Planning Coherence Rationales: The Case of the Cameroonian Higher Education Programmes Development

Abstract

This study discusses programmes planning at the level of the Ministry of Higher Education in Cameroon. It aims at showing the coherence it implies in a context of mismatch between policies and facts. After having shown that coherence follows a rationale, theories used in the field of planning were explained: rationalist theory, incremental theory, contingency theory, ex-post rationalist theory, sensemaking-sensegiving theory, resource dependence theory and discursive theory. Based on this theoretical framework, seven coherence rationales have been highlighted: rationalist coherence, incremental coherence, contingent coherence, post-rationalist coherence, sense coherence, resource dependence coherence, and discursive coherence. Relying on practice-based theorizing methodology, this study used documents as data. The analysis reveals the dominance of the rationalist coherence rationale. This result expresses organization rigidity, which does not allow sufficient interaction with its environment.