MBAPages

Planning is a management process that includes setting goals and objectives, both long term and short term in order to achieve target within the stipulated time. Planning is to decide the steps of how to achieve a target or of how to do a particular task.

Planning in any organization is important as it defines the reasons and the parameters of why and how to do management tasks with more efficiency and lesser time consuming activities. If done correctly it increases the efficiency of the organization as a whole and reduces the risk involved in various business activities. It gives the organization the right way to move ahead and provides better control to the managers. For the executives  too planning acts a motivational factor and clears the opportunities ahead. And the most important it helps in decision making.

Now being a process planning also have some steps that are to be followed in a sequence in order to achieve the targets and to take better decisions. Below are the steps:

1) Goal setting: Now whenever we plan something we have some goal in our mind that we have to achieve or something that we want to do. These are called goals or targets. In organizations also there are some goals around which the efforts of the managers and executives revolves. These goals should be clear and measurable so that the efforts made against those goals should be evaluated easily. Goals should not be rigid that is they should be flexible and can be modified, if needed. More, the goals should be information and self motivating so that the executives and the managers should not feel fallen into a rigid process.

2) Identify available resources: Once the goals are set the next step is to identify the available resources in the organization to analyze whether the available resources are enough or its need to have some more. Analyzing available resources means to take into account all the resources including monetary resources, sales people, technical resources, etc. This helps managers to mane necessary arrangements for future needs, so that the required resources should be available when needed.

3) Creating steps and strategies: Now the next step comes with thinking in a practical way as to what will  be the steps to do a particular task. For example, if the sales plans are to be made then the steps and strategies will include as to how to approach a particular client/customer, what should be proposed to him first and in what manner, There should be some alternative strategies too keeping in mind the future scenario. Also whatever the strategies will be, they should be discussed well with the executives or with the team that will be assigned that particular tasks.

4) Review meetings: Regular review meetings should be planned so as to check whether the plans are carried effectively. This also helps to managers to achieve their goals in time. Further the executives and the team is also aware that they are held responsible for the tasks that are assigned to them. This provide better level of control to the managers and the top management.

5) Implement necessary steps: If needed  he managers may require to change the steps or strategies to accomplish their goals. These can be the alternative course of action or can be the solution to the present problems.

Planning process though can never be the same in all the organization. It also depends on the organization/team size as with the small teams the risk factor can be higher as they need to do their tasks in very effective way with limited resources. 

Decision making in management is a very important factor and demands high level of commitment from the managers and the top management. Decision Making can be said as the process of comparing various alternatives to select the best one that ensures highly efficient future actions. Decision making is directly proportional with the performance of the decision makers or the management as the future actions depends on the decision so taken and establishes chances of future decisions and amendments in the existing one, if needed.

Decision making is the responsibility of every managers regardless their departments and roles and some decisions may have huge impact on the organizational performance and some may have less. The alternatives that are analyzed in the Decision Making Process should be selected keeping in mind various factors like cost involved, time required to implement those alternatives, available resources, etc. Decision making can be a part of any sales team, disaster managers, top management and not necessary if its related to any particular activity or department it affects the whole organization.

Factors affecting decision making (Decision making variables):
Some decisions may be the demand of any specific course of action and some decisions are to be taken in some variables that are beyond the management control. There are some decision making variables Generally there are three types of variables: Certainty, Risk and Uncertainty.

Certainty: Decisions under predetermined conditions are some easy things but yes rare. The future can't be certain and so the chances of certain conditions for managers are quite less. For example if a HR manager plans to hire 20 candidates in the second quarter can be a predetermined factor as the second quarter is the hiring season for many industries.

Risk: Risk factors arises when the managers take any decision assuming favourable conditions in the near future. For example when a sales manager takes a decision of increasing discount rates for the next couple of months assuming that the demand of that the price of particular product/service will increase. Making such assumptions may be due to the experience of the managers in their respective fields and in such assumptions involves high level of risks. Managers though should be prepared always with some alternative actions as to use them when required.

Uncertainty: The main component in the Decision Making Process is the historical data or say the past experience of the organization. The experience of the managers can be different with that of the organization. Every decision in any organization is taken keeping in mind the past experience of the organization or the impacts of any particular decision or variable. Uncertain variable arises when the mangers undertake decision making without knowing or having such historical data. In such case the manager can choose one of the below mentioned options:
a) Increase possibility of results,
b) Increase the number of results to choose from,
c) Increase the chances of getting results that have least possibilities,
d) Postpone decision making for a while.

Types of Decisions:
Though very important part component and surrounded by various factors there are three different type of decisions:
1) Regular/Periodic/Programmed Decisions: Decisions are taken to overcome any problems or situations. Some problems are periodic and decisions are needed to be taken very frequently. Examples can be with the sales targets, employee incentive programs, etc. These situations occur very frequently and timely decisions are needed to be taken. Not only decision making is enough in this situation but timely review meetings and planning schedules are also necessary. Such decisions are called 'Periodic decisions'.
2) Irregular/Non-programmed Decisions: Some situations are not regular and don't have any regular patterns. These can include annual targets. However targets are to be reviewed regularly but they are planned and designed in advance at the start of every financial year. These decisions don't come under the organizational planning and so there is not specific procedure.