Abstract
Purpose of study. The purpose of the present study was to survey all 107 California community colleges to ascertain: (1) the existence and scope of planning systems currently in use; (2) the extent to which financial resources are allocated within institutions on the basis of a formal allocation model; (3) the extent to which the planning, budgeting, and financial resource allocation processes are integrated; and (4) the level of discrepancy between reported practices and the perceived need for integration of the planning and financial resource allocation processes. Methodology. Surveys packets were mailed directly to 330 executive employees of 107 California community colleges and district offices. Participants from each college included the chief executive officer, college president, chief financial officer, and chief instructional officer. Survey packets included the questionnaire entitled "Linking Strategic Planning, Budgeting, and Financial Resource Allocation in California Community Colleges." Data were collected during the period May 1997 through July 1997. Findings. The overall perception on the part of executive employee groups was that little linkage between planning, financial resource allocation, and budgeting in California community colleges existed. On the one hand executive employee groups rate long-term planning activities strong for current practices, but rate the current practice of financial resource allocation activities only average. The inconsistency between planning and resource allocation is the basis for low mean ranking of the integration of planning, budgeting, and financial resource allocation by executive employee groups. Throughout this study, the data show that chief financial officers rated activities lower than others executive employee groups for current practice and only slightly higher for the importance of the activity to the success of the college. Other employee variables, such as years of service, employment, and age did not prove to have a significant impact on executive employee groups perceptions regarding the thirty-one activities. Institutional size, both for the number of colleges and general fund revenue, did not have a significant impact. Conclusions. The effective linking of strategic planning, budgeting, and resource allocation functions is a collective phenomenon, typically involving sponsors, champions, facilitators, teams, task forces, and others in various ways at various times. Community college leaders, of many different kinds within districts, must put together the elements of strategic planning, budgeting, and resource allocation in such a way that organizational effectiveness is enhanced by the integration processes. This quite likely will require a new paradigm in the near future.