle East in general and
Jordan in particular are not isolated from such environmental turbulence. Over the past
two decades, dramatic changes occurred. Changes include Gulf Wars I and II, efforts at
political reform, trends toward privatization, the resumption of economic ties between
Jordan and Israel, the Jordanian-European partnership, the creation of qualified
industrial zones, and the American-Jordanian business partnership. International Journal of Commerce
These changes have presented many challenges that Jordanian Manufacturing and Management
Vol. 18 No. 1, 2008
Organizations (JMOs) cannot ignore or avoid. Recently, the pressures of pp. 47-59
democratization, deregulation, globalization, and privatization have led to the q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1056-9219
diffusion of strategic planning in developing and emerging economies. Over the past DOI 10.1108/10569210810871489
 IJCOMA three decades, empirical evidence has been accumulating supporting the crucial role of
18,1 strategic planning in enabling business organizations to achieve better and long-term
competitive position and performance (Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990; Glaister and
Falshaw, 1999; Kaplan and Beinhocker, 2003; Miller and Cardinal, 1994). However,
very little research on this subject is available with regard to the Middle East and
Jordan. So far, only limited empirical research has been conducted to explore strategic
48 planning practices in JMOs (Al-Shaikh and Hamami, 1994; Hamami and Al-Shaikh,
1995; Khan and Al-Buraki, 1992).
Given the above-glaring gap in knowledge about strategic planning practices of
Jordanian firms, the current study is designed to answer the following questions:
.
To what extent are JMOs making use of strategic planning?
.
Do JMOs have the necessary infrastructure to start a successful strategic
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planning process?

To accomplish the objectives of this paper, it is organized as follows. In the next section,
we first review the background of strategic planning in Jordan. In the third section,
we explain the operationalization of variables, sample and data collection, and inference
methods. In the fourth section, we present the empirical results. Finally, we conclude
with a summarization of findings, and suggest implications for future research.

Literature review
Limited empirical research exists that addresses the subject of strategic planning in the
Middle East and Arab World including Jordan. A review of the literature shows that
most of the research conducted on this subject has taken place in the Western World
and mainly in the USA and Europe (Ansoff et al., 1970; Armstrong, 1982; Miller and
Cardinal, 1994; Schwenk and Shrader, 1993). We were able to find three empirical
studies that were conducted in the Middle Eastern context. The first was by Khan and
Al-Buraki (1992), whose primary interest was to explore the extent to which planning
managers in Bahranian Business Organizations are aware of and making use of ten
strategic planning tools. Analysis revealed that the most widely used tools of strategic
planning are financial analysis (62 percent), SWOT analysis (55 percent), gap analysis
(21 percent), and space analysis (21 percent). In addition, it was found that financial
institutions in Bahrain are more inclined use strategic planning tools than their
counterparts in the manufacturing and service sectors.
Al-Shaikh and Hamami (1994) examined strategic planning practices of Jordanian
business organizations (JBOs). Various issues pertinent to strategic planning were of
primary concern in their study. Based on an analysis of 120 questionnaires returned,
the results of the study indicated the following:
.
Strategic planning is not a new phenomenon in JMOs and 65 percent of
responding organizations reported the use of strategic planning.
.
The use of strategic planning is more prevalent in older organizations than
newly established ones.
.
About 89 percent of the responding organizations had planning units where most
of them were directly managed by the CEO.
. About 66 percent of those who reported the use of strategic planning indicated
that the primary sources of their strategic plans are information from external
 environment, assessment of internal environment, and information from past, Strategic
present, and expected future performance. planning
In a follow up study, Hamami and Al-Shaikh (1995) conducted a survey to empirically
assess strategic planning phenomenon from the perspective of JMOs’ CEOs. Their
primary concern was to examine the relationship between some firm demographics
(age, size, and type of business) and the meaning assigned to strategic planning. 49
Results indicated that while managers of JMOs have shown positive attitude toward
strategic planning, 41 percent of them are not fully aware of the concept of strategic
planning. It was also found that the strategic planning process is centralized in the
hands of CEOs and board of directors. Further, strategic planning as perceived by
JMOs managers is more likely to emphasize financial issues than competitive, social,
and technological aspects of the business.
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The above-three pioneering studies have contributed to our understanding of

