Keywords

Strategic Planning, Job Performance, Strategic Performance, Performance Measurement, Jordanian Universities, Program Analysts, Task Performance, Work Engagement.

Introduction

In this section, the effect of strategic planning on the workers performance in Jordanian universities is discussed, highlighting the technological development and continuous change in the performance of workers and the development of evaluation methods. It is necessary to focus on strategic planning methods in Jordanian universities in terms of the workers performance to gain a competitive advantage for Jordanian universities enabling students to keep pace with the labor market.

Introduction to the Study

A strategic planning is considered to be vital part of the strategic management process and a managerial technique, by which organizations can cope with future disruptions successfully, allowing them achieve higher control related to their environmental change and resources (Flouris &Yilmaz, 2020). HR staff performance is highly contributed to the overall measurements related to HR efficiency. Leaders are considered to be responsible for making outsource-decisions and considering operating costs a primary reason for applying outsource-strategies (Hanafizadeh & Ravasan, 2017). The mission of Jordanian universities through their vision and goals is considered as the basis for their organizational performance. In case those guidelines are shared at each level on the organizations’ ladder in Jordanian universities’ departments, alignment of organizations, as a result, will help achieve an improvement of strategic planning and organizing the performance of employees.

David (2009) states that ‘strategic management’ is utilized in consistence with strategic planning. David mentions that strategic management can be clarified as the science and technique of implementing, formulating, and evaluating efficient and effective decisions which allow organizations achieve their goals. (Pearce & Robinson, 2007) describe strategic management as a collection of actions and decisions which are associated with the implementation and formulation of several plans created to attain the companies’ objectives. Hoskinson et al. (2008) state that activities performed through the strategic management process is important for allowing firms to stay competitive, and keep earning above the average. (Bowman & Faulkner, 1997) state that a strategic management approaches can be classified as a systematic process by which vital judgments and selections can be made in organizations. Moreover, managers who practice strategic management organize information through a method which helps make valid decisions associated with many constraints that have high uncertainties, stating that organizations’ future is full of those uncertainties, they must prevent rationalizing a valid strategy related to the business as Pearce & Robinson, (2007) mention.

Hence, this study aims to determine the influence of strategic planning on the performance of employees in Jordanian universities.

In the forties of the last century, a talk related to the relationship between employee satisfaction and their job performance began. During the fifties and sixties, the interest in performance was linked to taking care of defining training needs, and therefore employee performance evaluation became one of the major approaches utilized for identifying individual and organizational training needs. Many schools, trends, and movements have emerged in administrative thoughts, and performance and its improvements were a major focus of its interest (Dora, 2003).

The importance of this study is associated to the significance of strategic planning in Jordanian universities and evaluating the performance of employees there. Strategic planning is also considered as a prerequisite for the success of Jordanian universities performance, and the achievement of its strategic objectives, and the achievement of employee satisfaction, which helps highly raise their performance. Furthermore, the importance of this study lies in investigating employees’ response plan to implement, and promote, as a result, their job performance.

Most of the studies examined this topic were conducted in the context and features of Western merits and conditions, whereas a variety of researches conducted by Arab society focused on the analysis of implementing strategic planning, and investigating employee performance as two separate issues.

Literature Review

In this section, several literature review regarding the strategic planning and performance were reviewed. The aim of this section is to report some of the most relevant papers related to the strategic planning and performance.

The Concept of Strategic Planning and Performance

A study conducted by (Al-Zuaibi, 2014) aimed to find out the orientation of the administrative staff at the University of Muhammad Khudair of Biskra towards the level of applying strategic planning stages and its effect on the level of institutional performance in the University of Muhammad Khudair in the city of Sukra. Moreover Al-Zuaibi aimed to validate the varaitions in those directions depending on the variation in their job qualifications and personal profile. The population of the study consists of 587 administrative workers at the University of Muhammad Khudair in Soukra, and the researcher used the comprehensive enumeration method for the research community, as 180 questionnaires were distributed through field visits and 164 questionnaires were retrieved. Additionally, after examining the study population, 61 questionnaires were excluded, due to their lack for fulfilling the desired conditions. To analyze the data, the researcher relies on the descriptive statistics scale and the variance analysis of regression. Furthermore, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program, the study proposed a number of recommendations. Firstly, the university shall analyze the outer environment to determine several variables which can influence the university in the future. Moreover, all individuals responsible for achieving these plans and strategies should participate in formulating the university’s goals and plans.

