LEVELS OF PLANNING:

  • CORPORATE PLANNING: the term corporate planning denotes planning activities at the top level, also known as corporate level, which cover the entire organisational activities. The basic focus of corporate planning is to determine long term objectives of the organisation as a whole and then to generate plans to achieve these targets bearing in mind the probable changes in environment.
  • FUNCTIONAL PLANNING: as against corporate planning is integrative, functional planning is segmental and is undertaken for each major function of the organisation like production, marketing, finance, human resources etc. for eg., marketing planning is undertaken at the level of marketing department and to put marketing plan in action.
  • LONG TERM PLANNING: it is of strategic nature and involves more than one year period extending to 20 years or so. However, the more common long term period is 3-5 years. The long term plans usually encompass all the functional areas of the business and are affected within the existing and long term framework of economic, social and technological factors.
  • SHORT TERM PLANNING: also known as operational planning, and usually covers one year period. This is aimed at sustaining organisation in its production and distribution of current products to the existing markets.
  • PROACTIVE PLANNING: it involves designing suitable course of action in anticipation of likely changes in the relevant environment. The organisation that favors this kind of planning often anticipate the future and takes necessary steps before the happening of the events.
  • REACTIVE PLANNING: as the name suggests, this kind of planning is not in the anticipation of future but becomes active only when the problem is confronted or has already occurred. This approach of planning is useful in an environment which is fairly stable over a long period of time.
  • FORMAL PLANNING: it exists in the formal hierarchy of the organisation. And is always carried out in the step wise process. This type of planning is done at a large scale and is based on the logical thinking that is adopted in rational, systematic, well-documented and regular way.
  • INFORMAL PLANNING: it is usually carried out in every small organizations where the formal organisation structure may or may not exist since the environment for smaller organizations is not complex, they do reasonably well with informal planning process.
  • AUTOMATED PLANNING: it is a branch of artificial intelligence that concerns the realization of strategies or action sequences, typically for execution of work by intelligent agents, autonomous robots and unmanned vehicles. This type of planning is normally found in the technologically advanced organizations.

TYPES OF PLANS:

Plans can be classified in a number of ways. This classification is given as follows:

  1. STANDING PLAN: this plan provides guidelines for further course of action and are used over a period of time. Once formulated, these plans are in operation for a long period unless there is a change in these plans. Examples of such plans are : organisational missions, long-term objectives, strategies, policies, procedures etc.
  2. SINGLE-USE PLANS: these are the plans which are designed for a specific purpose or period. Once the objective is achieved, they are not used again. Thus, these plans have a short life for eg., projects, budgets, programmes, schedules.

On the basis of time:

  • LONG TERM PLANS: these are the plans for 3 and 4 years. These are formulated to achieve long term objectives and are prepared at the top level.
  • MEDIUM TERM PLANS: the period of these plans varies to 1 to 3 years. The middle level managers prepare these plans.
  • SHORT TERM PLANS: these plans are generally for a year or less. These are meant to meet current objectives and also to help in the achievement of middle level plans. These are prepared at lower level of the management.

On the basis of management levels:

  • TOP LEVEL PLANS: these are formulated at the top level of the management. The directors, managing directors, or general manager are associated with planning.
  • MIDDLE LEVEL PLANS: middle level management consists of departmental managers. They make plans for medium term periods and these plans are prepared in the context of main plans.
  • LOWER LEVEL PLANS: these are prepared at the level of a supervisor or foreman. These are generally for short period and are meant to achieve current targets.

On the basis of broadness:

  • CORPORATE LEVEL PLANS: these are prepared for the whole organisation and are meant to achieve organisational objectives.
  • DEPARTMENTAL LEVEL PLANS: these are prepared by departments for achieving immediate and near future objectives.