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Macroenvironmental Analysis forStrategic Management: Stakeholders’View of Ghana’s University Libraries

EDWIN ELLIS BADUDepartment of Information Studies (Formerly DLAS), University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana

This article assesses some political, cultural, technologicaland international issues believed to affect strategic manage-ment in Ghanaian university libraries. The external environ-ment of Ghana is perceived by some major stakeholders of

the libraries to be highly uncertain. The macroenvironment-al analysis of the strategic positions of the libraries is devel-oped through the identification of opportunities and threatsin the political and economic environments.

Introduction

Pearce and Robinson (1991) have defined strategicmanagement as “the set of decisions and actionsthat result in the formulation and implementa-tion of plans designed to achieve a company’s ob-jectives”. It comprises nine critical tasks:

• Formulate the company’s mission, including broadstatements about its purpose;

• Develop a company profile that reflects its intervalconditions and capabilities;

• Assess the company’s retrieval environment includingthe competitive and general contextual factors;

• Analyse the company’s options by matching the re-sources with the external environment;

• Identify the most desirable options, by evaluating eachoption in light of the company’s mission;

• Select a set of long-term objectives and grand strate-gies that will achieve the most desirable options;

• Develop annual objectives and short-term strategiesthat are compatible with the selected set of long-termobjectives and grand strategies;

• Implement strategic links by means of budgeted re-source allocations in which the matching of tasks, peo-

ple, structures, technologies and reward systems isemphasised;

• Evaluate the success of the strategic process as an im-pact of future decision-making.

As the nine tasks indicate, strategic manage-ment involves the planning, directing, organisingand controlling of a company’s strategic-relateddecisions and actions. An important aspect of thecontrolling function of a company’s strategy isthe fourth task, analysing the company’s optionsby matching its resources with the external envi-ronment. Macroenviromental analysis is thereforean integral part of systematic strategic manage-ment.

For many of today’s organisations, success orfailure, profit or loss, growth or decline, dependson how well they respond to macro social econom-ic, technological or political/regulatory changes –the external macroenvironment.

This study assesses the key issues in Ghana’smacroenvironment that affect strategic manage-ment in university libraries from the point of viewof stakeholders and decision makers of the uni-versity libraries.

Copyright Saur 2002_____________________________________________

LibriISSN 0024-2667

Libri, 2002, vol. 52, pp. 263–275Printed in Germany · All rights reserved

Dr. Edwin Ellis Badu, Department of Information Studies (Formerly DLAS), University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana,W/Africa. E-mail: ellisbadu@yahoo.com

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Methodology

A total of five university libraries belonging to thefive main well-established universities in Ghanaparticipated in the study. The libraries are rep-resented by UnivA, UnivB, UnivC, UnivD andUnivE. Data concerning the external (macro) en-vironment of Ghana in relation to the strategicplanning process were collected from key decision-makers (stakeholders) of the university librariesin 1996. Selection of subjects for the interviewswas made by preparing a list of potential inter-viewees that cut across every discipline and ad-ministrative position in the universities as part ofthe case study protocol. The list also provided anappropriate representation of decision-makerswith range of views relevant to achieving the ob-jectives of the study. Two representatives eachwere therefore selected from deans of faculties,heads of departments, lecturers, planning officers,librarians, registrars finance officers, universitystrategic planning committee members, and civilservants for Ministries of Education and Finance.A total sample of 85 major stakeholders was se-lected. The selection was in strict conformity toCresswell’s (1994) suggestion that in qualitativeresearch selection of subjects should be purpose-ful and informants should be subjects who willbest answer the research questions but no attemptshould be made to randomly select informants.Sixty-three of them were interviewed. The 22 whowere not interviewed were not available at thetime of interviewing.

Results

Political issues

Some of the most significant aspects of the externallibrary environments identified were central gov-ernment policies, university policies/faculty rela-tions, pressure/interest groups and competitors.

Government regulation and intervention in theGhanaian higher education system is not new.However, the scale of these interventions, the un-predictability of government policies and the de-gree of uncertainty were cited by the majority ofthe respondents across all the libraries as havingdominated the political scene, for example, onestakeholder from UnivC made the following re-mark:

All universities in Ghana are state owned and so the gov-ernment dictates to us what we should do. In fact thesedays government tells us who we can employ and whatprojects we can carry out. These situations have increasedover the years and we do not know what is going to hap-pen next. Most of these rampant interventions are un-necessary and are forced on us unexpectedly.

The impact of recent government educationalpolicies on strategy was assessed by the interview-ees as having been very negative. Most of themcommented on the government’s lack of consulta-tion with senior university staff on matters thatdirectly affected the universities and the lack ofparticipation of university staff in governmentdecision-making on higher education. In UnivBand UnivD and UnivE a highly significant numberperceived that government disregarded universityeducation because its educational developmentpolicies were directly in favour of non-universityeducation. The following statement made by astakeholder at UnivD illustrates this point:

Government has no goodwill for university education.All its policies are towards (Junior and senior secondaryschools) JSS and SSS. If it really cared about us it wouldhave seen to our demands for better university develop-ment. So this political aspect does not promote universitygrowth.

