Six Steps Of Management Planning

Most organizations follow the same set of fundamentals when dealing with management. The list of fundamental management principals are; planning organizing, leading, and controlling. The purpose of this paper is to focus on planning. What are the steps on the planning process? Which step is the most crucial? Why? Can organizations over-plan? Why or why not? Planning is basically preparing, scheduling, arranging, or setting up to achieve company goals. In other words, “planning is the conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities that an organization will pursue in the future” (Bateman & Snell, 2007). There is an actual strategy managers have when planning and the strategy consists of six steps; Situational Analysis, Alternative Goals and Plans, Goal and Plan Evaluation, Goal and Plan Selection, Implementation, and Monitor and Control (Bateman & Snell, 2007). Each step is important and fits in to the organizations plans and goals.

Situational analysis is the beginning of the six step organizational planning process. Situational analysis is “a process planners use, within time and resource constraints, to gather, interpret, and summarize all information relevant to the planning issue under consideration” (Bateman & Snell, 2007). For example, if a manager at a men’s clothing store is thinking about launching a new line of polo shirts, analysis would be factors such as popularity of polo shirts for men, are polo shirts in style, what kind of polo shirts are in style, is there a demand for polo shirts, and if other men’s stores are selling polo shirts. This type of analysis would help the manager decide if they need to move any further in the planning process.

Alternative goals and plans come next in the organizational planning process. “Based on the situational analysis, the planning process should generate alternative goals that may be pursued in the future and the alternative plans that may be used to achieve those goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2007). Going along with the men’s clothing store, alternatives a manager would think about having are, what age group of men are they targeting to sell polo’s to or if they should target the polo’s to be sold to all age groups of men.

Goal and plan evaluation is third in the list of organizational planning. In the goal and plan evaluation step “managers will evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and potential effects of each alternative goal and plan. They will prioritize those goals and even eliminate some of them from consideration” (Bateman & Snell, 2007). With the men’s clothing store example managers may conclude that creating a new line of polo’s targeted for older men wouldn’t make much sense in the bottom line.

Goal and plan selection is forth in the list of organizational planning. The goal and plan selection is done after evaluating the different goals and plans coming up with the ones that are best suitable for the organizations main goals and plans. For example, the men’s