Planning
Most of us are familiar with the meaning of Planning in our everyday life. We do decide in advance, the things to be done on a busy working day. As students, you may think in advance about how to go ahead with the preparation for your examination, How to make use of your time in the best possible manner.
Parents make advance decisions on how many kids they want. Where to live. What kind of house do they want. Where to send their children for education, etc. You may call it family planning as an argumentative essay writer professional. We understand that planning is a systematic way of deciding about and purposefully performing things.
What is planning?
In the context of formal organizations and their management, the concept of planning maintains a specific connection. It is deciding in advance what is to be done in the future for a specific period. Then take the required actions to carry out the decisions made.
It is looking ahead into the future and trying to anticipate what it is likely to be, how it will affect the organization, what direction the organization should take, and how to deal with future events. Planning additionally includes the determination of courses of action from among alternatives to achieve the goals of the organization. In the immediate future as well as in the long run.
The very thought of planning brings to mind such images as a neat, orderly, and disciplined approach to work, goal-oriented behavior, thinking about and arranging things in advance, careful allocation of scarce resources, etc.
In a nutshell, as a term papers planning may be defined as the act of determining future goals and determining how to achieve them. Nature and characteristics of planning are a topic which we need to thoroughly understand to perform our duties in an orderly way.
Characteristics of Planning
- Managerial function: It is a managerial function which includes organizing, staffing, directing, etc.
- Goal-Oriented: It focuses on the goals and deciding the appropriate action plan that is to be undertaken for attaining the goal.
- Continuous Process: Plans are developed for a month, quarter, or a year as per the organization’s requirement. It is an ongoing process at various levels. It needs to be aligned with the plans of other departments and other levels of the organizational hierarchy. Therefore, it is a continuous process as one plan is followed by another plan.
- Pervasive: It is required at all levels of the organization and is present in all the segments and all the departments at various levels.
- Futuristic: The planning represents a future-oriented function. It looks ahead of a month, a year or five-year or ten-year and make plans accordingly. To face future challenges, one has to make decisions based on future events and the changing market conditions and trends so that the organization may stay in the business for a long time.
- Intellectual Process: While making plans one has to put his thoughts, imagination, and the application of his mind intelligently. The mental exercise involved in the planning.
- Decision Making: Planning involves appropriate decision making at the proper time to accomplish the goal of the organization. It encourages the manager to overcome the challenges and roadblocks and equally undertake an alternate course of action to attain the organization’s goal.
Importance of Planning
- Minimizes Risk and Uncertainty.
- Improve Future Performance.
- Direction for Action.
- Identify and Uncovers Future opportunities and Threats.
- Facilitates the Coordination of Activities.
- Sets out Standards for Controlling.
Steps of Planning
Giving below the steps involved in planning:
- Analyzing Opportunities
- Setting Objectives
- Developing premises
- Identifying Alternatives
- Evaluating Alternatives
- Selecting Alternatives
- Implementing Action plan
- Reviewing.