Several respondents particularly, those fromUnivA, UnivC and UnivE, commented that gov-ernment policies usually did not balance thenational interest with university interest and de-scribed policies as more security-centred and badfor universities. They expressed the view that re-cent funding policies for universities often threwtheir plans in disarray. Universities’ autonomy instrategic decision making has been eroded overthe recent years as central government has as-sumed full control over the operations and man-agement of the universities and other tertiaryinstitutions. The universities are now under thegeneral supervision, co-ordination and directionof the Ministry of Education. Central governmentnow expects to play a leading role in policy for-mulation for what were once regarded as univer-sity led operations. Tensions often occur betweenuniversity political culture and government poli-cies. There is therefore the need for university li-brarians to constantly monitor and manage theirrelationships with government officials as wasargued by one University Librarian:

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You have to know what government expects. You have toconsult the Ministry on decisions you intend to take evenlibrary acquisitions. The universities have a co-ordinatorat the Ministry acting between the two institutions andyou always need a nod from him to carry out any project.

The lack of effective opposition to the govern-ment’s policies was expressed by several inter-view respondents as a setback in turning thestrategy process to suit the external environment.

Further central government decisions havemade a direct impact on library development;throughout the universities, the effect of the Edu-cational Reform of 1990 has been felt through theimplementation of increased enrolment without acorresponding increase in university funding northe expansion of library facilities on the requisitescale. One effect of this has been the mistrust thatuniversity management has for government policymakers and vice versa as was expressed by onegovernment official:

… there is an uneasy relationship between governmentand the universities. There is a lot of mistrust and notuntil the right political atmosphere is created can govern-ment work hand in hand with the universities.

Certainly, the evidence from the present studysuggests that the Education Reform Act is likelyto further alter the already the dwindling finan-cial positions of the libraries and also alter thetenuous relationship between universities’ man-agement and the Ministry of Education authori-ties. Library services are now, more than ever,subject to the vagaries of central government di-rection. The form that strategic planing for univer-sity libraries take will depend on how effectivelythe librarians interpret the implications of thesepolicies when they are fully implemented.

Corporate politicisationWhatever the structural affiliation of the universityservices, it was felt by almost all the intervieweesacross all case study institutions that librarianshad to be able to ‘fight their own battles’ in thecorporate political environment. The general per-ception of the interviewees was that faculties’ at-titudes towards libraries were those of contempt,disinterestedness and apathy. The following re-mark made by a stakeholder at UnivA explainsthis issue:

You see some faculty members have funny ideas about li-braries and this clouds their attitudes towards the library.They think they are better off. They do not show any in-terest in library activities. They believe libraries are notworth considering in anything and they stay away fromthe library.

Corporate funding of university libraries hasbeen one activity that has always come under at-tack by central universities’ administration andby their Finance Officers. Whilst central govern-ment recommends that quite a substantial pro-portion of the universities’ budgets should beallocated to library service developments thelocal corporate view is that the funding of facultyoperations must take precedence over libraryfunding. One University Librarian argued theneed for university libraries to manipulate theirrelationships with corporate power brokers con-stantly:

When the subvention is received I have to move im-mediately to strike the necessary connections to see if wecan get something a bit more than the previous month’s.This I do regularly.

CompetitorsIt is unusual to think in terms of competition forlibraries but in the content of strategic planningtwo primary competitors were identified by mostof the respondents across all the five Ghanaiancase studies. The libraries of peer institutions, de-partment libraries and some special libraries werecited as competing for clientele, products and ser-vices. The respondents however believed that in-teractions and alliance selection of some of thesecompetitors could play a more central role instrategic decision-making, for example, the fol-lowing statement was made by one librarian atUnivA.

We do compete with all departmental libraries on cam-pus. We compete with libraries of Council for Scientificand Industrial Research (CSIR), the other research li-braries and Atomic Energy libraries. Our students gothere. We compare with the Agric. stations too resourcesthey all go there. We believe that these are healthy ri-valries and we hope to reach agreement with a selectednumber of them to strengthen our collections. If you readthe proposal I gave you it is al there.

