Planning refers to working out in an extensive outline, things that need to be done as well as the methods of doing them to achieve the determined organization’s goals. It can also be referred to as looking into the future and coming up with decisions on what should be done depending on the occurrence of events. Planning is one of the most significant roles in administration as it sets the prototype of other activities to be pursued.
It is accorded dominance with the reason that it is the first role that is performed and its outcomes are the plans that dole out as the direct for the actions of staff members. In an administration some plans are made to serve a given project while others are relatively permanent in nature hence referred to as standing plans which include procedures, policies as well as methods.
In its simplest form planning is an activity that can be carried out by any associate of the administration as it encompasses setting missions, objectives as well as acts of achieving them.
Planning in a broad spectrum engrosses making decisions as well as choosing future of actions from the set out substitutes. In public administration planning is crucial as it bridges the gap flanked by where an administration is and where it intends to be in future and therefore it calls for bringing in new things as well as workable implementation strategies.
In a public administration without planning, actions are aimless. It plays a great role in ensuring that the members know their purposes, tasks, the guidelines to follow as well as their objectives in the administration for an efficient flow of the desired goals. Planning encompasses a range of constituents which include;
- Developing strategies and plans.
- Formulation of decision making processes.
- Establishing goals.
- Evaluation of environmental resources.
In public administration there are various merits that come hand in hand with planning. Some of them include supplying the organization with firm administration as well as with financial structure for a proficiently change from the developer control.
This is specifically done via setting up goals that are effective as well as attainable. Such goals engross evading huge assessments and also staying away from special assessments. To come up with such firm management, the set out goals must contribute to continuation of satisfied plans as well as a tress-free organization. Another merit in a public administration is that the owners have a right to be heard in organization administration.
It also serves as a prepared technique to collect owners’ contribution in addition to setting off fact- based techniques as well as aims by which the organization gathers this key in. Planning also has great merits to the administrator since it supplies the director with a calculated base for creation of human resource choice (Adams 1982).
Planning also allows the manager to look forward to modify to a certain extent than being astonished by actions, as well as supplying tactical schemes for tackling at hand and also predictable personnel concern. It also helps in attaining measurable programs and results that is, by recognizing in quantifiable conditions what the government aims to achieve as well as basing prospect budgetary verdicts on realizing those objectives.
To pull off this assessable line up, the management has to ensure that only the right employees are on board and the necessary apparatus, spur and structures are made obtainable. The responsibility to work efficiently in any enterprise is also brought by managerial success in planning.
The administration is also in a position to deal with analytically concerns that drive workforce via planning. A major merit in planning in a public administration is that the managers as well as the programs are made more valuable.
It is also through planning that the directors are endowed with deliberate basis for human resource administration managerial that is intended at attaining program objectives. Planning in a public administration also assists the manager with the required data when making premeditated choices. The associations are also in a position to venture statistically as well as make strategies for putting back vanished competencies.
In public administration planning has merits in a way that it provides the management with a gear to take in hand the changes in line up way that impacts the kind of work being carried out as well as giving the manager an opportunity to make out ways in which skills can change proficiencies required in the administration.
In a broad line of attack, planning has a great advantage in facilitating developing progression of the association’s objectives, evading the traps of linear philosophy, recognizing chances, generating alertness of hindrance to winning through over, facilitating control and also approximating association’s activities, directing and also uniting efforts and motivating thinking with the aim of improving the organization resources (Bathgate 1956).
On the other hand, there are several weaknesses that may arise from planning within the public administration. To begin with, is deprived scheduling. When planning is poorly done, the achievement of the set goals and objectives by an institution is not reached hence the chances of losing increase. Secondly, it is the lack of links between guiding principles assembly, setting up and accounting.
Planning in any organization must review the relationship flanked by the policies making, planning and budgeting. This is because the three conditions go hand in hand in any strategizing for the communal management of an association. Underprivileged spending run is another weakness of planning. An already made plan may fail due to poor expenditure control of the resources available.
Managers should be very keen on spending to avoid these failures. In addition, insufficient financial support of continuation and functioning of an enterprise is another weakness that is found in planning of public organizing. Moreover, lack of proper accounting systems is a fault to any public administration set up.
In conclusion, small relationships between budgets as formulated and the budget as executed, unreliability in the flow of budgeted funds to agencies and to lower levels of government, unfortunate management of outer aid, scarce coverage of financial recital, deprived cash management and defectively motivated staff are other types of weaknesses that may arise as a result of planning for public administration.
In any planning, weaknesses should not exceed the merits (Bhasin 1976). This is because, when disadvantages are more than advantages the plan loses its purpose naturally. Managers of different organization are called upon to strictly follow the process of organizing wisely to avoid feebly implementation of a plan.
In order to accomplish the set procedures in any public administration, proper planning of time allocation should be put into consideration bearing in mind that moment wasted is never recovered.
References
Adams, M. E. (1982). Agricultural extension in developing countries. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Bathgate, F. (Ed.). (1956). Experiment in extension-The Goon Sathi. London: Oxford. University Press.
Bhasin, K. (1976). Participatory training for development. Bangkok: FAO.