Strategic Planning in an Accounting Department using Causal Maps and Cognitive Factions

Strategic planning can be a time-consuming task for academic departments. As such, an effective and efficient strategic planning approach is paramount. This paper presents a strategic planning approach using causal mapping to uncover the factors which faculty members believed would make their department (in the USA) more successful. The information gathered during the session was used as part of an AACSB accounting maintenance of accreditation process. The approach applied here elicits faculty involvement in ways which bring to the surface perspectives held by subgroups/factions of faculty. Additional perspectives are positive in a strategic planning context as they can contribute to devising strategies that might not have resulted by considering only majority views. Content analysis of the strategic plan suggests the range of views uncovered were integrated into the plan, including both the strategic factors and the relative importance of the factors.