Other competitors were identified as facultiesof the universities, central administration and

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computer centres. The interviewed respondentsfrom the libraries stated that they competed forfinance and technical equipment. The system ofallocation of university funds by competition wasconsidered as a threat because the respondentsfelt that other competitors from the central ad-ministration were also key players in allocationuniversity funds. Many from UnivA, UnivD andUnivE commented that it was very difficult andto some extent impossible to influence the decisionprocesses of these competitors which eventuallyaffects the libraries’ financial plans. The followingstatement that was made by a stakeholder illus-trates this:

I think the registry poses our biggest threat. They takeevery equipment that is meant for us. For instance takeour e-mail. It is in the central administration building notin the library though it was originally meant to be placedhere. When it comes to distribution of subvention, thosewho have the final say are all in management positions atthe central administration who are also fighting to get abig share. We try to lobby to overcome some of thesethings but like the e-mail and funds we have been un-successful and this equally affects our plans, I mean fi-nancial planning.

A considerable number of interviewees work-ing in libraries described their libraries as havingvery weak power bases (a power base consists ofthe resources, manager ’s reputation and relation-ship with other managers, that gives them theability to convince others to go along with theirideas) and they believed this inability of theirleaders to influence university power brokers andto compete effectively for resources had affectedmost strategic decisions on library development.One respondent described library leadership asbad and commented that:

If you look at the library at … it has a strong leader sothat library gets what it wants. I think that a university li-brarian’s position and the way he is respected in the en-tire university has a lot to do with his ability to demandfrom the authorities what due to the library and this hasaffected most decisions taken about this library. In fact Iwill say there is bad leadership.

Economic issues

Ghana’s university education and university li-brary services have in the past regarded as mod-els for other African countries. The resource baseand governments’ support were remarkable.However, times have changed. Following a string

of political upheavals. Ghana has joined the chainof other African countries noted for political in-stability with their revolutionary changes of gov-ernment.

Such political activities have had a devastatingeffect on the economic environment, which thepresent civilian government is grappling with byadopting a number of economic measures such asa Recovery Programme.

Underdeveloped economyThough there has been some important in someof Ghana’s economic indicators such as an increasein GDP, the economy still bears the hall mark ofan underdeveloped nation, with a rise in popula-tion, low standard of education, general shortageof transportation and the lack of commercial baseand little or no change in the standard of living.

The majority of the major stakeholders re-marked that the government’s economic meas-ures have not had any significant impact on theway of life of many Ghanaians and that the eco-nomic environment continued to be unfavourableto the development of universities and their li-braries. The following statement made by a stake-holder explains this issue:

Well, the economy according to the statistician is im-proving. Rise in GDP and so on but as for the living stand-ards. I don’t see any change and as far as the universityand the libraries are concerned the impact is still not felt.I think the economy is still not favouring us.

Depreciation of the national currencyA crucial factor in the economic performance ofthe country and one which was assessed by a con-siderable number of the interviewees particularlythose at UnivA, UnivB, UnivC and UnivE, asmaking organisation-level strategic decisions sub-ject to great uncertainty is the volatility of foreignexchange rates. The value of the Ghanaian cur-rency relative to other major world currencieswas seen as affecting decisions on many businesstransactions. The daily deterioration of the valueof the local currency, the cedi, was remarked onby the respondents as providing less financial in-centives for acquisition librarians to purchasefrom foreign sources and to pay for interlibrarycharges, for example, one respondent remarkedas follows:

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The cedi is depreciating on a daily basis. When our li-brarians have to order from overseas the exchange ratechanges by the time they put their orders through. It isdiscouraging for orders outside this country. It really [im-pacts] our orders and the payment of our British libraryinterlibrary loans. Many of our plans have been badly af-fected because of this.

Low salaries and wagesAll the interviewees described salaries and wagesas very low. The reasons for this however weremixed. Some interviewees felt the weak base ofthe country, particularly random inflation, affectedtheir purchasing power considerably. Others con-sidered it more of a social problem whilst severalalso cited the usual political line attributing poorsalaries and wages to the poor government-uni-versity relations. Whatever the reason of the stake-holders for poor remuneration in the universities,the effect on work was seen as demoralising andan impediment to effective strategic planning.

The interview respondents who were mainlyadministrators reiterated further that morale wasvery low which they attributed to the lack of mo-tivation. They commented that workers put in lesseffort in their work now than before because therewards of work no longer satisfied the workers’need for security, social esteem and self-actualisa-tion. The lack of motivation according to all therespondents who were administrators has re-sulted in undesirable worker behaviour, particu-larly among the junior staff which they felt hadmade most of the university staff non-achievers.The following statement made by one of them il-lustrates this issue:

… in spite of the poor salaries we try to do our best. Thesalaries are too low and this is not helping workers’ mo-rale. So how do you fault someone if he is not giving ofhis best?… I don’t see it as social problem, it is economicand it is no wonder the junior staff in particular and evenlecturers cannot afford the basic necessities of life in orderto make their families survive and live as respectable hu-man beings … They have resorted to all kinds of ways tosatisfy this psychological need…

The issues discussed so far show that the eco-nomic context of the external environment is im-portant. Many of the factors were found to impedeorganisational performance and hence the strategyprocess. Library services are vulnerable to eco-nomic opportunism and the fluctuations of the

Ghanaian economy have had devastating conse-quences for university library services and de-velopments.

