La planificación es la primera de las funciones gerenciales esenciales. La planificación es importante porque, por naturaleza, indaga sobre los objetivos de la organización e implica la toma de decisiones sobre las formas y medios deseados para alcanzar los objetivos.
La planificación es el proceso mediante el cual los administradores establecen metas y definen los métodos mediante los cuales dichas metas deben alcanzarse. La planificación implica seleccionar misiones y objetivos y las acciones para alcanzarlos; requiere toma de decisiones, que consiste en elegir entre cursos de acción futuros alternativos.
Se trata, por tanto, de un enfoque racional para alcanzar objetivos preseleccionados.
Planning is thus taken as the foundation for future activities. Newman has thus defined it as, “Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done; that is a plan is a projected course of action.”
So, planning can be thought of as deciding on a future course of action. It may also be treated as a process of thinking before doing it.
Management has to plan for long-range and short-range future direction by looking ahead into the future, by estimating and evaluating the future behavior of the relevant environment and by determining the enterprise’s own desired role.
Planning involves determining various types and volumes of physical and other resources to be acquired from outside, to allocate these resources in an efficient manner among competing claims and to make arrangements for the systematic conversion of these resources into useful outputs.
As it is clear from the above discussion, plans have two basic components: goals and action statements.
Los objetivos representan an end state — the targets and results that managers hope to achieve.
Action statements represent the means by which an organization goes ahead to attain its goals. Planning is a deliberate and conscious act by means of which managers determine a course of action for pursuing a specific goal.
Planning to a manager means thinking about what is to be done, who is going to do it, and how and when he will do it. It also involves thinking about past events (retrospectively) and about future opportunities and impending threats (prospectively).
Planning enquirers about organizational strengths and weaknesses and involves decision making about desired ways and means to achieve them.
There are, however, differences between decision making and planning. Decisions can be made without planning but planning cannot be done without making decisions.
Naturaleza de la planificación
La naturaleza de la planificación puede entenderse examinando sus cuatro aspectos principales. Ellos son;
Es una contribución a los objetivos,
Es la primacía entre las tareas del directivo.
Es omnipresencia y
La eficiencia de los planes resultantes.
La contribución de la planificación al logro de objetivos
Since plans are made to attain goals or objectives, every plan and all its support should contribute to the achievement of the organization’s purpose and objectives.
An organized enterprise exists to accomplish group objectives through willing and purposeful co-operation.
Primacía de la planificación
Que la planificación es la principal función de gestión lo demuestra el hecho de que todas las demás funciones, como la organización, la dotación de personal, principal y controlador are designed to support the accomplishment of the enterprise’s objectives.
Planning quite logically, therefore, comes first antes de ejecutar todas las demás funciones gerenciales as it involves establishing the objectives necessary for all group efforts. Also, all the other managerial functions must be planned if they are to be effective.
Likewise, planning and controlling are inextricably bound up. Control without a plan is meaningless because the plan provides the basis or standard of control.
Generalización de la planificación
Planning is a unique and universal function of all managers.
The character and scope of planning may vary with each manager’s authority and with the nature of the policies and plans outlined by superiors, but all managers must have some function of planning.
Because of one’s authority or position in the managerial hierarchy, one may do more or less planning, but some kind or amount of planning a manager must do.
According to Weihrich and Koontz; “All managers, from presidents to first-level supervisors – plan.”
La eficiencia de los planes
Plans should not only be effective, but also efficient. The effectiveness of a plan relates to the extent to which it accomplishes the objectives.
The efficiency of the plan, however, means its contribution to the purpose and objectives, offset by the costs and other factors required to formulate and operate it.
Plans are efficient if they achieve their objective at a reasonable cost when such a cost is the measure not only in terms of time, money or production but also in terms of satisfaction of the individual or group.
Both conceptual and practical reasons are put forward in support of planning. Two conceptual reasons supporting systematic planning by managers are limited resources and an uncertain environment.
Enfrentando el desafío de la escasez de recursos
Resource scarcity is a very important consideration for any organization today. There would be no need for planning if material, financial and human resources were unlimited and cheap.
