Saturday, March 8, 2014

Unit 2 (P 19) Planning and Decision Making: Planning

Planning:
  • Planning is an intellectual process, of formulating goals, identifying activities to be undertaken to attain these goals, choosing the means to achieve the goals, and finally attain the goals.
  • Planning is deciding in advance what to do, when to do, how to do and who is to do it. Planning bridges the gap between where we are to, where we want to go. It makes possible things to occur which would not otherwise occur.
  • It is first managerial function that organization must address.
  • It is proactive action to figure out future course of action to be followed.
  • It is needed to bridge the gap existing between the present state and he desired future state. 
  • "planning is the process of determining objectives and assessing they way these objectives can best be achieved." This process determines where the organization should be going, why, and how.
  • Planning may be broadly defined as a concept of executive action that embodies the skill of anticipating, influencing, and controlling the nature and direction of change. – McFarland
  • It incorporates four elements:
    • Evaluating environmental forces and organizational resources
    • Establishing a set of organizational goals
    • Developing strategies and plan to achieve the stated goals.
    • Formulate a decision- making process.
Importance of planning:
  • Provides Direction:  
  • Integrates management functions:
  • Reduces uncertainties:
  • Resource allocation:
  • Basis for control/ standard for measurement:
  • Basis for managing changes/ Adaptive responses:
  • Minimizes impulsive and arbitrary decisions:
Characteristics of planning:
  • Focus on Goal: planning basic objective is to attain goal. So, it defines all course of action to achieve the organizational goals.
  • Primary Function: As it coordinates all other managerial function. It provide base of framework for other function of management.
  • Pervasive Activity: All level of mangers carries planning function. However planning depends upon the level of management or on the nature and scope of work.
  • Future oriented: it defines future course of action to meet uncertainty form environment. It provides blueprint for future operation.
  • Continuous Activity: Planning is continuous never ending process because it is directly dependent upon environment, which is dynamic in nature.
  • Intellectual Work: planning require more intelligence ability to analyze the information and derive a best course of action.
  • Flexible: Plans should be adjustable to meet the contingencies from the environment. Plans must have capacity to flexible adjustment to meet the goals.
  • Efficiency and Economy: planning helps to efficiently use the scarce resource, which bring economic beneficial situation for the organization.
  • Actionable: It helps to determine such activities which can be immediately put into action when time form implementation comes and can be adjusted according to the changing environment.
The planning system:
  • Since planning is a subsystem of the overall management system of the organization. It too includes the system concept of input, processing, and output. It too takes input for the environment, process the inputs and gives outputs to the organization to achieve its goals.
    • Inputs: information, human, capital, financial
    • Processing: information collection and analysis of internal and external environment, forecasting,
    • Outputs: goals, strategies, policies, procedures, budget sheet.

17 comments:

  1. Planning is the part of management concerned with creating procedures, rules and guidelines for achieving a stated objective. Planning is carried out at both the macro and micro level. Managers need to create broad objectives and mission statements as well as look after the day to day running of the company.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Planning is usually interpreted as a process to develop a strategy to achieve desired objectives, to solve problems, and to facilitate action.

    A basic management function involving formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources. The planning process:
    (1) identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved,
    (2) formulates strategies to achieve them,
    (3) arranges or creates the means required, and
    (4) implements, directs, and monitors all steps in their proper sequence.

    According to Alford and Beatt, "Planning is the thinking process, the organized foresight, the vision based on fact and experience that is required for intelligent action."

    According to Theo Haimann, "Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done. When a manager plans, he projects a course of action for further attempting to achieve a consistent co-ordinate structure of operations aimed at the desired results.

    According to Billy E. Goetz, "Planning is fundamentally choosing and a planning problem arises when an alternative course of action is discovered."

    According to Koontz and O' Donnell, "Planning is an intellectual process, conscious determination of course of action, the basing of decision on purpose, facts and considered estimates."

