Management Concepts & Organisational Behaviour - Planning
Why plans fail?- Planning
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Effective planning is not an easy task. There are a number of reasons for failure of plans in practice. Planning suffers from the following limitations.
Why plans fail?
Effective planning is not an easy task. There are a number of reasons for failure of plans in practice. Planning suffers from the following limitations.
Planning is quite a costly and time consuming process. Unlimited amount of time is spent on forecasting, evaluating alternatives etc. By the time a plan is established, the environment might change and this requires a complete revision of the plan. Besides this, cost also increases.
Planning is future oriented activity based on forecasts. As the period of planning increases, the accuracy of forecasting diminishes. Planning loses its value if reliable and adequate data is not available.
Planning becomes rigid at times because of internal inflexibilities. This reduces individual initiative and causes delay in decision making. Internal inflexibilities like rigid policies and procedures and limited resources affect planning process.
External factors beyond the control of an organization affect the effectiveness of planning. These are very difficult to predict and make execution of plans very difficult. External factors like government control, technological changes and trade unions affect the planning process.
Another important limitation of planning is resistance to change. The human element in an organization always resists change. People are more concerned about the present rather than the future which is uncertain. Planning being forward looking is always affected by this resistance to change.
The entire planning process may fail, if people involved in it do not formulate correct plans. The reasons for failure of people in planning may be due to a number of reasons like lack of commitment to planning, lack of delegation of authority, excessive reliance on past experience, tendency to overlook premises, etc.
Effective planning is not an easy task. There are a number of reasons for failure of plans in practice. Planning suffers from the following limitations.
Cost and time
Planning is quite a costly and time consuming process. Unlimited amount of time is spent on forecasting, evaluating alternatives etc. By the time a plan is established, the environment might change and this requires a complete revision of the plan. Besides this, cost also increases.
Validity of the forecasts
Planning is future oriented activity based on forecasts. As the period of planning increases, the accuracy of forecasting diminishes. Planning loses its value if reliable and adequate data is not available.
Inflexibility
Planning becomes rigid at times because of internal inflexibilities. This reduces individual initiative and causes delay in decision making. Internal inflexibilities like rigid policies and procedures and limited resources affect planning process.
Influence of External Factors
External factors beyond the control of an organization affect the effectiveness of planning. These are very difficult to predict and make execution of plans very difficult. External factors like government control, technological changes and trade unions affect the planning process.
Resistance to change
Another important limitation of planning is resistance to change. The human element in an organization always resists change. People are more concerned about the present rather than the future which is uncertain. Planning being forward looking is always affected by this resistance to change.
Unrealistic plans
The entire planning process may fail, if people involved in it do not formulate correct plans. The reasons for failure of people in planning may be due to a number of reasons like lack of commitment to planning, lack of delegation of authority, excessive reliance on past experience, tendency to overlook premises, etc.
Tags : Management Concepts & Organisational Behaviour - Planning
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