Socio-cultural issues

According to the major stakeholders, the citizensof the country hold universities in Ghana in highesteem and the populace had always been sym-pathetic to the causes of universities when theyhad to resort to confrontation with the govern-ment to redress grievances. The recognition of theimportant of universities by Ghanaians and thesupport universities usually get in time of govern-ment-university conflicts were remarked on byseveral of the respondents.

If … you look at our strike action despite governmentpropaganda against universities the population was be-hind us. They believe universities are important and wepresent the hope of this country so they were in agree-ment with our demands for more money.

University education according to many of therespondents in UnivB. UnivC and UnivD wereviewed by many Ghanaians as a social need andthe demand for university education had alwaysbeen on the increase. In the opinion of the re-spondents, universities in Ghana are consideredas elite and reputable institutions with the fullgoodwill of the civilian population. The librariansamongst the interviewees particularly remarkedthat this was significant for future income-gen-erating activities, as they would have the public’ssupport.

Several social forces were discussed by theinterviewees as a reflection of the growing impactof social pressures on corporate performance. Thelow status of the library profession in universityenvironments was viewed by most of the re-spondents who were library workers as havingdeeper roots in the Ghanaian socio-cultural en-vironment where there is no clearly enunciateddefinition of the basic purpose of libraries. Publiclibraries exist because they were established bythe former colonial power and continue to existas symbols of modern society. However the re-spondents remarked that no attempt had beenmade to redefine the role of libraries and theirfunctions within the context of an independentGhana seeking to achieve socio-economic growth.The following remark illustrates this point:

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When I use to work in the public library in the old dayswe had defined roles and things went very well. After in-dependence our public libraries deteriorated and nothingnew has been done. Libraries have not been properly de-fined to reflect the country’s attempts at solving socio-economic problems. Most public libraries are empty, nobooks.

Several of the respondents continued that theinfrastructure for library and information workwas poorly developed as a result of the poor ap-preciation of the value of information as a re-source by the Ghanaian authorities.

Generally libraries and other information centres are notregarded as important by the powers that be and this hasaffected the development of library facilities in general. Ifyou go to Britain even tiny villages have libraries. Theystill have mobile libraries for places where there are notlibraries.

A remarkable number of the interviewees alsofelt that the basic need for housing, good water,roads and educational facilities always tookprecedence over libraries on the part of govern-ment and policy makers, as well as the generalGhanaian public.

Government and all those in positions of authority espe-cially Ministry of Finance and so forth believe providingthe basic necessities such as electricity, water, roads andschools are more important than libraries so the librariesremain underdeveloped.

The Ghanaian educational system was also dis-cussed as a social factor by the major stakeholderswho were also librarians. They commented thateven though the country had university and spe-cial libraries, the historical weakness of public andschool libraries had meant that the majority of itscitizens had not included library use in their edu-cational process. The educational system accord-ing to the interviewees affects this reality, makingit difficult to distinguish cause from effect; theeducational system focuses on instructions ratherthan formation, a situation that generates studentswho are more receptive than creative. One uni-versity librarian commented that this situationwas worsened by the poor reading habits of youngpeople and that the newly admitted undergradu-ates considered university libraries as corner gro-ceries where they bought what was needed forimmediate consumption. She reiterated that thelibrary as an organisation that contributes to re-

flection and self-education must yet be discoveredin the country.

… our educational system hasn’t helped either, the youthtoday do not like to read but listen to pop music. Theyconsider libraries as a place just like a corner shop whereyou go to buy what you need, use it and that is that ...what is lacking in the country is that people do not seethe library as a place where one seeks to develop himself.They only see it as a place to pass exams after that nomore libraries…

Almost all the respondents who were librarystaff commented on the impact of the weaknessesof school and college libraries on university li-brary development. The immense impact in theirview is in the training of users, which takes up aconsiderable part of the university libraries’ hu-man resources, and in personnel recruitment.Much staff time is spent on user instruction at theexpense of more important professional librarywork.

Our school and college libraries are not strong enough.When the first year students enrol they do not know howto use the facilities here so we have to spend loss of stafftime repeatedly to explain our operations and how to usecatalogue whilst other more important jobs suffer.

The absence of a national library was also per-ceived by many of the library staff as a social setback which affects university library development.This, they remarked, affects the strategic allianceof university libraries and other types of librariesas the function of a national library as the co-ordinator of library co-operative activities is lack-ing:

We don’t have a national library so that motherly func-tions of co-ordinating all activities of the various librariesis lacking and this affects networking.

