The element of planning is an essential centerpiece of Henri Fayol’s management process. In the textbook, the plan acts as an initial step that sets the overall dynamics of the following elements (Kerzner, 2019). It also determines the effectiveness of the organization and controls due to identifying the key factors (Bryson, 2018). In students’ experience, planning is a more delicate process that also consists of a number of sub-steps. It is critical to make several versions for the plan and assess each one of them for their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the elements themselves require a great deal of organizing one’s thoughts and outlining objectives in order to increase the degree of the plan’s precision.
One needs to analyze the scholarly literature in order to properly understand the current state of the issues at hand. According to the researchers, many top high-performing banks conduct the main planning process with high levels of CEO involvement in navigating the given stage (Ridwan, 2017). In other words, the role of leadership is paramount in ensuring that this particular element is done correctly, and the current issue is that leaders are not active participants.
There are a number of methodological frameworks that can go in accordance with a planning stage. It is stated that the step also requires a rational adaptive approach, which improves the overall success of the operation or project in a wide range of dimensions (Papke-Shields & Boyer-Wright, 2017). Therefore, the issue facing managers is the requirement to effectively use a rational adaptive methodological framework within the element. In addition, it is critically relevant to identify procedures, norms, and underlying routines during the planning practice in order to jumpstart the action plan (Wolf & Floyd, 2017). The current issue is that managers might not be aware of the major components of the planning element due to the lack of up-to-date research (Wolf & Floyd, 2017). Therefore, the given element on itself can be broken down into smaller domains, which need to be integrated to boost overall effectiveness.
As managers, they should be more aware that their involvement in the planning process plays a vital role in determining the overall success of a particular group or organization. Managers as a source of leadership need to guide the followers during this step because major objectives and goals might be overlooked by others. Therefore, leaders, as visionaries, should devise a plan around these aims, and they should not outsource the process to individuals with minimal interest. The plan should also be divided into simpler steps outlining routines and procedures. The rational adaptive approach needs to be used in order to increase the plan adjustability. Thus, in the process of strategic financial planning, the long-term business goals of the organization should be established. These are the target structure of financial resources, the volume required for the chosen strategy, and the choice of the optimal policy for investing them in current and non-current assets.
In conclusion, when the degree of compliance of financial goals with the chosen development plan of the organization is established, a sequence of actions aimed at achieving them should be formulated. It is important to note that one should distinguish between strategic and long-term planning. The long-term assumes that there will be no significant or qualitative changes in the current practice and the environment. That is, in the long term, it is prescribed what and when to do, and it is assumed that the final state of the activity should be clearly known.
References
Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations. Wiley.
Kerzner, H. (2019). Using the project management maturity model: Strategic planning for project management. Wiley.
Papke-Shields, K. E., & Boyer-Wright, K. M. (2017). Strategic planning characteristics applied to project management. International Journal of Project Management, 35(2), 169-179.
Ridwan, M. S. (2017). Planning practices: A multiple case study in the high-performing banks. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(4), 487-500.
Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788.