Strategic planning can be defined as a dynamic process of change and response to an alteration by which organizations could fit to that change or alteration in environment factor. The tool utilized for joining organizations and their environment is an inclusive plan, and the process of analyzing opportunities defines the direction through which organizations can achieve their main goals (Al-Sumaidi, 1999).

Performance management (PM) can be described as an infinite approach in which managers can determine, evaluate and optimize the performance of individuals and teams through a set of activities. The aim of those activities is to allow organization’s strategic objectives be consistent with the performance of employees (Aguinis, 2013).

Shatat (2003) investigated the function of (motivation, organizational culture, selection, training, and leadership) in attaining creativity at banks in Qatar. Shatat found a functional relationship between human resources practice and creativity achieved. Shatat arranges the findings from high to low depending on their impact on creativity as shown in the following: selection, training, organizational culture, motivation, and leadership. Moreover, Shatat noticed effective selection practices that play an important role in attaining organizational goals via selecting individuals who have the capability and experience to efficiently do their job.

Hypothesis Development

According to the relevant literature, this paper investigates a number of hypotheses presented as follows:

H1 The first hypothesis, it states: “there is no clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and monitoring the performance of worker in Jordanian universities”.

H2 The second hypothesis, stating: “there is no clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and improving the performance of workers in Jordanian universities”.

H3 The Third Hypothesis, stating that: “there is no clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and the experience of workers in Jordanian universities”.

H4 The Fourth Hypothesis stating: “there is no clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of workers in Jordanian universities”.

H5 The Fifth Hypothesis, that states: “there is no clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and the skills of workers in Jordanian universities”.

The Importance of the study

The significance of this research comes from addressing an important topic related to strategic planning and its impact on the performance of workers in Jordanian universities taking into account goals, vision, methods of implementing goals, monitoring those goals, evaluating employees, and its relationship with the competitive advantage of Jordanian universities which affects the reputation of Jordanian universities locally and internationally. The results of this study can help analyze the relationship between strategic planning and develop executable plans by linking job performance with results. The importance of this paper arises due to the following:

1. Encouraging workers in Jordan to participate in developing strategic plans and identifying their performance problem, which increases employee satisfaction and positively affects the performance evaluation process? It also assists administrators (as university president) in correction business errors by providing timely performance information.

2. Strategic planning helps solve business problems directly and quickly, which saves time and effort and reduces the risk of bad performance, which helps university presidents develop the performance of universities and provide appropriate solutions.

3. Strategic planning is an important source for collecting data (for university administration) on employees' experiences and analyzing their behaviors and skills.

4. Strategic planning gives employees an incentive to pay attention and provides a monitoring device for their actions and behaviors.

5. Strategic planning works to provide a database related to the performance of university college employees and to give information linked to the degree of their skills, which facilitates the distribution of tasks among them

Methodology

This paper reviews in detail the use of a systematic application process and ensuring that this set of rules is considered effective. To reach the study objectives, a field study process questionnaire was created containing comprehensive questions. These questions discuss the different dimensions of strategic planning, and the integration of all employees (administrative, academic, and service) in Jordanian universities. Moreover, the study reflects the importance of financial factors, and other factors related to workers. Factors related to workers reflect the ability of human resources, while the financial factors reflect the continuity of university work in the long term.

A questionnaire was used to examine the effect of MCS in correcting deviations and its effect on the efficiency and quality of performance in Jordanian universities. To achieve the aim of the study, a questionnaire was designed for the field study process, containing comprehensive questions, and (180) copies were distributed to all employees (administrative, academic, and service). The study population included Jordanian universities in all governorates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the 2020 academic year. Survey dimensions related to university presidents consist of managerial experience, gender, age, and special characteristics such as professionalism, flexibility, problem handling, and the ability to predict the future. They also include work experience, preferences, continuity of supervision, clear procedures and rules, assignment of responsibilities and financial support. On the other hand, the personnel survey dimensions include work experience, gender, age, number of workers in the same sector, university structure, and use of modern technology. They also comprise job satisfaction, wage rate, employee background information, degree of understanding of university rules and responsibilities, and attendance at periodic management meetings.

