The challenge of changing federal management processes: implementation barriers relating to strategic planning and the government performance and results act

Getting the most bang for the taxpayer buck by bolstering federal agency accountability continues to be a political theme in the 21st century. The second round of strategic plan development mandated by Congress in the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) was recently completed. This article reports the results of empirical research diagnosing the implementation issues in GPRA requirements. This research reports on the efficacy of this process from the perspectives of agency representatives. Implementation issues are grouped into two broad categories; those associated with the organization’s structure and those concerned with the plan development process. This research suggests that the potential for alignment of key management systems is suspect given that institutionalization has not occurred after nearly five years of reform efforts. Reporting on federal agency efforts provides insight into barriers to and opportunities for improving GPRA implementation processes