    According to Allen, "A plan is a trap laid to capture the future."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Efficient Use of Resources
    All organizations, large and small, have limited resources. The planning process provides the information top management needs to make effective decisions about how to allocate the resources in a way that will enable the organization to reach its objectives. Productivity is maximized and resources are not wasted on projects with little chance of success.

    Establishing Goals
    Setting goals that challenge everyone in the organization to strive for better performance is one of the key aspects of the planning process. Goals must be aggressive, but realistic. Organizations cannot allow themselves to become too satisfied with how they are currently doing--or they are likely to lose ground to competitors. The goal setting process can be a wake-up call for managers that have become complacent. The other benefit of goal setting comes when forecast results are compared to actual results. Organizations analyze significant variances from forecast and take action to remedy situations where revenues were lower than plan or expenses higher.


    Managing Risk And Uncertainty
    Managing risk is essential to an organization’s success. Even the largest corporations cannot control the economic and competitive environment around them. Unforeseen events occur that must be dealt with quickly, before negative financial consequences from these events become severe. Planning encourages the development of “what-if” scenarios, where managers attempt to envision possible risk factors and develop contingency plans to deal with them. The pace of change in business is rapid, and organizations must be able to rapidly adjust their strategies to these changing conditions.

    Team Building
    Planning promotes team building and a spirit of cooperation. When the plan is completed and communicated to members of the organization, everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and how other areas of the organization need their assistance and expertise in order to complete assigned tasks. They see how their work contributes to the success of the organization as a whole and can take pride in their contributions. Potential conflict can be reduced when top management solicits department or division managers’ input during the goal setting process. Individuals are less likely to resent budgetary targets when they had a say in their creation.

    Creating Competitive Advantages
    Planning helps organizations get a realistic view of their current strengths and weaknesses relative to major competitors. The management team sees areas where competitors may be vulnerable and then crafts marketing strategies to take advantage of these weaknesses. Observing competitors’ actions can also help organizations identify opportunities they may have overlooked, such as emerging international markets or opportunities to market products to completely different customer groups.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Planning means basic management function involving formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources. 

    The importance of planning :
    -Prepares for uncertainty
    -Integrates management function
    -Gives direction
    -Avoids problems
    -Basis for control
    -Basis for change
    -Ensures Better Coordination of Effort
    -Ensures better utilization of resources

    The characteristics of planning:
    -It is goal oriented.
    -It is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -It is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -It involves choice and desicion making.
    -It serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -It is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -It is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -It leads to accompishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -It is flexible.

    The planning system includes basically inputs, processing and outputs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. planning is the primary function of management.It is called primary function because it affeccts all the other functions of management.Planning is the basis for other managerial functions,organizing,directing,establishing,and controlling the organization.It is,thus, the processes of setting goals,establishing a course of action,implementing the actoin plans, and attaining the goals.Effective planning includes the total organizational activities. Without planning,managers do not know how to organize activities.
    Main characteristics of organizational planning are as follows:
    a)planning is goal directed.
    b)planning is future oriented.
    c)planning deals with uncertainty created by future environment trends and events.
    d)planning is a thinking process.
    e)planning is action oriented.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Planning is basic or primary function of management. Planning is the process of setting goal and selecting best course of action to reach the goal. It is looking ahead. Planning is deciding in advance, what to do, who is to do, how to do and when to do. Planning bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to go. Planning provide target, they allocate resources in a coordinate manner. They also solve as standard for control. Planning is mental exercise and intellectual process. Planning may be long term and short term. Planning may be strategic, tactical and operational.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If a person does it effectively, he can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. A plan is like a map. When following a plan, he can always see how much he have progressed towards his project goal and how far he is from his destination.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If a person does it effectively, he can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. It is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    It leads to accompishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.It is flexible.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Planning is the process of formulating goals, identifying activities to be undertaken to attain these goals, choosing the means to attain the goals, and finally attain the goals after implementing the plan.

    importance of planning
    -prepares for uncertainty
    -integrates management functions
    -gives directions
    -avoids problems
    -basis or control
    -basis for change
    -ensure better coordination of effort
    -ensure better utilization of resources

    characteristics of planning
    -it is goal oriented.
    -it is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -it is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -it involves choice and desicion making.
    -it serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -it is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -it is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -it leads to accompishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -it is flexible.

