Foresight: A link between policy intents and management reforms

Both policy implementation and administrative reforms have increasingly come to rely on "instrumental" management methods that fail to treat adequately cognitive biases, bureaucratic ritualism, co-ordination issues and political sensitivities. This paper explores the potential of exploratory, participative foresight as an alternative to instrumental methods, based on a research carried out in the Belgian penal justice system. The results illustrate possible contributions to policy coordination, organizational learning, strategic exploration and leadership.