strategic planning practices in the Middle East. However, these studies have many
limitations. Khan and Al-Buraki (1992) concentrated their effort on examining the
degree to which organizations are aware of and use strategic planning tools. No attempt
was made to define the concept of strategic planning or assess its degree of use.
Al-Shaikh and Hamami (1994), Hamami and Al-Shaikh (1995) relied mainly on the
definition of strategic planning as a proxy to assess the process of strategic planning and
categorize organizations as strategic planners or non-strategic planners. The question
raised here is: does awareness of a particular concept imply its implementation? This
raises some concerns regarding the validity of such a measure to capture the
multidimensional nature of strategic planning process (Boyd and Reuning-Elliott, 1998;
Ramanujam et al., 1986). A comprehensive, multidimensional definition that
encompasses the essence of strategic planning is necessary to produce valid results.
The present study addresses this problem by using a multi-item instrument to assess
strategic planning has been widely used in past literature (Lindsay and Rue, 1980;
Robinson and Pearce, 1983).

Method
Population and sample
Jordanian manufacturing shareholding organizations listed in Amman Financial
Market constitute the population of this study. This population has been chosen due to
the important role it plays in the economy of Jordan. It accounts for 54 percent of the
total employment in Jordan. A total of 39 organizations were identified to
be appropriate for the purpose of this study. Out of this number, 37 agreed to
participate in the study.

Data collection method

Data were collected via a questionnaire that has been developed after a review of
related literature. The questionnaire was administered to the CEOs of the 37 firms
included in this study. Each firm was notified about the research project two weeks
before the data collection process started. A cover letter was sent to each firm followed
by a phone call. Respondents received the questionnaire at their workplace. Included
with each questionnaire was a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study
and emphasizing the confidentiality of responses for solely academic purposes.
 IJCOMA A total of 37 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 28 were returned
representing a response rate of 76 percent. These questionnaires self-administered.
18,1
Measures
Strategic planning. This study used a multi-item instrument that has been used
extensively in literature to measure various aspects of a firm’s strategic planning
50 (Table I). This multi-item measure incorporates the multidimensional nature of the
strategic planning construct and is believed to be more valid measure than just relying
on the familiarity of the conceptual definition of strategic planning utilized in
Al-Shaikh and Hamami (1994), Hamami and Al-Shaikh (1995). Therefore, this study
uses this instrument to classify surveyed organizations into three classes:
(1) non-strategic planners;
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(2) incomplete strategic planners; and

(3) strategic planners.

A multiple cut-off system is employed to classify sample firms into three classes. This
cut-off system was used in Lindsay and Rue (1980) and Robinson and Pearce (1983),
and has received wide acceptance in literature. According to this classification system,
each organization is given one point for every positive response on each of the eight
items in the measurement instrument. An organization is placed into the next lower
class if any of the requirements for a certain class is not met. For example, if an
organization responds positively on the first seven items and negatively on the eighth
item, it is classified as an incomplete strategic planner. This study adopts this
classification system so as to maintain consistency with previous research as it
represents a widely used and accepted measure in literature. Table I outlines this
classification system.
Strategic planning infrastructure. Four components of strategic planning
infrastructure are of interest in this study. These components are:
(1) recognition of the importance of strategic planning;
(2) top management commitment;

Class 1 Firm has no written long-range plan covering at least three years into the future
Class 2 Firm has a written long-range plan covering at least three years into the future
þ
Plan includes the specification of objectives and goals
þ
Plan includes the selection of long-range strategies
þ
Plan includes the determination of future resources required
Class 3 All of the requirements for Class 2
þ
Procedures for anticipating or detecting error in, or failures of, the plan for preventing or
Table I. correcting them on a continuing basis
Multiple cut-off system þ
used to classify Some attempt to account for factors outside of the immediate environment of the firm
completeness of strategic
planning process in JMOs Source: Lindsay and Rue (1980)
 (3) strong information system; and Strategic
(4) total involvement and participation of various management levels. planning
These items are measured as follows.
Recognition of the importance of strategic planning. A list of strategic planning
benefits is prepared and the CEOs were asked to express their attitude toward these
benefits. Their responses are solicited using a five-point Likert scale. Table II includes 51
items that reflect these benefits.
Top management commitment. Harman and McClure (1985) identified five key
indicators to measure management commitment to strategic planning. These
indicators are:
(1) written documentation of mission, objectives, plans, etc.;
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(2) update of planning documents;

(3) periodic review forms;
(4) presence of planner or planning staff; and
(5) clear budget to planning staff.

