Planning in todays organizations in comparison to planning twenty-five years - Essay Example

Organizational Planning now and then Organizational planning has been done by top executives, consulting firms or central planning departments (Daft 2010, p. 175). Central planning departments in this case incorporate a group of planning specialists who report to the CEO or president of a company. Their goal is to develop strategic plans and gather data from the organization. This involves a top-down approach where plans and goals were assigned to major divisions and departments after approval from the president (Daft 2010, p. 175). This approach has worked well in companies twenty-five years ago, and it is still used in some companies today (Daft 2010. p. 175).However, despite the longevity of this approach, formal planning is criticised in today’s society with a fast paced environment. Documents from central planning departments may be obsolete to the rapid changes in reality faced by managers and front line employees. People may have to struggle to follow a plan that is not applicable to the customer’s needs or the environment. Moreover, they may hinder the employee’s innovative and learning skills. These are some of the differences experienced in planning today and twenty-five years ago. The main objective is to look after how planning in today’s organizations in comparison to planning twenty-five years ago. Secondly is to examine whether planning becomes more or less important in a world where everything is changing quickly and crises are a regular part of organizational life and why it is so. Planning has changed and now involves everyone in the organization, plus outside stakeholders as well. It embraces decentralised planning in which experts in planning work with managers in major departments to develop their goals and plans. With this approach, managers come up with creative solutions to problems and become more engaged in following through the plan (Daft 2010, p. 175). At the same time, the environment has become more volatile, pushing executives to incorporate decentralised planning further. This is where planning experts work directly with line managers and front-line employees as well to develop dynamic plans that will meet its life changing needs (Daft 2010, p. 175). Planning is evolutionary and plans are continually adapted to meet new consumer’s needs. As mentioned, the environment has become more volatile compared to that in twenty-five years ago; there has been increasing turbulence, therefore managers have turned to innovative planning. Innovative planning is a planning approach that helps brace the organization on unexpected or unimaginable events (Daft 2010, p. 172). These include contingency planning, building scenarios and crisis planning. Crisis planning comes as a result of unexpected events that occur in a company which require quick response. Events such as the conviction of Martha Stewart and the crash of the American Airlines Flight 587 require a quick response. More so, crises have become more rampant in organizations, and there is a need for a crisis plan that will be able to combat such disasters. Additionally, crisis planning reduces the incidence of trouble (Daft 2008, p. 224). Building scenarios involve observing current trends, discontinuities, and visualising future possibilities (Daft 2008, p. 224). It focuses on a scenario that could happen in the future. Apparently, events that cause the most damage to the company, such as bombing of the world trade centre, are those not easily convinced of. The future cannot be predicted, however, a framework can be rehearsed which would be used to manage future events. In building scenario, a line of managers discusses possible scenarios where different anticipations that impact the organization are evaluated. Planning is then crucial towards development in an organization. Contingency plans help an organization respond to unexpected conditions. When operating in a highly uncertain environment, organizations will need flexible plans that help its performance. The organization may be facing rapid technological, social, economic or environmental change. Managers therefore have to look at possible factors that affect the environment such as declining markets, economic downturns, and increase in price of a product or service, technological developments or safety accidents (Daft 2010, pg. 172). Information is now gathered, relayed, and interpreted more rapidly (Word, 2012). In this scenario, an organization will need management planning that forecasts the future demand for a product, cost and availability (of material or personnel). Secondly, diversity of a product or service to other related activities requires managerial planning. This plays a role in explaining the worldview supply and demand of a product or service, plus its flexibility to change accurately and quickly. A case example is Nancy Sorrells, the general manager of Dallas-Fort worth Marriott holds the principle, if you do not know where you are going, you do not know how to get there. She aligned all her employees to the mission before she could expect them to establish and meet high-performance goals (Daft 2008, p. 231). She held meetings with the departments heads and the employees to make them aware of the five aspects of the mission statement; creating a great experience for guests, creating a great work experience for employees, the profitability of the hotel, the quality of the hotel and the growth of the company (Daft 2008, p. 231).She engaged herself with the departmental heads by setting goals and ensuring that the employees are aligned with the goals described in the five elements of the mission statement. She explained to her employees that any slight divergence from the goals would ambiguously throw people off course. Some departmental heads were hesitant to follow her instructions and thus they resigned or were let go (Daft 2008, p. 231). However, most of her employees were inspired by her vision to revamp the hotel and were glad to know what they were required to do. They started with simple performance goals such as coming to work on time and taking care of the basics (Daft 2008, p. 231). Employees set higher goals at each meeting and took pride in their work. As a result, and overall sales went up $1.5 million behind budget to $ 500,000 behind budget. From the case sample, planning can be seen as a crucial factor in increasing effectiveness and thus performance in an organization. With various diversification of the business environment, planning can be modified to suit the customer’s needs. Reference Daft, L., R. 2008. The New Era of Management, Planning in a Turbulent Environment. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA Daft, L. R. 2010. Management, High-Performance Approaches to planning. New York: Cengage Learning. Word Prof, 2012, Management, How does management planning compare to 25 years ago? [Online] Available from http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-does-management-planning-compare- 25-years-ago-346819 [Accessed: 19th Feb. 2015] Read More