Aspects of organisational behaviour of univer-sity staff were linked to the external socio-culturalcontext, especially the beliefs, values and norms,which workers bring with them to the work place.The lack of commitment to work by Ghanaianworkers was commented upon particularly byrespondents at UnivA, UnivB, UnivC and UnivD.They were of the opinion that most workers inpublic organisations did not regard work as acentral life interest and that their behaviour wasin conflict with role expectations. This behaviour,according to some of the interviewees, had be-

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come an accepted norm in many organisationswhilst a second group linked it with the currenteconomic difficulties in the country:

Workers’ attitudes to work in public services is not en-couraging but then in Ghana, most public servants be-lieve their work does not pay enough. So many people donot give of their best and it is somewhat accepted andmost people are carrying on with it.

Attitude to work, the government sector. In private sectorit is quite different. That is the number one factor. Wehave to change our attitude to work… we seem to believethat government work should be done anyhow. Peopleare not dedicated to what they do. They do not take goodcare of working materials, they do not do what they areexpected to do. Of course it goes back to the economicproblems. If people are well paid and their efforts arevalued then they will put in a lot. If salaries are not good,they get frustrated and get other incomes at he expense ofwhat they do at their main jobs.

Technology issues

The respondents across all the case study institu-tions in Ghana recognised the significance of na-tional technology infrastructure to library servicedevelopment. They expressed various views onthe technological changes going on global and thesignificant implications for library expansion andgrowth and the improvement they can make toservices. For example, they cited the use of hightechnology for publishing, Internet, diversity incomputer use, the departure from mainframecomputers and electronic libraries.

The challenge though, according to the majorityof the respondents, lies not only in the pace, di-versity and rate of change but also in the scale ofcorporate and national response needed to keepabreast of these changes:

I believe our institutions have not responded well tothese advances in modern technology. Nationally wehave not done enough though one may argue that we arebetter off than some other developing countries. That isnot the issue here. We need to develop our technology inorder to catch up as these changes are going on fast in thedeveloped countries.

Several interviewees particularly those work-ing in Ghanaian university libraries further re-marked that the success of modern libraries liesvery much in the networks and the mechanismsto which they have access. In this regard, re-spondents commented that libraries depend on

the technological infrastructure of their countriesbut found that of Ghana very poor.

Our technological base is poor. Libraries need to link upwith other libraries but this is not a reality here becausethe national technology infrastructure is weak we don’thave enough telephones.

A number of reasons were given as to whythere is a low level of technology application inthe country. The most frequently cited was ig-norance of the suitable technology on the part ofthe authorities who are responsible for providingit. Also near the top of the list is the traditionalunder-investment in technology in favour of in-vestment in other sectors of the economy.

From time immemorial, this country has not invested intechnology sufficiently. We do not value technology aswe do the other sectors such as agriculture and educationbut if we developed this well, education can be im-proved.

Several of the respondents also reported on thenational electricity supply, which is solely de-pendent on hydroelectricity. In the dry seasons,the lake dries to low levels and cannot producethe country’s supply. This situation has often re-sulted in the rationing of electricity in the coun-try, which usually results in most organisationsnot having power for a considerable number ofdays. One university librarian remarked on its ef-fect on the use of electrical equipment such ascomputers:

The electricity supply in the country has always been aproblem. In the Harmattan season when the Volta Lakedries up, electricity is rationed and this affects the use ofour computers and many electrical appliances.

The introduction of Internet was hailed by allthe respondents as a national strength becausemany organisations, particularly private busi-nesses, have joined the information superhigh-way but its use in universities is hampered byinsufficient PCs, as one interviewee commented:

Joining the Internet is remarkable indeed and ideal forwork. Its use in business in particular is very good butI’m afraid because we do not have many PCs to go roundits use in the university. I must say is very minimal.

On the corporate level, many of the respondentsat UnivA, UnivB and UnivE cited institutional

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resistance to change in anticipation of any large-scale automation of services. One major stake-holder warned that those employees who wereused to performing traditional tasks might feelthreatened by the introduction of computers andthat any technology strategy must take this intoaccount.

People are used to the way things are done here. Theymay feel their positions are threatened so if we are plan-ning large-scale automation we have to take all this intoaccount.

It must be mentioned here that it was observedthat across all the case study institutions the ma-jority of respondents in Ghana especially the non-library workers, had very few views on the impactof technology on the environment especially inthe context of university libraries. Their responses,which are not presented here, did not indicateany depth of understanding of the subject. Un-doubtedly though, if university librarians are toplan effectively for the survival of their libraryservices as well as for service development, thenmonitoring the technology environment, evenglobally, and adopting an external focus to infor-mation gathering to aid strategic management de-cision-making will become increasingly relevant.

International issues

The activities of international bodies such as theInternational Monetary Fund, World Bank, em-bassies, European Union and many other donoragencies were seen by most of the respondents aspresenting opportunities and threats to strategicplanning in university libraries in Ghana.

