Formulation and Monitoring of Strategic Plans in a public university: an analysis based on Strategy as Practice

Abstract This article seeks to analyze the strategic planning processes of four successive administrations of a Brazilian Federal Higher Education Institution (HEI). The roles of the Practitioners, Practices, and Praxis - concepts that constitute the Strategy as Practice view – are considered in each administration, in addition to organization's internal and external context for the analysis of each administration. An evolution on the development of planning processes throughout these subsequent administrations has been identified, which has gathered essential competences to implement such projects and customize the adopted practices to the studied institution’s specific context. However, what is actually implemented is posture-dependent of the deans and their teams. The three constructs are interdependent and compose a meaningful whole in the context of each administrative cycle, and its application enabled the proposition of a strategic planning process analysis script of the four studied administrations, stating it as the core result obtained by the performed research.