    The planning system includes basically inputs, processing and outputs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Planning is deciding the future course of actions in an advance so that the uncertainty of environmental change can be easily adopted and the organizational activities go smoothly as expected.

    Importance:
    1.Prepares for uncertainty.
    2.Integrates management functions.
    3.Gives directions.
    4.Avoids problems.
    5.Basis of control.
    6.Basis for change.
    7.Ensure better coordination of effort.
    8.Ensure better utilization of resources.

    Characteristics:
    -It is goal oriented.
    -It is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -It is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -It involves choice and desicion making.
    -It serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -It is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -It is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -It leads to accomplishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -It is flexible.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Planning (also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal.

    Planning involves the creation and maintenance of a plan. As such, planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integration of it with other plans; that is, it combines forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how to react to them.

    An important, albeit often ignored aspect of planning, is the relationship it holds with forecasting. Forecasting can be described as predicting what the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like.[1] The counterpart to planning is spontaneous order.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Planning helps an organization chart a course for the achievement of its goals. The process begins with reviewing the current operations of the organization and identifying what needs to be improved operationally in the upcoming year. From there, planning involves envisioning the results the organization wants to achieve, and determining the steps necessary to arrive at the intended destination--success, whether that is measured in financial terms, or goals that include being the highest-rated organization in customer satisfaction.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Process of identifying an organization's immediate and long-term objectives, and formulating and monitoring specific strategies to achieve them. It also entails staffing and resource allocation, and is one of the most important responsibilities of a management team.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Planning is the pre-determination of goals and future course of actions to be taken to achieve defined goals.
    Importance of planning:
    1. Goal Focus
    2. Minimize Uncertainties
    3. Improve Efficiency
    4. Facilities to Control
    5. Innovation and creativity
    6. Better coordination
    7. Ensures commitment
    8. Aid to business success
    9. Brings Systematization
    Characteristics of planning:
    1. Focus on goal
    2. Primary function of management
    3. Planning is pervasive
    4. Efficiency, accuracy and economy
    5. Future oriented
    6. Coordination
    7. Flexible
    8. Continuous
    9. Intellectual Work
    10. Actionable

    ReplyDelete
  15. Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If a person does it effectively, he can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. A plan is like a map. When following a plan, he can always see how much he have progressed towards his project goal and how far he is from his destination.
    The characteristics of planning:
    -It is goal oriented.
    -It is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -It is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -It involves choice and desicion making.
    -It serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -It is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -It is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -It leads to accomplishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -It is flexible.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Planning is the process of formulating goals, identifying activities to be undertaken to attain these goals, choosing the means to attain the goals, and finally attain the goals after implementing the plan.

    importance of planning
    -prepares for uncertainty
    -integrates management functions
    -gives directions
    -avoids problems
    -basis or control
    -basis for change
    -ensure better coordination of effort
    -ensure better utilization of resources

    The characteristics of planning:
    -It is goal oriented.
    -It is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -It is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -It involves choice and desicion making.
    -It serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -It is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -It is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -It leads to accomplishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -It is flexible.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Planning is the process of formulating goals, identifying activities to be undertaken to attain these goals, choosing the means to attain the goals, and finally attain the goals after implementing the plan.

    importance of planning
    -prepares for uncertainty
    -integrates management functions
    -gives directions
    -avoids problems
    -basis or control
    -basis for change
    -ensure better coordination of effort
    -ensure better utilization of resources

    characteristics of planning
    -it is goal oriented.
    -it is a mental predisposition for things to happen in future.
    -it is a mental exercise involving creative thinking, sound judgement and imagination.
    -it involves choice and desicion making.
    -it serves as a guide for organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
    -it is a never ending function due to the dynamic business environment.hence it is a continuous process.
    -it is required at all levels of management and in all departments of enterprise.
    -it leads to accompishment of objectives at the minimum possible cost. It is designed for efficiency.
    -it is flexible.

    ReplyDelete