The concept of strategic formulation in publicorganisations was viewed by almost all the in-terviewees as the brainchild of international or-ganisations. They commented that planning hadenabled many organisations, especially universi-ties, for the first time in their histories, to makeplans that detailed their medium or long-termobjectives; and they were able to assess the im-pact of achieving those objectives within the con-text of the development process of the country.

The whole idea of strategic planning in the universitiesand other institutions was modelled by the donor agen-cies. This I must say has helped many institutions to setmedium and long-term goals and within the national de-velopment culture have tried to achieve them.

In UnivA, UnivB and UnivC many of the re-spondents commended on the activities of for-eign consultants for assisting with the country’seconomic recovery programmes. They remarkedthat the slight improvement in GDP and otherindicators are consequences of internationalinvolvement in the country’s financial strate-gies.

The little improvement you see in the economy lately hasbeen a result of the activities of the World Bank consul-tants. Take GDP and others which is now in positive fig-ures. It is because of the financial activities of these con-sultants.

In UnivA, UnivC, UnivD and UnivE all therespondents who were library staff reported theirreliance on donations of bibliographic materialsfrom international bodies. They found their re-lationships with these bodies as vital to collectionmanagement.

Our association with bodies like British Council, Ran-furly, AAA have helped us to maintain some levels of ac-quisitions. Just last year when we could only afford tobuy a few books we had to rely on British Council dona-tions to keep up.

Despite the contribution to the development oflibrary services, several of the respondents how-ever reported having received materials as dona-tions from some of these international bodies,particularly from the Eastern bloc countries:

The problem with some of these donations is that some-times they are not relevant to academic work especiallybooks we received in multiple copies on Chairman Maoand others.

Some economic uncertainties were also believedto have been caused by some international bodiesas was remarked by many of the respondents.They remarked that some of the changes in eco-nomic circumstances of the country, a result ofpressure by some international organisation havesometimes created unpredictable situations whichaffect carefully worked out plans of many organi-sations in the country. They remarked furtherthat the country is sometimes put under pressureby donor countries to pursue harsh economicmeasures, which the Ghanaian government iscompelled to comply without objection so as toattract more support for development. They citedsome of these measures as devaluation of the na-

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tional currency and cuts in the budgets of manypublic organisations such that of universities.

IMF policies such as devaluation and budget cuts forpublic services such as universities have been forceddown the throats of our government which relies on theircontinuous support to survive. It does whatever IMF sayswithout putting up a fight. Some of these measures bringuntold hardships to the people of this country.

Environmental scanning

The issues discussed on the various segments ofthe external environment reveal a number ofwarning signals of changes taking place or yet tocome in the Ghanaian macro-environment. Acareful monitoring of these issues may lead tosignificant organisational opportunities or theidentification of potential threats in time to takeaction to mitigate the effects on strategic planningin the university libraries. By so doing the librar-ies can make strategic decisions that keep them inequilibrium with the Ghanaian environment.

A key tool that can help an organisation sur-vive rapid change in the macroenvironment is en-vironmental scanning (also called issues scanningor issues management). Unfortunately, the strate-gic plans of the university libraries in Ghana arebased on the predictive and mathematical modelscharacteristics of the earlier view on long rangeplanning (e.g. Porter 1985). Despite the awarenessof the tumultuous uncertainty of social, economic,political, technological and international forcesthat have changed the game for most organisa-tions in Ghana, the planning efforts of the librar-ies studied in Ghana have not adapted to dealwith these changes. Collectively the impact ofthese forces do not dominate corporate thinkingas the evidence shows that a high percentage ofthe respondents believe strongly that economicand political issues need to be dealt with mostlyin the environment as shown in Table 1. Thisshows the result when the major stakeholderswere asked to indicate how many factors the li-braries would need to deal with in the externalenvironment.

The qualitative study indicated the need to ex-plore further the constraints that have preventedthe libraries from scanning the environment.

The interviewees were therefore asked whytheir libraries did not scan the environment.Across the five case study libraries in Ghana,

there were few differences in the responses. How-ever, differences in opinions amongst major stake-holders roles emerged. Those who took part inproducing their organisation’s strategic plans pre-sented mixed reasons why environmental scan-ning was not part of their strategy process. Asection of them reported that university librariesin Ghana were relatively small entities within theexternal environment and therefore felt thatforecasting future trends in the environment wasappropriate or even feasible. They believed thatenvironmental issues were relatively remote fromlibrary development.

Another group of strategists also commentedthat their libraries lacked the necessary resourcesto carry out a thorough analysis of the wider en-vironment:

We didn’t scan the environment because it is too broadand we didn’t have e means to do so.

Others who took part in drawing the plans alsoremarked that their libraries’ strategic plans werebased on guidelines, which were handed over tothem by the central university administration.They believed that the final document bore thevalue and perceptions of senior university man-agers without any assessment of the environment.

