Planning involves determining a course of action to achieve goals based on purpose and knowledge. It includes prioritizing tasks, allocating resources and scheduling completion times. Effective planning has clearly defined objectives, appropriate assumptions, simplicity, flexibility, regular review and utilizes available resources. Planning can be strategic, functional, formal, informal, standing, ad hoc, operational, or administrative. It also considers long term and short term goals. While planning helps organizations, it faces barriers like uncertainty of the future, psychological resistance to change, and human errors in judgment.

1. PLANNING AND PLANNING
PREMESIS

2. WHAT IS PLANNING?
According to Knootz,
Planning is the intellectual process that
requires conscious determination of course of
action and taking decision on the basis of
purpose, knowledge and considered
estimates.

3. FEATURES/PURPOSE OF
PLANNING
Prioritizing
Determining task and resource
Scheduling time for completion

4. ESSENTIALS OF PLANNING
SYSTEM (GIVEN BY MURPHY)
• Clearly defined objective
• Clearly identified assumptions
• Rational appropriate and comprehensive
• Simple
• Flexible

5. Time bound
Balanced
Regular analysis and review
Utilize available resources and opportunities and new
resources
Proper coordination between short term and long term
plans
Free from psychological and social basis of planners
Adequate review and controlling mechanism

6. CATEGORIES OF
PLANNING
Strategic and Functional Planning :-
Apply to the entire organization, Establish the
organization’s overall goals, Seek to position the
organization in terms of its environment, Cover
extended periods of time
Functional planning is undertaken by various
department in to the organization to determine their
respective , derived from the long term goals and
objectives.
Formal and Informal planning:-
Informal planning takes place when a manager plans
institutively without any structure or rigid framework.
Formal planning involves a structured process of
investigation and action.

7. Ad hoc and Standing Planning :-
Standing plans are often policies, procedures and
programs developed to ensure the internal operations
of a given business are operating smoothly. Examples
of standing plans include policies for employee
interaction, procedures for reporting internal issues in
the company and regulations in terms of what is
allowable and what is prohibited in the business.
Ad hoc plans are basically temporary plan which are
made in an organisation to enhance the process of
achievement of objective.

8. Administration and operational
planning :-
Operational planning the details of how the overall
goals are to be achieved. Cover short time period.
Administration planning deals with the making of
policies to achieve a particular goal or objective.
Long term and short term planning :-
It is the process of establishing long-term goals,
making our strategies, policies and programmes to
achieve these goals. It ranges from 5 years to 20
years or even more.
Short terms planning relates to a period of up to one
year. Such plans are made to achieve short term
goals.

9. PROCESS OF PLANNING
Determination of objectives
Development of Planning Premises
Determination of alternative courses of action
Evaluation of alternatives

10. Formulation of derivative plans
Planning of timing and operational Schedule
Securing people’s participation
Reviewing and controlling plan
Budgeting

11. PLANNING PREMISIS
Planning premises are defined as the
anticipated environment in which plans are
expected to operate. They include
assumptions or forecasts of the future and
known conditions that will effect the operation
of plans.

13. Internal Premises come from the business itself. It
includes skills of the
workers, capital investment policies, philosophy
of management, sales forecasts, etc.
External Premises come from the external
environment. That is, economic, social, political,
cultural and technological environment. External
premises cannot be controlled by the business.

14. Controllable Premises are those which are fully
controlled by the management. They include factors
like materials, machines and money.
Semi-controllable Premises are partly controllable.
They include marketing strategy.
Uncontrollable Premises are those over which the
management has absolutely no control. They include
weather conditions, consumers' behaviour,
government policy, natural calamities, wars, etc.

15. Tangible Premises can be measured in quantitative
terms. They include units of production and sale,
money, time, hours of work, etc.
Intangible Premises cannot be measured in
quantitative terms. They include goodwill of the
business, employee's morale, employee's attitude and
public relations.

16. Constant Premises do not change. They remain the
same, even if there is a change in the course of
action. They include men, money and machines.
Variable Premises are subject to change. They
change according to the course of action. They
include union-management relations.

17. BARRIERS TO PLANNING
LACK OF ACCURACY: In planning we are always
thinking in advance and planning is concerned with
future only and future is always uncertain. In planning
many assumptions are made to decide about future
course of action. But these assumption are not 100%
accurate and if these assumption do not hold true in
present situation or in future condition then whole
planning will fail.

18. PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS: Generally the human
beings have a felling of uncertainty related to future.
People have preference for the present as compared
to the future. The employees fell making assumptions
and then changing them according to present
conditions involve lots of time and cost. So, it is
always advisable to take decision according to
present condition only.
HUMAN ELEMENT:-The manger who are performing
planning function are human beings may make
mistakes by making wrong assumption or by
selecting the wrong alternative to achieve the
objective of organization. The managers involved in
planning work may also mislead or misguide the
employees by giving priority to personal objective
rather than organizational objective.

19. CONCLUSION
The above points show that planning is not a
substitute for success of a organization
because it suffers from many limitations. But
is does not mean that managers should not
perform planning function, rather they should
perform planning keeping in mind the
limitations of planning and then try to
overcome these limitations.