Planning

Question 1

What is planning ?

Answer 1

Planning is defining the organizational goals

Establishing strageties for achieveing those goals and coordinating work activities

Question 2

Goals and plans

Classify the types of goals organization might have and the plans they use

Answer 2

Goals= targets 
Plans= documents that outline how goals are going to be met

Question 3

Types of goals ?

Answer 3

Financial goals: related to internal financial performance of the organization

Strategic goals: related to the external environment of the performance of the company e.g competitors

Question 4

Types of plans

Answer 4

Strategic plans are long term plans that apply to the whole firm and make up the firms goals

Tactical plans are medium term plans that takes the strategic plan and sets up actions and plans

Operational plans are short term plans that outline how a team/ department will contribute to achieving the long term plans

Single use plan are one time plan that are used to meet a certain need of a situation

Standing plans are ongoing plans that provide guidance for activities performed repeatedly

Question 5

Approaches to setting goals ?

Answer 5

Traditional goal setting is when the top managers set out the goals of the company and it is then passed down to each department and used as sub goals

The modern approach is :
Management by objectives (MBO) which is a process of setting mutually agreed upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance

Question 6

Well written goals are ?

Answer 6

Smart goals-
Specific - define the goals as much as possible with no ambiguous language
Measurable - must be of a reliable time frame and accurate
Attainable- is the goal realistic enough to achieve and how may a company do so
Relevant- is the goals worthwhile and will it meet your needs ?
Timely - should be a time frame

Question 7

What is contingency planning?

Answer 7

Contingency planning is when an unexpected event or situation occurs in a firm e.g fire drill
It is usually a negative effect

Question 8

Nature and purpose of planning ?

Answer 8

Planning involves defining organizational goals and coming up with a strategy for achieving those goals and developing plans for organizational work activities (Nature)

Four purposes are reducing uncertainty/minimizing waste/ redundancy /providing direction

Question 9

Steps in MBO

Answer 9

Company’s objectives are formulated

Different Objectives to different departments

Unit managers set specific objectives to there managers