Following Harman and McClure (1985), we utilized these indicators to assess top
management commitment to strategic planning. Table III includes questions that
pertain to these indicators.
Information system. Harman and McClure (1985) listed three attributes that
encompass the attributes of strong and effective information systems. This includes:
(1) easy access to information;
(2) reliable and valid information; and
(3) clear linkage between information system and organizational activities,
objectives, and environment.

Item Strategic planning advantage

1 Helps in the growth and development of the firm

2 Puts the firm in a better competitive position
3 Contributes to better decision making
4 Helps the firm in entering new markets
5 Improves individual departments performance
6 Improves individual employee performance
7 Improves firm’s confidence in the work it performs
8 Helps in channeling joint efforts toward achieving desired results
9 Helps in introducing new and better products
10 Helps in securing better financing conditions
11 Increases employees awareness of their role in the firm
12 Helps in better use of external opportunities
13 Improves organizational commitment Table II.
14 Increases employees ability to work JMOs attitudes toward
15 Helps in attracting quality human resource strategic planning
 IJCOMA To assess the information system aspects in this study, these items are used. Table IV
18,1 includes these items.
Involvement and participation. To assess this component, JMOs’ CEOs were asked
to identify those who participate in developing firm’s plans and the extent of their
participation. This study utilizes the measure developed by Hamami and Al-Shaikh
(1995) to evaluate this component on a five-point Likert scale.
52
Analysis
Data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Descriptive
statistics were computed to gain a general understanding of the various aspects of
strategic planning practices in JMOs. This includes frequencies, cross tabulation,
means, and percentages. These statistics were also used for comparison across
different groups of planners. To test for the difference among strategic planning
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classes, a non-parametric, Kruskal-Wallis test was applied. Since the dependent

variable in these questions is measured using Likert scales, which are ordinal level of
measurement, the non-parametric technique of significance testing Kruskal-Wallis
H-test is considered an appropriate analysis technique (Mendenhall and Beaver, 1996).
It usually assesses whether a significant difference exists among different groups on a
specific factor of concern. The reliability of the measurement instrument is assessed
using Cronbach a. Cronbach a reliability coefficients are 0.85 and 0.91 for strategic
planning and its infrastructure, respectively, indicating a high level of reliability.

No. Item

1 The extent to which your organization keep written documents for the plans, objectives, etc. for
both the whole organization and its subunits
2 The extent to which your organization conducts a periodic review of the existing objectives and
plans of the organization
3 Based on your answer to Item 2, if the periodic review reveals some error or deviation, indicate
the extent to which your organization updates the plans and objectives based on the periodic
Table III. review
Top management 4 Is there any special unit in charge of planning in your organization? (Yes, no)
commitment to strategic 5 Is there a clear budget assigned to such a unit from the whole budget of the organization?
planning (Yes, no)

No. Item

1 The ability of the IS to provides easy access to information about the internal
environment (i.e. human resource, production, marketing, etc.)
2 The ability of the IS to provides easy access to information about the external
environment (i.e. competition, social, political, etc.)
Table IV. 3 The degree to which the IS provides reliable, accurate, and valid information
Information system 4 The ability of IS to integrate the organization’s different parts to function together
attributes toward accomplishing organizational goals
 Results Strategic
Results of the study in Table V reveal that out of the 28 organizations included in the planning
analysis, 39 percent can be considered as strategic planners. Surprisingly, on the other
hand, 61 percent of these organizations are not performing strategic planning, based on
their responses. This high percentage of non-strategic planners actually gives us the
impression that strategic planning has limited use in JOBs, unfortunately. With respect
to the time horizon covered in the plans developed by JMOs, figures presented in 53
Table VI indicate that 18 percent of JOBs are not engaged in any kind of written and
formal planning. Further, while 39 percent of these firms have plans that cover a time
period of three years and more, 43 percent prepare plans that cover one year or less.
JMOs’ CEOs attitude toward strategic planning is of primary concern in this study.
The particular interest herein is to find out the extent to which these CEOs recognize
the importance and merits of strategic planning. Results pertaining to this subject
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appear in Table VII. As one looks at these figures, the immediate impression would be
that JMOs managers hold strong and overall positive attitude toward strategic
planning. The responses mean on these 15 items ranges from 4.04 to 4.54, with an
overall average of 4.25. JMO managers strongly recognize the ability of strategic
planning in helping their organizations to grow, outperform, improve the quality of
their decisions, enter new markets, and attract quality human resources. In addition,
they perceive that strategic planning has beneficial effects at both departmental and
individual employee levels, in addition to organizational level. No significant
differences are reported between strategic planners and non-strategic planners with
regard to their attitude toward strategic planning as results in Table VIII tell.
The commitment of top management to the function of planning, in general, and
strategic planning, in specific, is of crucial importance to the adoption and success of
any planning effort. The results for the first three indicators of top management
commitment are reported in Table IX. This table indicates that a moderate level of
commitment is shown by JBO top management toward strategic planning. Mean scores
are 3.5, 3.57, and 3.64 for documentation, periodic review, and updating of mission,
objectives, and plans of the organization, respectively. The results for the remaining
two indicators of management commitment are less encouraging. Results in Table X

