The process of developing long-range plans brings into focus the educational and political values of a state system of higher education. Limited by the availability of data and methods of communication for the longitudinal research, chronological mapping of the decision networks indicates that: (1) policy initiatives for long-range planning originated with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education during the first planning cycle which began in 1961, but the regents had become part of a policy responding network by the third planning cycle which addressed plans for the 1980's; (2) during the three planning cycles support for the long-term outcomes came from bargaining and coalitions in the political milieu; (3) as the technology base of the regents' decision network increased the organizational time horizon for planning decreased; (4) incrementalism rather than policy innovation became a factor as richer knowledge of the state system became available; (5) organization of the planning cycles moved through a centralization stage at the state system level and then to a decentralization stage which stressed institutional viability and (6) aspects of reformism, professionalism and, to a limited extent, policy innovation influenced the rationale for state system planning.

Using a conceptual frame of reference based on the decision process model and other theoretical concepts, research questions were formulated to probe aspects of the long-range planning process. At the organizational level the research considered issues related to the power to plan for the state system; the evolution of decision networks for long-range planning; the technology and scope of the planning process; direction of the planning style for the interface organization and finally the rationale for a public organization to develop long-range plans for higher education.

Long-range planning for a state system of higher education involves complex interorganizational decision networks. Within the context of state and federal government, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education organized three planning cycles from 1961 to 1980.