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OVERVIEW

Planning is the first of essential managerial functions. It is important as by nature

it enquirers about organizational goals and involves decision making about desired
ways and means to achieve goals. Management has to plan for long-range and short-
range future direction by looking ahead into the future, by estimating and evaluating the
future behavior of the relevant environment and by determining the enterprise’s own
desired role.
In this module, you will learn about what planning is; its nature, levels and types.
Furthermore, you will also learn about how the importance of planning in all walks of life.

LEARNING COMPETENCY
Discuss the nature and levels of planning and types of plans

Welcome Note

SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, the students will be able to:

1. Identify the nature, levels and types of planning.

2. Illustrate understanding about planning using Diagrams.
3. Develop ideas to apply planning in their personal lives.

GETTING READY

How do you see yourself 5 years from now?

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STARTING POINT

What are the specific things that you will do in order to realize your 5-year self?
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EXPLORATION

In this portion, the students will be able to define what planning is and to identify its
nature, types and levels.

Planning is a conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and

activities that an organization will pursue in the future.

A plan is a pre-determined course of action. Planning is essentially a process to

determine and Implement actions to achieve organizational objectives. It involves the
task of deciding in advance-
 What to do?
 How to do?
 When to do it?
 Who will do it?

A manager has to answer four basic questions while formulating a plan-

 Where do we want to be?
 How do we get there?

Nature of Planning
1. Goal-oriented- Plans arise from objectives. Objectives provide guidelines for
planning.
2. A primary function- Planning provides the basis foundation from which all future
management functions arise.
3. It is persuasive. It is required at all levels of management. It is not an exclusive
functions of any management level or department. Managers have to plan for
every change that occurs in an organization. However, the scope of planning
differs at all levels and among different department.
4. It is mental activity- Planning is mental process involving-imagination,
foresightedness and sound judgement.
5. It is a continuous process- It is an ongoing process of adapting the organization
with the change in business environment.
6. It involves choice- It is essentially a choice among various alternative course of
action.
7. It is forward looking- Planning means looking ahead and preparing for the future.
8. It is flexible- Planning is based on future forecast of events and situations.
9. It is an integrated process- Plans are structured in a systematic and logical
sequence where each plan or step is highly inter- dependent and mutually
supportive.

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4 Types of Plans
1. Hierarchical Plans: These plans are drawn at three major hierarchical levels,
namely, the institutional, the managerial and the technical core. The plans for
these three levels are;
 Strategic plan.
 Administrative or Intermediate plan.
 Operational plans can also be categorized according to frequency or
repetitiveness of use. They are broadly classified as;
2. Standing Plans: Standing plans are drawn to cover issues that managers face
repeatedly. Such a standing plan may be called a standard operating procedure
(SOP). Generally, five types of standing plans are used;
 Mission or purpose
 Strategy
 Policies
 Rules
 Procedures
3. Single-use Plans: Single-use plans are prepared for single or unique situations or
problems and are normally discarded or replaced after use. Generally, four
types of single-use plans are used. These are;
 Objectives or Goals
 Programs
 Projects
 Budgets
 Contingency Plans:
4. Contingency plans are made to deal with situations that might crop up if these
assumptions turn out to be wrong. Thus contingency planning is the development
of alternative courses of action to be taken if events disrupt a planned course of
action.

Levels of Planning

Firm-Level Planning
 A business owner has to choose a model of planning, such as strategic planning,
that will guide the entire business. Without a strategic plan, a business owner will
make more reactive decisions in response to the market. With a strategic plan, all
of the firm's employees will know what direction to take.

Department-Level Planning
 Once a business has grown to a certain point, a business owner or manager will
begin to organize employees into departments, teams or business functions.
Employees will support a specific product, perform a specific function or serve
customers in a defined market.

Operational and Tactical Planning

 It used to be that middle-level managers created a tactical plan - how the
different units of the company will implement the goals in a broad sense - and
that lower-level managers created operational goals. Now, many organizations
do not have middle-level managers.

