PLANNING: CONCEPTS & PRACTICES

By: Katherine Gonzales

PLANNING: Concept and Definition

Planning is:

The formal process of conceptualizing an organization vision, mission and overall goals and objectives and deciding how best to achieve them in a specific time frame. The management function concerned with defining goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them; determining the goals and means for achieving them.

 The

process of determining how the management system will achieve its objectives. It determines how the organization can get where it wants to go. divisional, departmental, and even individual objectives based on organizational goals and objectives. and choosing strategies and tactics to achieve those objectives on all allocation of resources to achieve the goals and objectives and the execution of the strategies and tactics.

Fashioning

Crafting

Deciding

A function by which managers must decide what is to be done, when it is to be done, how it is to be done, and who is to do it. (George Steiner) The process of determining how the management system will achieve its objectives. It determines how the organization can get where it wants to go. The process of determining exactly what the organization will do to accomplish its objectives. It is the systematic development of action programs aimed at reaching agreed business objectives by the process of analyzing, evaluating, and selecting among the opportunities which are foreseen.

PLAN

A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. A plan therefore, is a navigational tool that maps out a destination and charts a course to get there. An objective is the expectation or result desired at a future point in time.

Managers plan in order to make decisions today based on premises of what might happen in the future. Effective planning reduces the guesswork managers face when making decisions.

PURPOSES OF PLANNING

To facilitate the accomplishment of enterprise and objectives

Protective purpose: To minimize risk by reducing uncertainties surrounding business conditions and clarifying consequences of related management actions. Affirmative purpose: To increase the degree of organizational success.

PLANNING APPROACHES
Informal

Planning Formal Planning Predetermined Plans

Informal Planning
Is

a process of intuitively deciding on objectives and activities needed to achieve them without rigorous and systematic investigation. In the real world, managers rely heavily on their intuition and use their experience to guide them in planning decision and leave formal planning details to subordinates.

Formal Planning
Is

the process of using systematic criteria and rigorous investigation to establish objectives, decide on activities, and formally document organizational expectations

Predetermined Plans
Provide

guidelines for future activities. These guidelines called planning premises account for limitations, such as time constraints and budget restrictions.

PLANNING PREMISES

1.

Internal and External Premises Premises come from the business itself. It includes skills of the workers, capital investment policies, philosophy of management, sales forecasts, etc. Premises come from the external environment. That is, economic, social, political, cultural and technological environment. External premises cannot be controlled by the business.

Internal

External

2. Controllable, Semi-controllable and Uncontrollable Premises

Controllable

Premises are those which are fully controlled by the management. They include factors like materials, machines and money.
Premises are partly controllable. They include marketing strategy.

Semi-controllable

Uncontrollable

Premises are those over which the management has absolutely no control. They include weather conditions, consumers' behavior, government policy, natural calamities, wars, etc.

3. Tangible and Intangible Premises

Tangible

Premises can be measured in quantitative terms. They include units of production and sale, money, time, hours of work, etc. Premises cannot be measured in quantitative terms. They include goodwill of the business, employee's morale, employee's attitude and public relations.

Intangible

4. Constant and Variable Premises

Constant

Premises do not change. They remain the same, even if there is a change in the course of action. They include men, money and machines. Premises are subject to change. They change according to the course of action. They include union-management relations.

Variable

QUALIFICATIONS OF PLANNERS
First,

they should have considerable practical experience within their organization. Preferably, they should have been executives in one or more of the organizations major departments.
planners should be capable of replacing any narrow view of the organization they may have acquired while holding other organizational positions with an understanding of the organization as a whole. They must have conceptual skills to understand how all parts of the organization function and interrelate.

Second,

 Third,

planners should have the knowledge of and interest in the social, political, economic, technological, and cultural trends in the external environment that could affect the future of the organization. Hey must possess the expertise to determine how the organization should react to the trends to maximize its success. fourth qualification for planners is that they be able to work well with others. It is essential that they possess the interpersonal and communication skills, both orally and in writing.

The

DUTIES OF PLANNERS
Overseeing

the planning process. Evaluating developed plans. Solving planning problems.