Meaning of planning: Planning forms that part of management which
lays down the objectives and various activities to be done for the attainment
of those objectives. Under this it is decided what has to be done? How is to be
done? When is to be done? Deciding about all these things is called
planning. A problem about taking
decisions on these matters arises when there are, more than one possible
answer. Therefore, it can be said to be
a process of choosing.
According to M.E.HARLEY,” planning is deciding in advance
what is to be done. It involves to selection of objectives, polices, procedures
and programmes from among alternatives.”
According to koontz and
o’donnel,” planning
is deciding n advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who is to do
it.”
Characteristics or nature of planning:
1. Planning is an intellectual process: planning is chiefly an intellectual process which
means thinking before doing. The success
of planning depends on the manager and his ability to collect the facts which
are like to affect planning whether these facts are connected with the present
situation or the estimated future changing; how correctly he studies and
evaluates these facts; and how correctly he takes his decision on their
basis. The whole process happens to be
intellectual and for the successful completion of all these activities the
planner should have far sightedness, imaginative power and decision making
capacity. A planner should mainly
consider the following questions:
*what is to be done?
*how is it to be done?
*when is it to be done?
*by who, is it to be done?
Taking decisions on all these
questions depend on the competence of the planner. therefore it can be said that planning
requires thinking at every step. Hence,
it can be considered as an intellectual process.
2. Planning is selection of the best alternative: the second important characteristic
of planning is the selection of the best alternative. There can be many ways of doing a work and
the planner selects the best possible alternative. Therefore, it can be said
that planning involves the selection of the best alternative and rejection of
the inappropriate ones.
3. Planning is all pervasive: it will be appropriate to describe planning as all
pervasive because it operates at all the levels of management in an enterprise. It is an important function of every manager
to plan things whether he is a managing director or simply a foreman in a
factory. Some people are of the opinion
that planning is the job of only the high level managers but it is not true. It can, however, be admitted that the high
level , managers spend more time in comparison to the middle level or lower
level managers in the work of planning. It is, therefore, clear that all the
managers working in an enterprise have to plan their activities.
4. Planning is the primary function of the management:
planning is the primary function of management and all other function
like organising, staffing, leading, and controlling come later. In the absence of planning no other function
of management can be completed.
Undoubtedly planning is the first function of management but it does not
mean that after planning when other function of management. Without planning neither organization can be
created, nor staffing can be done.
Similarly, planning is needed in case of leading and controlling.
5. Planning is forecasting: planning always takes
into consideration the future. Under
planning, on the basis of collected facts, the future is anticipated and proper
decision taken, thus, we can say that forecasting is the essence of planning.
6. Planning is a continuous process: planning is that
process which begins with the establishment of the organisation and ends with
the organization. In the other words,
the process of planning continues so long as the organization continues to
exist. A manager starts planning before
the work is started and when one work is accomplished planning for the other
begins and this process continues. Thus,
planning is a continuous process.
7. Planning is flexible: planning involves forecasting the
future which is uncertain. It is quite
possible that the basis of the forecast made by the manager or the facts on
which he makes his planning under ago some changes in his planning according to
the changed facts or situations, it can thus be said that planning is a
flexible process.
8. Planning is goal oriented: an enterprise in establishment with some pre determined
objectives and planning tells us how to achieve them. Therefore, it is clear that planning without
some objectives is meaningless.
9. Planning is an interdependent process: the activities
of an enterprise are divided into many departments like purchase department.
Sales department, production department, finance department, personnel
department, etc. all these departments
have their own separate plans which are the parts of a master plan of a
particular department due to some reason, the plans of all other department
have to be ,modified accordingly. For
example, if the sales department achieves more sales than the anticipated
quantity, its plans shall have to be modified resulting in more purchases and
production to cope with the demand of the sales department. This, in turn,
necessitates changes in the plans of the purchase and production departments as
well. Thus the departmental planning
depends on one and other.
10.
Planning leads to efficiency and
economy: planning
makes it possible to utilize the available human and material resources in the
most favourable manner in an organization.
Capital, labour, material, , machinery, etc., are utilized in a manner
to produce the maximum quantity of the best quality goods with minimum cost.
11.
Planning considers limiting factors:
the quantity of available resources of production has to be kept in mind
before planning. If a manager ignores the
limited resources, planning is bound to fail.
For example, if the raw material will be limited factor, only after its
availability is decided, the other activities like production, sales, etc., can
be thought of.
12.
Planning creates coordination:
in any organization coordination of all the activities is necessary to
run the work unhindered. With the help
of planning what, why, who, where, when, etc. of every things is
clarified. Doubts are cleared and
coordination is established. Planning makes it clear as to what is to be done,
why it is being done, who will do it, where it will be done and when it will be
done. On the other hand, without planning nobody will know what is to be done
and what is not to be done.
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