Planning 1 How Managers Actually Plan and Manage The conventional prescribed models of managing and planning imply that managers' thinking and cognitive processes operate in a linear or circular fashion in a series of identifiable and distinct steps or phases. These rational models are based on the assumption that it is possible for all information relevant to an issue to be gathered in time and processed by the manager. It is also assumed that managers can successfully prioritize desired outcomes and strategies in terms of objective measures such as economic benefit and select the one with the greatest benefit or the least cost. Both these assumptions are unrealistic because they do not reflect the way managers really think and deal with the various forces trying to influence the planning and decision-making process. Managers plan under very different environmental circumstances from what the conventional models assume. Stone (2011) offers a more realistic alternative to the conventional model of planning based on economic thought. Her model explains how policy decisions are made in the public sphere but provides insight into how managers in business organizations think as well. Deborah's model is based on the assumptions that managers have to deal with competing political interests of several stakeholders and have to decide between them in a subjective rather than an objective way. They do not weigh costs and benefits in an economic fashion but use their negotiation
“Organizational Management and Leadership” defines planning as “the development of goals, which leads to the development of an overall strategy for achieving those goals. Planning can be performed at all levels of an organization. Supervisors are planning when a weekly work schedule is put together for hourly staff. Top executives are planning when they define the mission statement of the company and determine how the organization can maintain its competitive advantage.”
Planning consists of competitive moves and business approaches developed to attract, please customers, conduct operations, grow the business, gain competitive advantage, and achieve performance objectives (Huidan, 2011). There are three steps to planning. A manager must be able to decide what goals to pursue, the best strategy to achieve those goals, and how to use their available resources to achieve those goals as efficient as possible (Bethel University,
The structure and design of organizations have drastically changed over the last twenty-five years. Organizations develop new goals at the beginning of the year or after the completion of previous goals, and heavily depend on planning to help achieve these goals. Planning is an integral part of organizational success, as upper management receives substantial information on various needs such as risk uncertainty, available resources, employee development, and unforeseen changes in technology (Daft, 2013). Most importantly, successful planning allows management to make effective decisions when unforeseen events arise within the organization. Not participating in planning is equivalent to taking a road trip across the country without a
Most companies have a vision, mission statement, and a set of core values. These three things are normally made up by a group of senior managers or a leadership team. Once these three things are decided upon, the upper management or leadership team should deliver the information to the management below them, so the important information is delivered to all levels of employees within the company. After the these three things have been set, most companies will post their vision, mission statement and core values somewhere for all employees to see. Often time’s new employees are given copies of these three things in orientation or on their first day of work. Coming up with the vision, mission statement and core values are just one way that
Managers make many decisions every day. Thankfully there are many tools available to a manager as they make these decisions. Tiffany is a General Manager of a franchise in the quick service restaurant industry. She is faced with decisions dozens of times in one day. A large portion of the decisions that she is faced with are made to solve structured problems, however, sometimes an unstructured problem does arise that she needs to address. As well as solving problems Tiffany must also make plans to in order to have structure and organization to achieve the goals set forth by herself and the company that she works for. Looking at some of the decisions that Tiffany has had to make recently it can been seen how she goes about solving
Approaches to planning differ, depending upon the attitude and culture of the company involved, which in turn affect the relative importance given to different
Not only managers face the complex situations of making right versus right decisions, but we all are confronted with such dilemmas on a regular basis, both in our personal lives and in our professional lives. The managers need to be trained to take these kinds of situations. Unfortunately, manages are not assisted or trained in this area of decision making by most of the organizations. They are left to make their own decisions, and managers who are not good in decision making end up making the wrong decisions.
Organizations are responsible for the legal, ethical, and social issues that affect each stakeholder within the company. These factors continually impact the planning process performed at each level of management. An organization that neglects to establish and monitor plans can become disorganized and ultimately lose control of practices performed throughout the corporation. A prime example of poor planning due to disregard of legal, ethical, and social issues were the executives employed at WorldCom.
Planning is considered to be a primary function of management. All organisations operate in a complex, dynamic and competitive business environment, and therefore, have to plan their actions without which they may not be able to survive.
Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a
In organizations, the executives are often bogged down with the responsibility of creating new strategies, analyzing business processes and making decisions for implementation in different departments. Judge (2013) explains that, “the “average” manager spent 32 percent of his or her time in traditional management activities, 29 percent communicating, 20 percent in human resource management activities, and 19 percent networking (p. 8). However, there are recent studies in Australia, Israel, Italy, Japan and the United States that affirm that there is a link between networking and communication and success in an organization (Judge, 2013, p. 8). Due to their main job duties, top managers are usually unaware of the challenges that their
For managers to be successful they have to be able to plan accordingly. Any good manager can understand the importance of planning, because it is one of the most basic functions of managerial skills. A goal has to be established and strategies have to be conveyed to the subordinates. For example, If I’m a manager I will engage
Decision making and planning can be rightly called the primary management tasks and these tasks occur at every level of management although naturally the type of planning and decision making will vary between the levels without decisions and actions they planning process is a sterile exercise it takes place within each of the management functions it is choosing between alternatives is an integral part of all management tasks and it occurs in all levels. The type of decision taken varies but all decision makers go through the same processes and all managers must choose the outcome of their choices and must be responsible for the outcome of the choices made during appraisal. Decision making involves principal phases (finding occasions for making decisions, finding possible causes of action choosing among ones of action and evaluating past choices. The task of management involves making of Cottles decision, so much so that some believe management is decision making there are many subsidiary acts in decision which are themselves automatic of which the processes are usually unknown to the actor himself.
Lecture 1: Managers & Management - Dealing with organisations outside - Relating to supervisors - Interacting with co-workers - Manage yourself in the workplace Managers: what they do ➢ Management – pursuit of organisational goals efficiently and effectively ➢ Effectiveness: attaining organisational goals using resources ➢ Efficiency: achieving results, making the right decisions to achieve organisational goals ➢ Four primary functions: planning, organising, leading, controlling ➢ Planning: setting goals, deciding to achieve a certain goal ➢ Organising: arranging tasks, people, resources to accomplish the work ➢
Managers and organisations plan because it provides them with some direction and reduces uncertainty within the firm. It is also used to set standards for controlling, it is therefore very important within organisations. (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter et al, 2006)