Planning Function within the Different Levels of Management in Organizations Essay

Management of a business involves the four general functions of making intents, organizing, exercising leadership, and fostering coordination. home endure constitutes the process of determining goals and objectives, identifying strategies and techniques, and accessing or allocating the necessary imaginations to support implementation. Plans integrate the competencies and resources of the system of rules relative to the map of the actions designed and intended to achieve goals and objectives. Daft, 2000) As a fundamental forethought process, intend occurs at the different levels of the business establishment. preparedness at Different Levels of Management Management levels can be gradable or functional. Hierarchical levels of centering refer to the chain of command in the organizational structure reflecting the designation of decision-making, reporting and accountability. Functional levels of management restore to management roles according to function. Daft, 2000) Generally , there are two stratified levels of management, the senior management and front line management. Senior management takes charge of strategical intend since the focus is conceptual, directional and messary plans encompassing the direction of emerging actions, the evaluate outcomes, the availability and utilization of resources, and contingency ideas for issues likely to emerge. The thrust of plan at this level is long-term outcomes.Front line management handles usable planning because the focus is specific, measurable, tactical, and applicable plans covering daily activities and issues such as task assignments, quotas, deadlines, funding, and other day-to-day issues requiring planning. The focus of front line management planning is short-term expectations and outcomes. Although differing in the nature of planning functions, strategic plans get out guidance to operations plan while operational plans influence forthcoming strategic planning. Daft, 2000) Functional managemen t involves a wide network of flat and vertical levels usually designated into departments and sub-departments or working teams distinguished according to functions. on that point could be a number of departments in an organization including sales or marketing departments, purchasing department, accounting department, compassionate resources department, and other departments depending on the nature, scope and scale of operation of the business organization.Planning at the department level depends on the respective functions so that the scope of planning covers the designated functions. The sales or marketing department focuses on marketing planning and advertising planning covering goals such as brand equity building, value de notwithstanding for consumers, distribution, promotional plans, and pricing. The human resource department engages in leadership development, management development, career development, performance, staffing, and training and development planning. The othe r departments take charge of planning on other function areas. Daft, 2000) The functions of these departments are interconnected since planning through with(p) by the marketing department has a link to the competence of human resources especially leadership. Within the departments is a hierarchy, with department managers or directors handling strategic planning and the managers of the different sub-departments or working teams handling operational planning with the plans focalization on functions. Integration of Various Kinds of Plans The overlap between hierarchical and functional management planning reflects the interconnections of various plans.There are overly a number of practical reasons for integrating different plans. One is the train to translate a vision and goal into action to support fulfillment (Griffin & Thomas, 1999). In the case of strategic and operational plans, strategic plans are conceptual in nature providing a guide or picture of the expected outcome while operational plans are practical by focusing on particular actions and techniques that support movement towards the achievement of envisioned concepts (Daft, 2000).As such, integrating strategic and operational plans ensure that action finds guidance from the vision and goals translate into specific actions directed towards actualization. A nonher is the likely interconnectedness of plans. With necessitate to functional management, a plan requires alignment with other plans to ensure fortunate realization. (Griffin & Thomas, 1999). Customer service forms part of marketing planning and human resource planning so that training plans under the HR department should harmonize with marketing plans for value creation.Last is the essence of organizations as a whiz unit made up of different parts that need to work together to sustain the body. Successful organizations are those with aligned or corporate plans. Real Life Application Successful planning doe not only require integration but also relevance to ever-changing market conditions. Strategic plans could change in order to make the organization more responsive to issues.An example is the shift in the strategic plan of Wal-Mart from the vision of a retail store offering the lowest prices to consumers to a store providing employment to thousands of people in impoverished areas (Wal-Mart, 2008). This came as a response to the corporate social responsibility issue of its payment of requital below the minimum wage and resistance to the call of worker groups for unionization. By shifting its strategic plan, Wal-Mart reaffirms its commitment to corporate social responsibility by helping impoverished families with jobs created by establishing stores in these communities.By focusing strategic plans towards communities, the company is able to express its concern not only towards consumers but also to its present and future employees who are members of the community. Conclusion Planning is an beta aspect of organizatio nal management. To succeed in planning, it is important to understand how planning occurs at the different management levels of the organization, the importance of integrative planning, and the consideration applicable and responsive planning by adjusting to changes in business context.