Nature’s planning for the year.
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Answer:
Planning is the process by which managers establish goals and define the methods by which these goals are to be attained. Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making, which is choosing from among alternative future courses of action.
It is, therefore, a rational approach to achieving pre-selected objectives.Planning is thus taken as the foundation for future activities. Newman has thus defined it as, “Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done; that is a plan is a projected course of action.”
So, planning can be thought of as deciding on a future course of action. It may also be treated as a process of thinking before doing it.
Management has to plan for long-range and short-range future direction by looking ahead into the future, by estimating and evaluating the future behavior of the relevant environment and by determining the enterprise’s own desired role.
Planning involves determining various types and volumes of physical and other resources to be acquired from outside, to allocate these resources in an efficient manner among competing claims and to make arrangements for the systematic conversion of these resources into useful outputs.
As it is clear from the above discussion, plans have two basic components: goals and action statements.
Goals represent an end state — the targets and results that managers hope to achieve.Action statements represent the means by which an organization goes ahead to attain its goals. Planning is a deliberate and conscious act by means of which managers determine a course of action for pursuing a specific goal.
Planning to a manager means thinking about what is to be done, who is going to do it, and how and when he will do it. It also involves thinking about past events (retrospectively) and about future opportunities and impending threats (prospectively).
Planning enquirers about organizational strengths and weaknesses and involves decision making about desired ways and means to achieve them.
There are, however, differences between decision making and planning. Decisions can be made without planning but planning cannot be done without making decisions.
Nature of Planning
The nature of planning can be understood by examining its four major aspects. They are;
It is a contribution to objectives,
It is primacy among the manager’s tasks.
It is pervasiveness, and
The efficiency of resulting plans.
The contribution of Planning to the Attainment of Objectives
Since plans are made to attain goals or objectives, every plan and all its support should contribute to the achievement of the organization’s purpose and objectives.
An organized enterprise exists to accomplish group objectives through willing and purposeful co-operation.