Code Class No. Percent

1 Non-strategic planner 17 61
2 Incomplete strategic planner 0 0 Table V.
3 Full strategic planner 11 39 Categorization of JMOs
Total 28 100 into planning classes

Code Time horizon No. Percent

1 Do not prepare written plan 5 18

2 Less than one year 1 4
3 One year 11 39 Table VI.
4 Three years or more 11 39 Time horizon of plans
Total 28 100 developed by JMOs
 IJCOMA
Item Strategic planning advantage Mean St.
18,1
1 Help in the growth and development of the firm 4.54 0.51
2 Put the firm in a better competitive position 4.5 0.51
3 Contribute to better decision making 4.39 0.63
4 Help the firm in entering new markets 4.32 0.67
54 5 Improve individual departments performance 4.29 0.53
6 Improve individual employee performance 4.29 0.53
7 Improve firm’s confidence in the work it performs 4.25 0.59
8 Help in channeling efforts toward achieving desired results 4.21 0.63
9 Help in introducing new and better products 4.18 0.67
10 Help in securing better financing conditions 4.18 0.72
11 Increase employees awareness of their role in the firm 4.14 0.67
12 Help in better use of external opportunities 4.11 0.8
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13 Improve organizational commitment 4.07 0.69

Table VII. 14 Increase employees ability to work 4.04 0.6
JMOs managers’ attitudes 15 Help in attracting quality human resource 4.25 0.84
toward strategic Total 4.25

Mean
Item Strategic planning advantage SP Non-SP x 2 value Sig. of x 2

1 Help in the growth and development of the firm 4.55 4.53 0.54 0.47
2 Put the firm in a better competitive position 4.66 4.45 0.01 0.93
3 Contribute to better decision making 4.55 4.29 0.85 0.36
4 Help the firm in entering new markets 4.55 4.18 0.16 0.69
5 Improve individual departments performance 4.27 4.29 2.70 0.12
6 Improve individual employee performance 4.18 4.35 0.00 1.00
7 Improve firm’s confidence in the work it performs 4.27 4.24 1.04 0.31
8 Help in channeling joint efforts toward achieving
desired results 4.27 4.18 0.04 0.84
9 Help in introducing new and better products 4.27 4.12 0.53 0.47
Table VIII. 10 Help in securing better financing conditions 4.00 4.29 0.33 0.57
JMOs managers’ attitudes 11 Increase employees awareness of their role in the
toward strategic firm 4.09 4.24 1.75 0.19
planning: comparison 12 Help in better use of external opportunities 4.40 4.10 0.25 0.62
between strategic 13 Improve organizational commitment 3.91 4.24 0.30 0.58
planners and 14 Increase employees ability to work 4.00 4.18 1.49 0.22
non-strategic planners 15 Help in attracting quality human resource 4.09 4.00 0.00 0.98
using Kruskal-Wallis test Total 4.35 4.22 0.98 0.32

No. Item Mean St.

