A Methodological Approach for Effective and Sustainable Strategic Planning in Independent Authorities: The Case of the Hellenic Ombudsman

This paper aims to present the benefits of applying a methodological approach for the effective and sustainable strategic planning in Independent Authorities. The proposed strategic plan is to be adopted by an Independent Authority in Greece, the Ombudsman, which is a part of Hellenic Public Administration. The Bryson model of strategic public administration was selected. All the steps of strategic planning, strategy selection and strategy implementation, as well as the definition of operational objectives and how to monitor their achievement are presented in detail. The entire effort to implement the strategic planning is based on the statute 4369/2016, which, together with the statute 3230/2004, constitutes the institutional framework for the system of strategic administration and performance management in Hellenic Public Administration. However, the key reason for the decision to implement a strategic plan is the hypothesized Authority’s own willingness to improve its services and become more effective in the critical role it plays between the citizens and the public administration. An additional reason for this decision stems from the need for the Greek Ombudsman to overcome the increasing burden of the public demand for its services, as the open data analysis showed. The whole strategic plan development methodology constitutes from several models; each Bryson step may be assumed as a discrete method, as well as an implementation of crude qualitative and quantitative analysis, using SPSS and Nvivo software. Key role among the selected models has the Balanced Scorecard business model with regard to breaking down strategic goals to operational and individual goals as well as to developing measurement metrics. Furthermore, the idea of partnership is introduced; it is a methodological tool to expand the service network in terms of efficiency and may have the form of public-to-public or public-to-private. Partnership is a relatively new trend in the public management domain. The final outcome of the strategic planning methodology in the Greek Ombudsman is that according to the strategic mapping model, the focus should be placed on the citizen as a user of the services and the rest of the operational goals should be set in such a way as to allow and guide the Ombudsman’s services around the citizen’s needs.