Management Planning

Running Head : Management Planning

Management Planning

Name

University

Planning is a basic function of management which determines the objectives and the course of action required to attain them . Planning is done at every level of management , hence is done by all managers from the highest to lowest in the management hierarchy (Boone , Kurtz ,

br 269 . There are four main types of planning - corporate , strategic management and operations , each of which is carried out at different management levels , covers a different time-span and has varying levels of short and long-term

impact on the working of the organization (Boone Kurtz ,

. 271 . Needless to say , the planning activities of various managers at different levels are different

Senior management usually does the corporate and strategic planning activities . Strategic planning details the goals and objectives of the company while corporate planning decides how the organization would operate to achieve these objectives and goals . The resource allocation for achieving the goals is also done during the corporate and strategic planning stage . Strategic planning is usually long term covering about three to five years (Dixon , 2003 ,

. 29 , 30 . The plan charts out the path of the organization during the period and the various activities which need to be done for achieving the objectives set . An example of strategic planning is of General Motors and Dell 's business strategy related to their spare parts given in the book by Muckstadt (2005 ,

. 2 . In dell 's case , there is no need to maintain an exhaustive inventory regarding its old products sales parts , while this is an important element of General Motor 's strategy . Hence , GM as a part of its business strategy maintains a huge storage space where hundreds of thousands of storage parts are stocked . The location of the storage space must also take into consideration its supply chain partners like either individual car dealers as well as its suppliers , when designing such a strategy

Management planning is done by middle level management who divide the task into different smaller units and ensure that proper execution of the task would take place by making a effective integration plan . This planning is of a comparatively shorter time span than the strategic planning and usually lasts for a single project or a set of similar projects . They also cover only a partial division of the organization Operational planning is done by the line managers and is of a shorter time span than the management planning . It usually refers to the day-to-day planning addressing the specific time-tables , task and measurable targets that managers in each different unit of the project make and maintain to ensure that the task get done in-time . Hence operational planning deals with developing and implementing tactics in specific functional areas . The managers allocate time and teams consisting of a specific number of employees to perform a particular task (Dixon , 2003 ,

. 31

Strategic goals are achieved by setting and achieving tactical objectives . Hence , it is very important that the plans at different levels complement...