Scenario Planning in Organizations How to Create, Use, and Assess Scenarios

While there are several books that cover portions of the topic of scenario planning, none of them cover it in its entirety. The key weaknesses shown in most competitive titles in publication: None address the complexity (practical and theoretical) of the scenario planning process. Recent books are edited volumes that do not incorporate a unified perspective and are rather disjointed collections of chapters unconnected from each other. None of the books currently available provide any mention of evaluative techniques. Thus, there are multiple gaps in the literature that remain unaddressed.This book will add important new knowledge and fill in the information gaps by providing a comprehensive view of scenario planning within the larger organizational and national contexts. The work will address scenario planning as a system itself, its role and connection to organizational strategy, and will provide discussion of the importance of theory and provide a theory of the system.The goal is a book that will discuss theory in a way that is useful to practitioners, describe research studies that bring academic rigor, and yet, also inform practice in that they demonstrate the effectiveness of scenario planning. Evaluating scenarios and scenario planning projects will also be discussed, as well as a phased process for conducting, managing, and framing scenario work. The key contribution of the proposed text is that it will genuinely bridge theory and practice, research and implementation, and generally serve as a text suitable for graduate courses, and thoughtful practitioners seeking understanding beyond a 'œhow-to'� manual.

Thomas J. Chermack is an Assistant Professor at the Colorado State University in the Organizational Performance and Change program. Chermack worked as a consultant with Personnel Decisions International for eight years leading efforts in training, change management initiatives, organization development interventions and high performance work team initiations.Tom is also the founder and managing partner of Chermack Scenarios, a scenario planning consultancy affiliated with the Centre for Innovative Leadership. He has authored over 50 research reports, and his research has appeared in scholarly publications such as Futures, Futures Research Quarterly, Human Resource Development Review, The Academy of Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies among others.

Foreword author Andrew H. Van de Ven is Vernon H. Heath Professor of Organizational Innovation and Change in the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota, and author of numerous books on Organizational Development.