General Characteristics of Planning

The first part of this chapter is a general introduction to planning. The sections in this part discuss the following topics:

  1. Definition of planning

  2. Purposes of planning

  3. Advantages and potential disadvantages of planning

  4. Primacy of planning

Defining Planning

Planning is the process of determining how the organization can get where it wants to go and what it will do to accomplish its objectives. In more formal terms, planning is “the systematic development of action programs aimed at reaching agreed-upon business objectives by the process of analyzing, evaluating, and selecting among the opportunities which are foreseen.”2

Planning is a critical management activity regardless of the type of organization ...

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