jordan pulse -

Dr. Nidal Al-Majali

In management science, numerous definitions outline the features, types, frameworks, and terminology of strategy. Specialists, academics, and thinkers have worked extensively to clarify and model strategic concepts, with a shared conclusion: success and achieving goals require tools, plans, human and organisational structures, all operating towards clear short-, medium-, and long-term objectives. These must be adaptable, measurable, and capable of performance monitoring, all while maintaining steady progress toward the goal.

Despite extensive studies, publications, and high-level discussions, all efforts agree on the clear necessity of strategies for a professional, structured approach to shaping the future.

In Jordan, ministerial or institutional management tells a different story. The application often disregards specialists, academics, and even Adam Smith’s management theories, sometimes surpassing logic itself. Some ministers have proven that objectives can be achieved without strategies. They dismantled outdated, ineffective, and accumulated strategies in their ministries, adopting a situational management approach. However, as soon as they began instituting sustainable strategies, sudden reshuffles removed them from office.

Others relied on heaps of outdated paperwork, drowning their ministries and stakeholders in redundant details to extend their comfort zones. This approach allowed them to linger in office, transitioning between roles with ceremonial duties akin to protocol officers. Conversely, some abandoned effective strategies, finding them incompatible with their sudden appointment or lack of expertise. Strategies, thus, became tailored to their personal limitations, characterised by indecisiveness, fear of errors, and an aversion to criticism.

Moreover, certain senior officials discarded previous strategies, accommodating the desires of senior employees or secretaries general. These strategies, viewed as overly ambitious or threatening to their positions, were replaced with bureaucratic routines that stifled progress, paralysing ministries and citizens' futures alike.

This reality creates public anxiety and anticipation with each cabinet reshuffle, as strategies become dependent on the preferences of incoming ministers or officials—resembling borrowed garments rather than a continuous work policy.

The core debate between academic management principles and ministerial practices highlights the gap between structured success, rooted in strategic visions and defined objectives, and the ad hoc approach of “every leader has their way.” True organised success requires a competent, resourceful team focused on results and accountability. In contrast, personal methods belong to private wardrobes, not public service.

Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan recently made a bold, clear statement that should guide all officials: “We will not wrong any employee, but we will not allow any employee to wrong the nation or its resources in achieving the vision of comprehensive modernisation.” This principle should remind all officials, from prime ministers to ministers, that they are public servants.

The ultimate strategy for future success is to ensure justice in its absolute sense, removing any injustice toward citizens or institutions. This approach will pave the way for the economic, administrative, and political modernisation vision. Without it, strategies will revert to being tailored to fit the preferences of individual ministers and officials, leaving us at square one.

Alghad