Empirical Results and Discussion

Control Tools and Techniques Results

This evidence supports the presence of a strong and positive relation between strategic planning and personnel performance in Jordanian universities. The characteristics of Jordanian university presidents, such as inclusiveness and flexibility, as well as the ability to predict the future are important in assessing and using effective strategic planning. Tekav?i? & Peljhan (2003) showed in their study that decisions are influenced by many control techniques, including budget monitoring, personal monitoring, statistical reporting, breakeven analysis, modern technology, management information data, and management auditing.

The results also show that the impact of administrative control can vary in a certain way due to the university president's plans, strategy, recent performance, evaluation process, expense handling, internal control and external supervision.

Using this feature can assist managers in evaluating their employees' performance by measuring the chart with that expressed by the actual performance of the workers.

Control Improvements Results

This argument expands previous studies by agreeing to pay attention to strategic planning at the horizontal and vertical level in Jordanian universities, through continuous following-up of the plans put in place. In addition, paying attention must be done to personal observation, and the use of incentives supporting workers and evaluating supervisors for following-up the performance of workers, and to define work procedures in a simple way. Following early academics and other staff at universities in their careers, helps provide reliable audit opinions and reports. This supports the results of Sabiu et al. (2019) that tested the effect of HRM practices on their performance, leading to a significant strong relationship between them.

Control Difficulties Results

The third argument does not support any relationship between strategic planning and the experience of workers in Jordanian universities. Strategic planning may face many challenges that make difficulties in obtaining the best performance for employees in Jordanian universities. These difficulties include lack of data, inadequate job, lack of managerial experience, large number of employees in the same department, low wages, low emotional support, few preferences, lack of supervision, lack of clarity of procedures and rules, lack of distribution of responsibilities, and lack of financial support.

Control Efficiency Results

The fourth argument indicates that there is a strong relation between strategic planning and the effective performance of workers in Jordanian universities. Effective systems ensure that all documents related to expenditures and controls are maintained to ensure an adequate appraisal method. Effective implementation of the monitoring, control and oversight system helps prevent, detect and correct violations, including proportionate anti-fraud measures. (Merchant, 1998)

Administrative control supports the assumptions that it can achieve efficiency and quality of performance, which is reflected in higher education outcomes. Creating comfortable working conditions is essential for making viable decisions by management, by using clear evidence that the university administration's purposes use as a reference for information and to reward employee performance.

Control Tightness Results

The paper's finding supports the fifth argument; that there is a clear statistical relationship between strategic planning and the experience of workers in Jordanian universities. By defining responsibilities, segregating jobs, appropriate systems for reporting and monitoring, describing actions, along with imposing penalties for irresponsible actions, all of this can reduce business distractions.

The importance of strategic planning procedures and the performance of workers in Jordanian universities lie in the existence of accurate data on the performance of employees, and the existence of a continuous evaluation of the workers. By doing so, the direction, organization, planning, evaluation, and quality control of implementing the strategic plans of members of Jordanian universities will enhance the efficiency of academics and staff allowing the achievement of the planned goals, besides achieving a high level of performance competency for workers in Jordanian universities.

This study reached many important results, which are presented in the following:

1. The need for university presidents in Jordan to pay attention to the importance of the availability of sufficient and objectively reliable information related to the performance of workers in Jordanian universities according to the established plans.

2. Universities are environmentally friendly for both academics and other employees.

3. The study indicates that a very high percentage of Jordanian universities agree between strategic planning and its suitability with the performance of workers in Jordanian universities.

4. Most of the opinions confirm that there are some restrictions that hinder the use of a supervisory system on the performance of employees.

5. Most common errors in follow-up reports in Jordanian universities are due to the ineffectiveness of details, lack of data analysis and evaluation, lack of recommendations, and failure to take corrective measures.