Table IX.
Top management 1 Written documents (mission, objectives, plans, etc.) 3.50 1.26
commitment to planning 2 Periodic review forms 3.57 1.00
(Items 1-3) 3 Update of planning documents 3.64 1.06
 show that only 43 percent of respondents have planning department and staff assigned Strategic
to the planning function and 57 percent do not have such planning units. With respect planning
to budget, it has been found that only 11 percent develop specific budgets for the
planning function. The majority of these firms, 89 percent, do not have any budget for
planning, unfortunately.
Significant differences were also found between strategic planners and
non-strategic planners on the five indicators of management commitment. 55
Kruskal-Wallis analysis results indicate that strategic planners possess better
infrastructure when compared to non-planners. Their responses means are 4.36, 4.18,
and 4.27 on written documentation, periodic review, and update of planning
documents. When compared to non-strategic planners’ responses means of 2.94, 3.17,
and 3.24, these differences are significant at a 0.01 (Table XI). A similar pattern was
found with respect to planning staff and budget. The percentage of strategic planners
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who have planning staff and budget are more than non-strategic planners and these
differences are significant at a 0.01 and 0.05. Table XII reports figures relevant to these
two indicators.
Information is a basic input to any planning activity (Porter and Miller, 1985). A
strong strategic planning system is not likely to exist without a strong and capable
information system. To assess the capabilities of information system in JMOs, four

Yes No
No. Item No. Percent No. Percent Table X.
Top management
4 Presence of planer or planning staff 12 43 16 57 commitment to planning
5 Presence of planning budget 3 11 25 89 (Items 4 and 5)

Mean
No. Item SP Non-SP x 2 value Sig. of x 2

1 Written documents (mission, objectives, plans, etc.) 4.36 2.94 9.22 0.00
2 Periodic review forms 4.18 3.17 8.51 0.00
3 Update of planning documents 4.27 3.24 7.2 0.01
Note: Top management commitment to planning (items 1-3): comparison between strategic planners
and non-strategic planners using Kruskal-Wallis test Table XI.

Strategic planner Non-strategic planner

Yes No Yes No
No. Item No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent x 2 value Sig. of x 2

4 Planning staff 10 91 1 9 2 12 15 88 17.08 0.00

5 Planning budget 3 27 8 37 0 0 17 100 5.19 0.02
Note: Top management commitment to planning (Items 4 and 5): comparison between strategic
planners and non-strategic planners using x 2 test of difference Table XII.
 IJCOMA aspects are of concern in this paper. Table XIII summarizes the results of our analysis.
18,1 Results of analyzing JMO CEOs perceptions of information systems prevalent in their
organizations indicate that the ability of information system to provide easy access to
information about firm’s internal environment is higher than external environment.
Their mean responses are 3.93 and 3.18 for internal and external environment,
respectively. The ability of information system to provide valid and reliable
56 information tends to be moderate and the mean response on this item is 3.61. Also, a
moderate level is reported with respect to the ability of information system to integrate
and unify the various subsystems of the organization toward the accomplishment of
organizational objectives. The mean response on this variable is 3.46. No significant
differences are detected between strategic planers and non-strategic planners on any of
these indicators as can be seen from Table XIV.
Finally, involvement of employees at different levels of the organization in planning
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activities is critical to its success. To what extent JMOs involve their employees in the
development of plans represents one of the core dimensions of this paper. To assess
this level of involvement, JMO managers were asked to indicate who participates in the
development of plans and their level of participation. Then they were provided with
four possible participants and were asked to rate their level of participation. Results of
analyzing this dimension appear in Table XV. From this table, it is clear that two
participants are active in the development of plans in JMOs. Those participants are the

No. Attribute Mean St.

1 Access to information in internal environment 3.93 0.72

2 Access to information in external environment 3.18 0.82
3 Reliable and valid information 3.61 0.63
Table XIII. 4 Integration of firm’s subsystems toward goal
Information system achievement 3.46 0.74
attributes in JMOs Total 3.55 0.67

Mean
No. Attribute SP Non-SP x 2 value Sig. of x 2
Table XIV.
Information system 1 Access to information in internal environment 4.00 3.88 0.17 0.68
attributes in JMOs: 2 Access to information in external environment 3.27 3.12 0.39 0.53
comparison between 3 Reliable and valid information 3.82 3.47 2.32 0.13
strategic planners and 4 Integration of firm’s subsystems toward goal
non-strategic planners achievement 3.64 3.35 1.47 0.22
using Kruskal-Wallis test Total 3.68 3.46 1.3 0.25

Degree of participation
No. Participants Mean St.

