Advantages And Disadvantages Of Planning

Benefits and Pitfalls of Planning

Planning is one of the primary functions of management whereby managers select goals; create strategies and structured processes to make important decisions to attain those goals. Planning is performed at different levels of an organization to achieve goals that are either short term or long term. Planning is beneficial to the company but can be disastrous if not well managed.

The first benefit of planning is that it gives direction and purpose to an organization. Planning is like a car steering wheel, used by organizations as a mechanism to decide where they should be heading. “When we inform people by clearly communicating the company’s destination, they develop a sense of direction and focus” (Green, 2011). Employees can be as excited as the managers to achieve the goal if they know specifically what it is. They will avoid straying away from and work towards the direction of the goal.

Secondly, planning promotes team building and sense of unity to the people involved to accomplish their goals. The effort exerted by managers and employees are more intense when following specific plan. Third, since people are united, it drives them to be persistent and determined to reach the goal even if it means working hard for long periods. Another benefit of planning is it enables manager and employees to find ways to do the job effectively and efficiently. Lastly, formulating a plan is good and proven strategy to survive in today’s cutthroat environment and without it would be chaotic.

Even the best laid out plans may sometimes fail to produce the desired outcome. The first pitfall of planning is it hinders the need for change. The first conception when planning is the belief that it would work especially...

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... of time though but it involves assembling experts into a group who will crucially scrutinize every decisions or solutions until they have reached a consensus. Fourth, stepladder technique is another way of improving decision-making. Stepladder technique produces satisfactory ideas because it ensures that each member will participate. It also allows shy or quite people to share their ideas and viewpoints before reaching a final decision.

Lastly, group decision technique can be improved by electronic brainstorming where members can submit their ideas through computers. This technique is beneficial for people who are unable to express their thoughts verbally and are more comfortable in writing. Unlike brainstorming face-to-face, electronic brainstorming is more productive and each member has the freedom to express their ideas without worrying how others would react.