Characteristics of Study Participants

This section deals with a special presentation on the study sample, analyzing the results and answering the study questions using modern statistical methods according to the Statistical Analysis Program (SPSS), to perform the statistical analysis on the data collected through the questionnaire that was distributed to the sample (180) questionnaire.

The Questionnaire Axes

The questionnaire conducted for the study consists of 6 axes. The first axis contains demographic factors and includes (educational qualification, years of experience, academic specialization). The second axis is based on the assumption that there is no statistical significance at the level (a=0.50) between strategic planning and monitoring. The performance of the two employees contains 23 questions. The third axis is based on the assumption that there is no statistical significance at the level (a=0.50) between strategic planning and improving performance in Jordanian universities, and contains 16 questions. The fourth axis is based on the hypothesis that there is no statistical significance at the level (a=0.50) between strategic planning, efficiency and administrative effectiveness in Jordanian universities, consisting of 12 questions. The fifth axis is based on the assumption that there is no statistical significance at the level (a = 0.50) between strategic planning and the skills of workers in Jordanian universities, comprising 13 questions. The study sample consisted of One hundred and sixty-three patients.

Table 1 shows the sample distribution relating to the society’s personal information.

Table 1 Sample Distribution Related to Society’s Personal Information
Variable	Categories	Frequency	percent
Gender	Female	96	58.9
	Male	54	41.1
	Total	150	100.0

For gender variable, the highest category is female having a frequency of (96), with a percentage of (58.9%). On the other hand, the lowest category is (Male) which has a frequency of (54), and percentage of (41.1%).

Table 2 illustrates the distribution of the sample depending on the social status.

Table 2 Distribution of the Sample Depending on the Social Status
Variable	Categories	Frequency	Percent
Gender	Married	108	47.9
	Single	42	52.1
	Total	150	100.0

Table 2 shows that for social status, the highest category is (Single) corresponding to a frequency of (42), and percentage of (52.1%), but the lowest category is (Married) with a frequency of (108), and a percentage (47.9%).

Table 3 describes sample distribution linked to the educational level.

Table 3 Sample Distribution Linked to the Educational Level
Variable	Categories	Frequency	percent
Gender	Bachelor's degree	61	37.4
	Master's degree and above	102	62.6
	Total	163	100.0

Table 3 Shows that for Educational level variable, the highest category is (Bachelor's degree) by frequency of (61), and a percentage of (37.4%). However, the lowest category is (below high school Master's degree and above) by a frequency of (102), and percentage of (62.6%).

The Stability of the Tool

The researcher extracted the coefficient of stability through the coefficient of internal consistency that is linked to the equation (Cronbach Alpha) for each field of study, and for the tool as a whole, where the axis of stability of the tool reached the second section, which talks about strategic planning and monitoring the performance of workers in Jordanian universities, where they reached the percentage of the second axis (Strategic planning and monitoring the performance of employees in Jordanian universities (as a whole (91)), which is an excellent percentage and indicates the stability and validity of the tool in the second axis, and as attached to Table 1. The third axis deals with the hypothesis of a strong relationship and Positive between strategic planning and improving the performance of workers in Jordanian universities, where the overall stability ratio of the tool reached (0.87), which is an excellent and strong percentage that we can build on. The fourth axis deals with the hypothesis of the strong relationship between strategic planning and the efficiency and effectiveness of workers in universities in Jordan, where the overall stability ratio of the tool reached (0.91), which is an excellent and strong rate that we can build on. The fifth section of the questionnaire questions has the relationship between strategic planning and the skills of workers in Jordanian universities, and reached a reliability ratio of (0.92), which makes the study more reliable.

Table 4 shows the coefficients of internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha), which explains the study tool and its axes (fields and paragraphs)

Table 4 The Coefficients of Internal Consistency
No.	Variables	Number of paragraphs	Stability coefficient (Cronbach alpha)
1	Strategic planning and performance of workers	23	.91
2	Strategic planning and improving performance	16	.87
3	Strategic planning and experiences workers	12	.91
4	Strategic planning and the efficiency and effectiveness of performance	13	.92
5	strategic planning and the skills of workers	10	.91

Table 5 shows the calculation of averages and standard deviations for all areas of the impact of the Strategic planning and performances.

