Research of Strategic Analysis Methods Application in the Department of Defence

• Main Authors: Motyčková, Monika, Richter, Jiří
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Content analysis; Defense; Government agencies; Leadership; Research methodology; SWOT analysis
• ISSN: 2048-9021; 2048-903X

The article presents partial conclusions of the "Strategic Analysis Methods applicable within the Defence Department of the Czech Republic", which is implemented at the University of Defence in the years 2016 - 2020. The subject of the research is the use of methods of strategic analysis in the elaboration of strategic documents in the Department of Defence. The aim of the research is to propose methods of strategic analysis of the external and internal environment, including the procedure for their utilisation, in order to employ strategic analysis in the elaboration of strategic documents of the Defence Department of the Czech Republic. The first part of the research was focused on the content analysis of already processed documents and on semi-structured interviews with the elaborators. Twenty-eight documents processed in the department from 2003 to 2015 were analysed. Twenty-two methods of strategic analysis were taken into consideration. The key findings resulting from the analysis are as follows: The strategic analysis methods used in strategic documents elaboration do not work with the necessary data, although the data used in the documents are available. Thus, there is no traceability, reference, proven relevance or timeliness of the information of the default data. If an analytical tool is used, it is very rarely used correctly and much less in accordance with the methodology contained in the theory. Thanks to these findings, the researchers are currently cooperating with the Defence Policy and Strategy Section of the Department of Defence on a methodology for conceptual documents elaboration. At present semi-structured interviews with selected strategic document elaborators are being carried out. The interviews serve to answer the main questions arising from the content analysis; the main aim is to describe the way of using the analytical methods and to compare the real process of processing the methods with the ideal one. This article presents just partial results of these interviews, because this step is processed through 2017.