1 CEO and board of directors 4.62 0.49

Table XV. 2 Special committee 4.04 1.00
Participants in strategic 3 External consultant 1.46 0.93
planning process in JMOs 4 All managerial levels 1.83 1.13
 CEO and a special committee primarily formed to perform this task. The means of their Strategic
level of participation are 4.62 and 4.04, respectively. Results also indicate that JMOs planning
rarely rely on an external consultant for their planning activities. Similar low level of
participation is reported for employees at other managerial levels other than the top
management level. The mean response for the use of external consultant and
employees at other managerial levels are 1.46 and 1.83, respectively. No significant
differences were found between strategic planners and non-strategic planners on this 57
dimension (Table XVI).

Discussion and conclusions

Results of the present study are not consistent with the findings of Al-Shaikh and
Hamami (1994), Hamami and Al-Shaikh (1995). In this study, it is found that 39 percent
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of JMOs are performing strategic planning, while in Al-Shaikh and Hamami (1994),
Hamami and Al-Shaikh (1995), it was found that 61 and 59 percent of JMOs were
implementing strategic planning. A possible explanation for this difference in the
results can be attributed to the difference in the measurement of strategic planning in
these studies. For example, in Al-Shaikh and Hamami (1994), respondents were asked
to indicate if their firms are making use of strategic planning and they used their
answer to this single question as an indicator of the presence and practice of strategic
planning. Similar strategy was employed in their study in (1995), where they relied on
the familiarity of JMOs with the concept of strategic planning as a proxy to classify
firms as strategic or non-strategic planners. In both studies, the researchers relied on
only a single indicator to measure strategic planning. In contrast, the current study
utilizes a multi-item instrument that has been previously used, tested and validated.
This multi-item measure enables the researcher in this study to assess the
multi-dimensional nature of strategic planning construct.
With respect to the availability of infrastructure necessary to the success of
implementing strategic planning, results provide several interesting insights. JMO
managers show strong and positive attitude toward the importance and necessity of
strategic planning. However, this strong attitude has not been translated to real
commitment toward its implementation. A moderate to low level of top management
commitment has been found this study. It is also found that strategic planners enjoy
better performance on these dimensions. Similar moderate level of effectiveness has
been reported in this study with respect to information system capabilities.
A high level of centralization in the strategic planning process was found in JMOs.
The primary participants in this process are the CEO and board of directors and a
special committee formed specifically for this purpose and headed by the top
management team in these organizations. Low levels of involvement are seen in this

Degree of Table XVI.

participation Participants in strategic
No. Participants SP Non-SP x 2 value Sig. of x 2 planning process in
JMOs: comparison
1 CEO and board of directors 4.64 4.62 0.01 0.91 between strategic
2 Special committee 4.27 3.85 0.59 0.44 planners and
3 External consultant 1.82 1.15 2.91 0.08 non-strategic planners
4 All managerial levels 2.18 1.54 1.32 0.25 using Kruskal-Wallis test
 IJCOMA study for employees at middle and lower levels in the organization. These findings are
18,1 not uncommon in JMOs, where traditional Arab management styles prevail. These
management styles are characterized by a high level of authority concentration in the
hands of top management and a low level of empowerment and involvement of
employees at lower managerial levels. Some scholars argue that this is consistent with
traditional Arab culture where authority is concentrated in the hands of the father in
58 family or the leader of the state (Al-Rasheed, 1994). To what extent this conjecture is
true or valid remains a controversial subject that needs more empirical investigation.
This study is not without limitations. The sample of this study is conducted limits
our ability to generalize the results of this study to other sectors of the economy.
Therefore, replication of this study in other industries such as banking and insurance
companies is an important avenue to enrich our understanding of this important
subject. The sample size of this study is also another limiting factor. Extending sample
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size in future research is another important area where the design of research settings
can be strengthened.

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Further reading
Al-Shammari, M. and Al-Shaikh, F.N. (1993), “Understanding commitment-effectiveness linkage:
the case of Jordanian banking sector”, Abhath Al-Yarmouk, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 9-24.
Armstrong, J.S. (1991), “Strategic planning improves manufacturing performance”, Long-range
Planning, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 127-9.

Corresponding authors
Hussam A. Al-Shammari and Raef T. Hussein can be contacted at: [email protected] and
[email protected], respectively.

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