Another group of major stakeholders who werenot members of the strategic planning committeesdid not see the usefulness of assessing a widerenvironment, which they believed they knew littleabout and also found to be notoriously difficultto try to forecast the future:

The issue we are talking about here is not easy to search.They are very difficult or even notoriously difficult toforecast. These are events that change per minute. It isnot easy.

Table 1. Environmental Factors that should be dealt with._________________________________________________________________________________

VeryFew

BetweenVery Fewand About

Middle

AboutMiddle

BetweenAbout Middle

and VeryMany

VeryMany

TotalN=63

____________________________________________________________Factor % % % % % %____________________________________________________________Eco-nomic

0.0 0.0 9.8 32.8 57.4 100.0

Political 0.0 0.0 33.3 0.0 66.7 100.0Socio-cultural

0.0 13.3 20.0 26.7 40.0 100.0

Inter-national

13.3 0.0 46.7 20.0 20.0 100.0

Techno-logical

6.7 20.0 20.0 26.7 26.7 100.0

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The various views expressed by the differentmajor stakeholders indicate the lack of environ-mental assessment culture in the university li-braries in Ghana. Though it is very difficult tomake a comprehensive assessment of the widerenvironment, the responses suggest that the cruxof the problem is the fact that assessment of theexternal environment has not been considered anessential component of the strategy process. Theindividual issues in the wider environment arewell known to a considerable number of re-spondents but the methods of understanding thenature of these issues and using them as inputsinto management thinking about future strategicdecision making is completely non-existent.

Summary

The data on the external context of the Ghanaianenvironment revealed a tumultuous uncertaintyof political, economic, social, technological andinternational issues. A range of specifics wasfound to affect the development of strategic plan-ning. Perhaps the only somewhat surprising find-ing was the relatively low emphasis giventechnological issues and the relationship betweennational and university library development bythe major stakeholders who were not librarians –surprising, that is, when one considers the nowglobal mantra of ‘technology as the key to de-velopment’. Possibly, however this is a change innational emphasis that has yet to be played out.

Some of the findings about the relationshipbetween a university library and its remote en-vironment as revealed in this study support quitea number of past studies, particularly, universitylibraries in developing countries and also, to afair extent, corroborate evidence from literatureon the Ghanaian macro-environment. For exam-ple, Franco (1995) in a study of human resourcesin the library system of the Pontifical CatholicUniversity of Chile (SUBC) made several ob-servations that confirm some of the findings inthis study. On the socio-cultural dimension shealso found out that there was a negative impactof historical weaknesses of public libraries andschool libraries on university library developmentin Chile, exacerbated by poor reading habits ofthe young. Like this study Franco (1995) alsofound the positive or negative effects of monetaryexchange policies and the markets on the biblio-

graphic materials acquisition budget of her uni-versity library. She highlights stringent customslaws and regulations and their negative impacton collection development of SIBUC.

This study has also supported results in researchon planning in developing countries, for exampleas regards several factors that differentiate theplanning environment in developing countriesfrom that of developed countries as identified byFlores (1972), Adegbite (1986), Fubara (1986) andMrema (1987). Such factors include the absence oftechnology required to systematically monitor theexternal environment and collect needed data, ahighly unstable economic and political environ-ment, the absence of technological infrastructureand the lack of political will for information-re-lated development.

The findings of the present study also supportthe findings of management research in the trans-ferability of management theory and practicesdeveloped in western economies to other coun-tries. The findings of Kiggundu, Jorgensen andHafsi (1983) that managerial activities concerninghow the organisation relates to its environmentwere difficult to transfer from western economicsto developing countries are corroborated by thisstudy. The findings of the survey on the externalenvironment from the major stakeholder perspec-tive developed further the character of strategicdecision-making in Ghana and university librar-ies in particular. It is evident that the economicand political factors were the most dynamic andmost hostile of all the five environmental seg-ments of political, economic, socio-cultural, tech-nological and international.

The perceived high level of environmental un-certainty in the political environment in thisstudy is centred primarily on government regula-tions and interventions. This however has beenthe norm in the history of the universities inGhana but the present university workers havealways opposed every new policy of the presentgovernment. What is new here is the degree ofuncertainty that the libraries are encountering inother areas – uncertainty as to closures of librariesbecause of a striking pressure group, uncertaintyas to the future balance between national anduniversity interests as government attempts torevamp the economy, uncertainty as to continuouscompetition between libraries and other depart-ments of the universities for limited resources and

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the gradual erosion of the powerbase of the librar-ies that prevents them from competing effectivelyfor these resources. Indeed, it is these factors inthe political scene that make the environment un-stable and unpredictable. The ‘power shift’ in therelationship between universities and governmenthas been probably the most profound unsettlingto universities since it entails simultaneously, thefunding regulations, increased interventions andheightened government expectations of corporateperformance.

