Education Division Scholarship

SWOT Analysis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2010

Keywords

SWOT Anaylsis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Abstract

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are organizational influences known collectively as ‘‘SWOTs.’’ At its best, SWOT analysis is a process by which a group of stakeholders (a) identify internal and external inhibitors and enhancers of performance, (b) analyze those factors based on estimates of their contributions to net value and approximations of their controllability, and (c) decide what future action to take with regard to those factors. Convention- ally, however, organizations carry out only the first of these three tasks. To address this shortcoming, this chapter outlines a six-step process not only for identifying SWOTs, but also for meaningfully analyzing and synthesizing them to enable better organizational decision making. In this chapter I describe the history of SWOT analysis, its research base, applications, and its own strengths and weaknesses. The six-step process for conducting SWOT analysis is then described, followed by a discussion of factors critical for successful implementation.

Publication Title

Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace, Volume Two: Selecting and Implementing Performance Interventions

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