In What Circumstances Should Plans Be Public?

Abstract

Characterizing plans as means of interaction and influence among organizations rather than as mechanisms of control over a complex multiorganizational environment frames the question: In what circumstances should plans be shared widely? Organizations have persistent and repeated interactions about many issues, have fractured capabilities and authorities, and make multiple, overlapping, and interacting plans. Some of these plans are public and some of them are kept private because the plan makers and plan users can benefit from doing so. The public-ness or privateness of plans and that of the processes that make plans serve distinct purposes. Examples from recent recovery planning in New Orleans illustrate why and in what circumstances individuals, voluntary groups, and governments choose to plan in public, make their resulting plans public, and find the public plans of others credible. Plans as rhetorics of action, intention, commitment, and influence can be more effective if revealed strategically to particular audiences at particular times.