Foundation of Planning

Foundation of Planning



Planning is defining the organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing plans for organizational work activities. Managers plan whenever there is need to establish goals and to address how these goals are going to be achieved. You are planning if you have set your goals or objectives and develop a plan for achieving those goals.

Some planning is done daily, weekly, monthly or annually. Most of the organization will have specific time period or requirements for when and what plans need to be completed. The organizational planning depends on what level the manager is on, if he/she at the top level management, the plan is not done very often but comprehensive and more future-oriented.

Sometimes when we spending all our time planning but not seeing that those plans are carried out, we are doing too much planning. Once we’ve planned, the plan has to be implemented. For example, you want to finish you degree within 2½ years and not taking the necessary courses in the right sequences to meet graduation requirements, then you are planning too much.

During planning, the manager has to identify the organization’s goal/objectives to achieve. A for-profit organization has a primary objective which is to increase profit. However, if the manager wants the organization to survive in the long run, they should concentrate on other objectives as well. For instance, increased market share, strong product development, strong employee training and development, or effective planning processes.

Some organizations have their own stated objectives that organizations profess/believes as their intentions. However, these stated objectives are not often agreed by all the stakeholders. For them, it is just a ‘window-dressing’ to make the organizations look responsible and rational. This is happened because there is a conflict between what the organizations say and what they actually do. The content of stated objectives is substantially determined by what those audiences want to hear. But it is not make the information in the stated objectives is wrong. It is just means that what managers were writing the stated objectives, they were responding to what they realized as the demands of certain stakeholders.

Large or small organizations will create rules and procedures whenever they can because they’re efficient. Rules and procedure are standing plan to guide the manager’s decision and actions. This rules and procedures are ready to use whenever the situation arise, and managers don’t have to waste time or resources studying the situation and making plans. This standing plan contributes to doing work efficiently.

Traditional objective setting = objectives that sets up by the upper level of the organization and broken down into sub-goals for each lower level. The objectives sets by upper level because they know what’s best for the organization since only they know what is happening inside and outside the organization. However, the problem with this system is each manager is applying his/her own set of interpretations to the objectives as they pass from level to the next. as they pass this objectives, it often lose clarity and unity as they make their way down from top to the bottom of the organizations.

Management by objectives (MBO) = a process of setting mutually agreed upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance. There 4 problems with MBO;

1. Time consuming – need a long-time period to achieve goals
2. More to quantity – overemphasis on strictly quantitative goals
3. Goals are set too high; or too low and too inflexible
4. Concentrate only on goals
– MBO system is on goals or ends, employees may concentrate on achieving their goals regardless of the means they use to get there – lead to unethically or irresponsible action and decision.

There are issues on planning and it normally happened when you want to implement your plans. Two examples that always arise are;

1. External environment are increasingly dynamic and complex and that make strategic and long-term planning look obsolete – managers can’t really expect to plan effectively when there is so much changes outside the organizations. One other thing to note in relation to strategic and long-term planning is that the time frame of long-term planning has changed considerably. For instance, back in 1970’s, long-term was considered to be anything over 15-20 years. But it is impossible to plan 15 years in the future nowadays! Long-term now are generally considered to be in the range of 2-3 years in the future. However, it still can be difficult to predict and plan for changes in the external environment especially for organizations in rapidly changing industries such as computers or the like. On the other hand, strategic and long-term planning must be considered because it is too valuable and important to do that.

2. Sometimes when plans are determined, we have to change those plans. Plans are created in static time frame. However, once those plans are put into action, it’s no longer a static scenario. Instead, organizational members are doing their work according to the plans. You have to change your plans even though you planned well. This is happens because the organizations are dynamic, and your environment change rapidly. You had to change your plan according to the particular situation that arises during the implementation.