Reactive planning in a Christian bureaucracy

Abstract

This paper is drawn from a field-based case study of the approach to planning and control and their environmental conditioners in the central offices of the Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. Its analysis is informed by grounded theory methodology and this first of two papers develops an understanding of this organization’s context, structure, management processes and planning orientation. Key external and internal environmental drivers: a community oriented culture, a consultative bureaucracy, a compliance oriented accounting system and increasing pressures upon organizational resources are identified and examined. These are found to produce a reactive style of planning which is primarily short term and resources oriented. The implications of an apparent strategic planning vacuum in such a not-for-profit organization are considered.