Planners in both private business and public agencies are challenged to stretch their limited resources through intelligent planning.
Otherwise, wasteful inefficiencies would give rise to higher prices, severe shortages, and great public dissatisfaction.
Enfrentando la incertidumbre ambiental
The second most important conceptual reason is that organizations continually face environmental uncertainty in the course of accomplishing the tasks.
Organizations meet this challenge largely through planning safeguards.
Some organizations do this job better than others partly because of their different patterns of response to environmental factors beyond the organization’s immediate control.
Besides, managers have several practical reasons for formulating plans for themselves, their employees, and various organizational units, viz.,
compensar la incertidumbre y el cambio;
centrar la actividad organizacional en un conjunto de objetivos creados conscientemente;
proporcionar una hoja de ruta coordinada y sistemática para actividades futuras;
aumentar la eficiencia económica a través de una operación eficiente; y
Facilitar el control estableciendo un estándar para las actividades posteriores.
Planificación y desempeño
Although organizations that use formal planning do not always outperform those that do not plan, most studies show positive relationships between planning and performance.
Effective planning and implementation play a greater part in high performance than does the amount of planning done.
Studies have shown that when formal planning has not led to higher performance, the external environment is often the reason.
El papel de las metas y los planes en la planificación
Planning is often called the primary management function because it establishes the basis for all other functions.
Planning involves two important elements: goals and plans. Goals (often called objectives) are desired outcomes for individuals, groups, or entire organizations.
Planes Jerárquicos:
Estos planes se trazan en tres niveles jerárquicos principales: el institucional, el gerencial y el técnico. Los planes para estos tres niveles son;
Plan estratégico.
Plan administrativo o intermedio.
Los planes operativos también se pueden clasificar según la frecuencia o repetitividad de su uso. Se clasifican ampliamente como;
Planes permanentes:
Se elaboran planes permanentes para cubrir cuestiones que los gerentes enfrentan repetidamente. Un plan permanente de este tipo puede denominarse procedimiento operativo estándar (POE). Generalmente se utilizan cinco tipos de planos verticales;
Misión o propósito
Estrategia
Políticas
Normas
Trámites
Planes de un solo uso:
Los planes de un solo uso se preparan para situaciones o problemas únicos o únicos y normalmente se descartan o reemplazan después de un solo uso. Generalmente se utilizan cuatro tipos de planes de un solo uso. Estos son;
Objetivos o Metas
Programas
Proyectos
Presupuestos
Planes de Contingencia:
Se elaboran planes de contingencia para hacer frente a situaciones que podrían surgir si estas suposiciones resultan erróneas. Por tanto, la planificación de contingencias es el desarrollo de cursos de acción alternativos a tomar si los acontecimientos interrumpen un curso de acción planificado.
Planning is thus taken as the foundation for future activities. Newman has thus defined it as, “Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done; that is a plan is a projected course of action.”
So, planning can be thought of as deciding on a future course of action. It may also be treated as a process of thinking before doing it.
Management has to plan for long-range and short-range future direction by looking ahead into the future, by estimating and evaluating the future behavior of the relevant environment and by determining the enterprise’s own desired role.
Planning involves determining various types and volumes of physical and other resources to be acquired from outside, to allocate these resources in an efficient manner among competing claims and to make arrangements for the systematic conversion of these resources into useful outputs.
As it is clear from the above discussion, plans have two basic components: goals and action statements.
Los objetivos representan an end state — the targets and results that managers hope to achieve.
Action statements represent the means by which an organization goes ahead to attain its goals. Planning is a deliberate and conscious act by means of which managers determine a course of action for pursuing a specific goal.
Planning to a manager means thinking about what is to be done, who is going to do it, and how and when he will do it. It also involves thinking about past events (retrospectively) and about future opportunities and impending threats (prospectively).
Planning enquirers about organizational strengths and weaknesses and involves decision making about desired ways and means to achieve them.
There are, however, differences between decision making and planning. Decisions can be made without planning but planning cannot be done without making decisions.
