Theories of Planning and their comparison to Practical events - Free Essay Example

Planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategies, outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish, and deciding how best to achieve goals and objective of the company/organisation. Planning is also a process of thinking through all part of an issue or a problem before taking action. At the same time, planning provides the elements for action. Basic management function involves proposal of one or more detailed plans to achieve resources. Organisation that set goals is more effective in recruiting members. A good mission statement helps to enlighten employees and provides a focus and direction for setting lower level objectives. It should guide employees in making decisions and set up what the organisation does. Mission statement is the key for organisation to flourish and grow. Meanwhile, there are three types of planning. First is the To-Do-List planning. Since managers are so busy, it is crucial that they be able to list the projects, reports, meetings, or goals they need to complete on a day-to-day basis. To-do-list planning is narrowly focused, daily or weekly in time span, and frequently personal. Returning to our main topic, it represents a priceless discipline on the part of the individual manager desire to see things get done or to make the organisation work. Not only are to-do-list valuable for individual plann ing, they are valuable structure for delegating tasks to others. The second type of planning is Operational planning. Operational planning is estimate to face the mid-range of time. This may be weeks or months or may extend to a year or two. Usually, operational planning is in response to an annual budget. Some planning experts have termed this type of planning tactical planning. Whether it is driven by an organisations budget, an individual budget or a functional area of responsibility, operational planning focuses on getting the work accomplished effectively between now and some limited time period. The third type of planning is Strategic planning. Strategic planning is used to identify, define and analyse the means of achieving of achieving the objectives of the organisation. Besides that, strategic planning is the responsibility of top management and long terms plan. The Function of a Good Manager in Planning A good manager in planning has a clear view on the company/organisations goals and objectives. For example, a good manager fully understands the company/organisations goals and objectives. Furthermore, a good manager will try his or her best to achieve the goals and objectives. For example, a good manager always tries to achieve company/organisations goals and objectives with every task he or she did. A good manager must have good judgement and able to made decision wisely. For example, a good manager always thinks about every possibility and makes the best choice from all the alternatives. A good manager can easily set mission, vision and goals that bring benefits to the company/organisation. For example, a good manager takes up a short time to set company/organisation mission and goals. The Function of a Bad Manager in Planning A bad manager in planning does not have clear view on the company/ organisations goals and objectives. For example, a bad manager cant fully understand the company/organisations goals and objectives. In addition, a bad manager has less effort on trying to achieve the goals and objectives. For example, a bad manager would spend less effort and time to achieve company/organisations goals and. A bad manager has poor judgement and unable to made decision wisely. For example, a bad manager would not think about every possibilities and unable to make the best choice from all the alternatives. Meanwhile, a bad manager cannot easily set mission, vision and goals that bring benefits to the company/organisation. For example, a bad manager takes up a very long time to set company/organisation mission and goals. Interview on Case Study Organisations Manager In order to complete this assignment, our group decided to go and interview a manager about the functions of a manager in an organisation. After several discussions, we decided to interview one of the Energizer Companys managers, Mr Chua. Mr Chua work as the Engineering Manager in Energizer Company. After we finish the interview with Mr Chua, we found out the function of managers in the Energizer Company. We classified the result of the interview into four types, which are Planning, Organising, Leading and also Controlling. According to the result of the interview with Mr Chua, we found out the way Energizer Companys managers use the management planning in the company. We found that planning is important in the Energizer Companys management. Planning is the key factor for Energizer Companys success. Planning helps in setting the goals, identifying the method use to achieve goals, predicting the future and determining the directions of the Energizer Company. Planning also helps t o maximise the best utilisation of Energizer Companys resources and determines the best timing in executing various task and project to achieve the best available option or opportunity. Besides that, planning helps Energizer Company to avoid unnecessary risk, wastage of resources, underutilisation, identify obstacles, barriers and ways to avoid or overcome it. We also found out the type of planning used by Energizer Companys managers. Energizer Companys managers use all three types of planning, the To-Do-List planning, Operational planning and also Strategic planning. The managers use To-Do-List planning to list out all tasks on papers so that they know what their task is and when they need to complete it. Meanwhile, the managers use Operational planning to plan the operations of Energizer Company in response to the annual budget so that they can use up their resources efficiently. Lastly, the managers use Strategic planning to help identify and analyse the problems and solve it in order to achieve the objectives. Comparison between Manager in Energizer and Actual Theories Based on the theories and the result of interview on Energizer Companys Engineering Manager, Mr Chua, we were able to compare and found out the differences and similarity in management planning. Planning is important in Energizer Company. This is because Energizer Companys managers use planning to in setting goals, the methods use to achieve goals, predict the future of the company and also determine the direction of the company. As the theories stated that planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategies, outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish, and deciding how best to achieve goals and objective of the company/organisation. Meanwhile, Energizer Companys managers use all three types of planning as stated in the theories which are the To-Do-List planning, Operational planning and also Strategic planning. The managers use To-Do-List planning to list out all tasks on papers so that they know what their task is and when they need to complete it, Operational p lanning to plan the operations of Energizer Company in response to the annual budget so that they can use up their resources efficiently, and Strategic planning to help identify and analyse the problems and solve it in order to achieve the objectives. Therefore, we found out that Energizer Companys managers use management planning in the same way as the theories.