Investigacion

Managelnent and Organisational Behaviour

The Planning Process
of numerous decisions oriented to the future. 4 Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done. It involves the selection of objectives, policies, procedures and programmes from among alternatives. 5 Thus, planning is primarily concerned with looking into the future and involving the selection of the best alternative.Forecasting Vs. Planning
We generally tend to confuse forecasting with planning. Forecasts are predictions or estimates of the future changes. In other words, forecast is an attempt to probe the future by inferences from known facts. For example, the sales of baby soaps of Johnson and Johnson was 5 lakh pieces in 2002-03. The population growth rate is 5 per cent and it is assumed that all other factorsV{ill remain constant in 2003-04. It is forecasted that the sales of baby soaps of Johnson and Johnson would be 5.25 lakhs in 2003-04. Thus, forecast is estimating what will happen in future. But planning is deciding in advance what is to be done in future. For examlJle, recall the Johnson and Johnson example. If the company decides to achieve sales of 6 lakh pieces of soaps in 2003-04, it iscalled planning. The derivative plans include planning for attractive product design and substantially investing in more promotional programmes. Thus, planning is what is to be done in the future while forecasting is what will happen in the future. The implementation of planning needs extra effort. Planning is a wider aspect whereas forecasting has a narrow dimension and so forecasting is a techniqueof planning.
It is clear to us that planning is broader and it is different from forecasting. Now, we study the need for planning.

Naturare of planning
Planning decides the objectives, goals and course of action in advance and the method of implementing and achieving the plans. Planning aims at achieving the goals more economically and accurately. It is the basic management function. Thenature of planning includes: (if)
(i) Primary Planning: Planning is the primary and basic function among the management functions viz., planning, organising, staffing, directing and contfcrlting. Infact, all other functions follow the function of planning. Managers first perform the planning function and then perform all other functions.
(iii) Contributes to Objectives: Organisational objectivesspecify the purpose for which the organisations are established. These objectives are converted into goals. Managers perform the planning function in order to achieve the goals and objectives. Thus planning contributes to the achievement of objectives.
Intellectual Activity: Planning includes foreseeing the future environmental opportunities and threats. Further, it includes acquiringorganisational strengths and eliminating weaknesses in order to match these strengths and environmental opportunities. It also includes strengthening the organisation to face the environmental challenges and threats. Managers develop alternative courses, evaluate these alternatives and select the best course. Managers should have intellectual ability and multiple skills to perform planning effectively.Thus, planning is an intellectual activity.
(Iv) (v) Higher Efficiency: Efficiency is the ratio between input and output. Achieving more output with the same input and/or reducing the input to achieve the same output is referred to as efficiency. Planning minimises the input and maximises output. Thus, planning maximises organisational efficiency.
Flexibility: Planning should proact and react tothe environmental changes. Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation make the external environment more dynamic. This inturn results in high competitiveness and customer-centred production and marketing. In addition, customer tastes and preferences have been changing at a fast rate. All these factors made the business firms to introduce total quality management (TQM) and business process...