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Employee-Level Planning
 At the direction of their manager, individuals can write goals to illustrate
specifically how they will help achieve operational goals. These should be as
specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed as the goals at the other
levels of planning.

TASK FOCUS 1
Determine whether the statement describes nature, type or levels of planning. Write
only the letters N, T or L respectively on the space provided before each item.

______1. Once a business has grown to a certain point, a business owner or manager
will begin to organize employees into departments, teams or business functions.
______2. Single-use plans are prepared for single or unique situations or problems and
are normally discarded or replaced after use.
______3. Planning involves choice. It is essentially a choice among various alternative
course of action.
______4. Plans are drawn at three major hierarchical levels, namely, the institutional,
the managerial and the technical core.
______5. With a strategic plan, all of the firm's employees will know what direction to
take.

In this portion, the students will be able to illustrate understanding about planning using
diagrams.

Importance of Planning
 It provides direction
 It focuses on organizational objectives and goals
 It helps in optimum utilization of resources.
 It reduces risks of uncertainty
 It facilitates decision-making
 It encourages innovation and creativity
 It facilitates control
 Establishes a sound organization
 Improves standard of living of people
 Reduces costs

TASK FOCUS 2
Construct a diagram of your learnings about Planning in general based on the
discussions above.

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PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS

ESSAY. Answer the following questions briefly but concisely.

1. What is your most significant learning about planning? Elaborate.

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2. Think of a specific short-term and long-term goal that you want to achieve and list
down at least 5 plans/ ideas for each.

LONG TERM GOAL:

Specific plans to do:

SHORT-TERM GOAL
Specific plans to do:

3. What is your idea about the saying below:

“A dream without a plan is a wish that will never happen.”

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Appendix

ESSAY RUBRICS

Learning & Innovation

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Make Judgments and Decisions
4 3 2 1

Exceeds Standard Meet Standard Approaching Standard Not at Standard

Consistently is successful
2.C.1 Effectively analyze Is effective in analyzing
at analyzing and Is not thorough at analyzing Does not complete analysis or
and evaluate and evaluating evidence,
evaluating evidence, and/or evaluating evidence, evaluation of evidence,
evidence, arguments, claims and
arguments, claims arguments, claims and arguments, claims and beliefs arguments, claims or beliefs
beliefs
and beliefs beliefs

Embraces learning about Believes they are able to analyze

Does not respect the view
2.C.2 Effectively analyze material from different When analyzing and and evaluate material from a
point of others while analyzing
and evaluate major points of view and is non- evaluating material is different point of view without
and evaluating material from a
alternative points of judgmental in analyzing non-judgmental being judgmental, but is not
view different point of view
the material successful

Is able to apply the Is able to understand there is a

2.C.3 Effectively Is able to understand and Does not attempt to
connections between connection between information
synthesizes and make the connections understand the connection
information and and arguments, but is not able to
makes connections between information and between information and
between information arguments in order to determine what they are on their
arguments arguments
and arguments support a perspective own

Is able to look at complex

Is able to look at
2.C.4 Effectively interpret information and Looks at information and Looks at information, and
information and
information and draw successfully draw sometimes is able to draw rarely is able to draw a
successfully draw
conclusions based conclusions and apply to conclusions conclusion
on the best analysis conclusions
situation

Thoroughly reflects
critically on learning Reflects critically on
2.C.5 Reflect critically on Attempts to reflect on learning Does not reflect on learning
experiences and learning experiences and
learning experiences experiences and processes experiences and processes
and processes processes and applies to processes
future work

References

What is Planning and its Nature, Importance, and Types. (2019, October 02). Retrieved
July 28, 2020, from https://www.iedunote.com/planning-nature-importance-types

Bbamantra. (2017, September 02). Planning - Nature, Elements, Process, Approach,

Importance - BBA: Mantra. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from
https://bbamantra.com/planning-elements-process-approach/

Hutchins, G. (2013). The nature of business: Redesign for resilience. Gabriola, BC: New
Society.

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