The economic environment was characterisedas discouraging any future-oriented and risk-re-lated decisions (Boist and Child 1988). In additionto traditional concerns about the underdevelopedeconomy of Ghana, the rampant inflation in thelast two decades affects the purchase of books andperiodicals. Wright, Kroll and Pernell (1996) havehighlighted the main constraining effect of high in-flation rates on business and the strategy process.

The volatility of foreign exchange rates wasalso found to affect strategic decisions of the librar-ies. In a similar study Wilson (1994) also foundthe negative effect that the volatility of foreignexchange rate has on industry restructuring thatrequires a shift in strategic management’s focus,emphasis and methodologies to speed the processof corporate adaptation to these changes. Ferguson(1992) writes that the daily deterioration o thevalue of the local currencies of most developingcountries against other international currenciesmakes the future far less predictable and difficultto implement rationale strategic planning. In thisstudy it was revealed that the effect of the de-preciation of the local currency has affected uni-versity libraries’ international orders.

As the political and economic environmentshave proved in this study to be major sources ofuncertainty for the university libraries in Ghanaand planners in Ghana at large, future plannersmust be responsible for identifying external op-portunities and threats, implementing strategicchanges and achieving the organisation/environ-ment alignment. Miles, Snow and Pfeffer (1974)also theorise that managers respond primarily towhat they perceived. Strategic action is depend-ent upon perceptions and interpretations of theenvironment (Schneider and DeMeyer 1991).

The perceptions and interpretations are, subject to in-fluences at multiple levels of analysis, e.g. individual

characteristics, group process an environmental context(Hambrick and Mason 1984; Miller 1993). It was found inthis study that despite the awareness of the uncertaintythat has characterised the strategic decisions of the majorstakeholders, a result of environmental turbulence par-ticularly in the economic and political spheres, they havenot responded or interpreted these changes in their en-vironment.

The study further revealed that environmentalissues are not considered important to organisa-tional performance and university and librarymanagement have not shown any interest inthem, a situation which itself creates a high per-ceived environmental uncertainty. Miliken (1987)states that, in practice, perceived environmentaluncertainty exists when decision-makers do notfeel confident that they care or understand whatthe major events or trends in an environment are,or when they feel unable to accurately assignprobabilities to the likelihood that particularevents and/or changes will occur.

Information from important sectors of the en-vironment may become a source of competitiveadvantage (Dutton and Freedman 1984). In a sec-tor of high performance, external events are alsoperceived to be directly linked to operational per-formance. According to Daft, Sormunen andParks (1988), perceived sector performance trans-lates into strategic uncertainty. In essence, stra-tegic uncertainty reflects the strategic value ofenvironmental information for organisationalperformance. The combination of perceived en-vironmental uncertainty and sector importance isexpected to generate a need for the librarians andto a greater extent the university administratorsto scan events in selected environmental sectors –the political and economic. Environmental scan-ning is the means through which managers per-ceived external events and trends (Hambrick1982; Culnan 1983). Following Daft, Sormunenand Parks (1988), top executive scanning frequen-cy is believed to have a positive relationship withperceived strategic uncertainty across environ-mental sector.

One constraining aspect of environmental scan-ning as found in this study is that the major stake-holders perceived environmental scanning as adifficult organisational process because the envi-ronment is complex and they experience boundedrationality-that is, they cannot comprehensivelyunderstand the environment (Cyert and March

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1992). Others also claimed that the libraries ontheir part lacked the capacities to analyse the en-vironment. That is why the findings of this study-the political and economic sector importance inthe Ghanaian external environment must be takenseriously as posing the most threat to universitylibrary development, so they ought to choose thesesectors among scanning alternatives. The selectionof a given scanning mode by sector executiveshowever is conceptualised as being critically in-fluenced by perceived strategic uncertaintyacross sectors (Daft, Sormunen and Parks 1988).

The librarians will have to avoid temporary ap-proaches that postpone the inevitable adjustmentneeded to gain and keep strategic fit. Hunger andWheelan (1995) advise against three basic orien-tations – avoidance (ignore or hide), react (react,reorganise or follow the leader) and influence(advertise, lobby, co-opting). Instead libraries willhave to anticipate future developments by plan-ning strategically. This involves the macro-environmental analysis of the strategic positionof the libraries through the identification of op-portunities and threats in the political and eco-nomic environments, particularly governmenteducational reforms, legislation and employment,strength of the Ghanaian currency, import dutiesetc. The data gained may be considered in con-junction with the internal strategic capabilities ofthe libraries as a useful input into managementthinking about future strategic decision-making.

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Editorial history:Paper received 12 March 2001;Final version received 31 July 2002;Accepted 1 August 2002.