what is plan ?

Plan

A Plan is a specific Acton proposed to help the organization achieve its objective.

A crucial part of the management of any organization is developing logical plans and then taking the steps necessary to put the plans in to action.

Regardless of how important experience related intuition may be to managers, successful management actions and strategies typically are based on reason.

Rational managers are crucial to the development of an organizational plan.

4 Dimensions of Plans:

1. REPETITIVENESS
2. TIME
3. SCOPE
4. LEVEL

REPETITIVENESS:

The repetitiveness dimension of a plan is the extent to which the plan is used over and over again. 

Some plans are specially designed for one situation that is relatively short term in nature.

Plans of this sort are essentially non repetitive.

Other Plans, however, are designed to be used time after time for long term recurring situations. These plans are basically repetitive in nature.

TIME:

The Time dimension of a plan is the length of time the plan covers.Strategical Plans cover relatively long periods of time4 and tactical plans cover relatively short periods of time.

SCOPE:

The Scope dimension of a plan is the portion of the total management system at which the plan is aimed.

Some plans are designed to cover the entire open management system: the organizational environment, inputs, process and outputs. Such a plan is often referred to as a master plan.

Other Plans are developed to cover only a portion of the management system. e.g.: A plan that covers the recruitment of new workers.

The greater the portion of the management system that a plan covers, the broader is the plan’s scope.

LEVEL:

The level dimension of a plan is the level of the organization at which the plan is aimed.

Top Level Plans are those designed for the organization’s top management; whereas the middle level and the lower level plans are designed for middle and lower management, respectively.

Since all the parts of the organization are interdependent, plans developed at any level of the organization have effect on the plans at other levels.