What Are The Fundamentals Of Organaizational Planning?

Managers should plan because they understand that the future results represented by their organizational goals can be achieved only by making decisions about current actions. Very simply, if no action is taken today, the organization cannot achieve its desired results tomorrow.

A goal is the target or future state an organization wishes to achieve. Goals are important for four reasons. First, they define the organization and justify its existence by specifying the ends it hopes to achieve. Second, they are clear targets that motivate and guide managers and employees in their daily activities. For instance, the educational goals that Elizabeth Dole hoped to identify would be targets for teachers and school administrators. Third, goals direct organizational decision making, focusing attention on the desired future state and ways to reach that future state. And fourth, the desired outcome specified by organizational goals serves as a standard against which performance can be measured. Although definitions vary according to scope and timing, the word goal is commonly used interchangeably with the word objective. For consistency, goal is used throughout this text.

To achieve the ends represented by organizational goals, managers prepare a plan to identify the means by which goals are pursued. A plan helps Management Bridge the gap from the current state to the future state. Managers must choose among many alternatives in their daily activities, so a plan is a way of anticipating the actions necessary to reach goals, allowing managers to make decisions in advance about the actions to be taken.