Table 5 indicates that for individuals with an educational qualification (diploma or less), the frequency of the answer was 5% of the content of the questions, which is a restless group, while those who hold a bachelor's degree, the percentage of their response to the questionnaire is 57.5% and it is considered as a large percentage and a large target group, while those with a master’s degree were 32.5%, while the percentage of those who hold a doctorate was 4.2%, which is a small percentage, while only one sample had a higher degree of doctorate (.8% that answered the questionnaire questions.

Table 5 Averages and Standard Deviations Calculations
No.	Independent variable  (educational qualification)	Correlations	Percentage
1	Diploma or less	6	5 %
2	Bachelor degree	69	57.5 %
3	Master Degree	39	32.5 %
4	PhD	5	4.2 %
5	Higher than PhD	1	08 .%

Table 6 shows the averages and standard deviations computation related to all areas of the impact of strategic planning on employee performance (Independent variables).

Table 6 Computation Results Related to Averages and Standard Deviations
No	Independent variables	Total	Correlations	Main	T- Value	a≤ 0.05	Degree of approval
1	Education	150	47 %	2.383	37.93	0.00	High
2	Experiences	150	57.1 %	2.503	36.35	0.00	High
3	specialization	150	1.9 %	2.325	18.07	0.00	High
4	Job title	150	7 %	3.275	42.72	0.00	High

The results of Table 6 indicate the standard mean and the deviation in the sample size, where the arithmetic averages ranged between (3.2-2.3) that the arithmetic mean of the independent variables was (2.38) and the arithmetic mean of the first variable was (2.38), which is an average degree (acceptable), while the standard deviation ratio was 0.474 at the significance level 0.00, for the sample size of 120 samples. Perhaps the most important characteristic of the questionnaire is the degree of functionality that answered the questions of the questionnaire, as its ratio to (T-Value) =42.72, and this indicates the reliability to prove the validity of the statistical inference that there is no statistical significance at the level (a=0.50) between all hypotheses.

Table 7 shows the regression coefficient analysis.

Table 7 Data Analysis Related to Regression Coefficient
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	95.0% Confidence Interval for B
		B	Std. Error	Beta			Lower Bound	Upper Bound
1	(Constant)	2.674	0.202		13.247	0.000	2.275	3.074
	Strategic planning matches performance	-0.069	0.069	-0.091	-0.999	0.320	-0.205	0.067
	Strategic planning makes a strengthens control	-0.113	0.059	-0.174	-1.910	0.057	-0.231	0.004
Dependent Variable: Educations

Through the regression coefficient in the above table which is 0.057, it can be concluded that there is a validity related to the statistical indications made in the process of analyzing the questionnaire, and it indicates the validity of the questionnaire that was performed and the validity of the assumptions.

Conclusions

This paper summarizes the responsibilities of Jordanian universities, which focus on the strategic planning component, taking into account the satisfaction of employees by setting goals and objectives and studying their impact on long-term changes. In addition, this paper presents the building of a strategic system that ensures the achievement of the goals of the University of Jordan. It analyzes the inputs and outputs, follows up the educational process, provides key performance indicators to measure employee growth, arranges meetings, and measures workers' success scores.

The strategies must have the future vision of the planned goals and the ability to foresee the difficulties expected in Jordanian universities. They usually create a control system by setting clear standards for plans, academic performance, and staff. This is followed by reviewing the periodic reports that reflect the measurement of employee performance. Additionally, it is followed by comparing actual activities with performance standards. Supervisors of strategic plans should take corrective actions. In case there are any deviations from the application, they should explain the deviation and identify the required changes. It is important to choose the correct corrective action in Jordanian universities.

Study Recommendations

The paper recommends further inclusion and research in this area that is particularly related to strategic planning through adopting a partnership policy between Jordanian universities and international universities, which helps create a clear vision of the strategic management development process and the exchange of experiences to achieve high growth in the performance of workers in Jordanian universities. Additionally, the author proposes the following future recommendations:

A. The need to conduct further studies related to strategic planning within universities.

B. Study the e of strategic planning and its relationship in influencing the performance of employees in Jordanian universities.

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Jordanian university workers, including university presidents, department heads and administrators, for their efforts in completing this study.

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