Chapter 7, Planning

Planning

· What is planning and why it is important?
It is the establishment of the work methods and practices to ensure that predetermined objectives are efficiently met at all levels. This involves determining objectives, strategies, policies, programmes and procedures for achieving those objectives for the organisation and its sub units.

· How do managers plans?
When managers plan, they focus on two basic things; goals and objectives. These act as foundation to it and it is these goals and objectives without which the planning is baseless.

· How do managers set goals?
Managers set their goals by keeping in view the nature and the purpose/objectives of the organisation. For instance, the goal of the profit making organisation is the maximisation of the profit whereas the goal of not for profit organisation would be the welfare of the public.
Here we can refer to the MBO approach.

· What do managers need to keep in mind while developing plans?
Contingency factors: arrangements for what should be done if changes or problems occur e.g. computer system failure or industrial action.
Environmental uncertainty: the manager has to cope up with the dynamic environment where things change over night. These changes could be of fashion, taste, demand, innovation and so on and so forth.