Strategic Agility in Nations (B): The Scottish Example

The A case describes how leadership unity was achieved and maintained across party lines between 1999 and 2007. It also analyses the policy development and resource allocation processes put in place in the devolved government of Scotland. The B case describes how effective leadership in times of a significant shift in Scotland’s political landscape helped achieve organizational and cultural transformation, and move towards a more unified approach to government. It features the change process as well as a series of action to mobilize fragmented constituencies around strategic objectives that cut across policy areas.

The teaching objective is to show how a single government approach, as developed by the Scottish Government, has successfully built upon the strategic agility framework to transform its public administration into a more strategically agile organization by using a combination of change management and organizational approaches.