Text 1. PLANNING

For effective activity of individuals working together in groups or teams, a manager’s basic task is to see that everybody understands the group’s purposes, objectives and the methods of attaining them. People must know what they are expected to accomplish. This is the function of planning.

Planning is a rationally demanding process; it requires that we consciously determine courses of action and base our decisions on purpose, knowledge and considered estimates.

There are four major aspects, which highlight the character of planning:

1. Its contribution to purpose and objectives. All plans should contribute to the achievement of the purpose and objectives of the enterprise.

2. Its primacy among the manager’s tasks. A manager must plan to know what kinds of organisation relationships and personal qualifications are in need, along which course to lead subordinates and what kind of control to apply.

3. Its pervasiveness. Planning is a function of all managers, although the character of planning will vary with each manager’s authority and with the character of the policies and plans outlined by superiors.

4. The efficiency of resulting plans. The efficiency of a plan refers to its input to the purpose and objectives, offset by costs and other factors required to formulate and run it. Plans are efficient if they attain their purpose at a rational cost.

The process of planning consists of some steps, presented in the Table.

Being conscious of opportunity	In light of: the market, competition, customers’ wants, company’s strengths, company’s weaknesses.
Setting objectives or goals	Where the company wants to be, what it wants to accomplish and when.
Considering planning principles	In what environment – internal or exter­nal – will the company’s plans operate?
Identifying alternatives	What are the most promising alternatives to accomplish the objectives?
Comparing alternatives in light of goals sought	Which alternatives will give us the best chance of meeting the company’s goals at the lowest cost and highest profit?
Choosing an alternative	Selecting the course of action the firm will pursue.
Formulating supporting plans	Such as plans: to buy equipment and materials, to hire and train workers, to develop a new product.
Expressing plans in numerical terms by making budgets	Developing such budgets as: volume and price of sales, operating expenses necessary for implementing the plans, expenditures for capital equipment.

There are various types of plans: purposes or missions, objectives or goals, strategies, policies, procedures, rules, programs, budgets.

An enterprise has its purpose or mission. In every social system, enterprises have basic functions or tasks that society assigned to them. For example, the purpose of business in general is production and distribution of goods and services, satisfying the needs and wants of the society.

Objectives and goals are symbols of not only the end of planning but also the end toward which managers aim organising, staffing, leading and controlling. While enterprise objectives are the essential plans of the firm, a department may also have its own objectives. Its goals logically contribute to the attainment of enterprise objectives.

We can define strategy as the determination of the basic long– term objectives of an enterprise and adoption of courses of action and allocation of resources necessary to realise these goals. The purpose of strategy is to determine and communicate through a system the major objectives and policies, a picture of the kind of enterprise that managers envision. Strategies provide a framework for guiding thinking and action.

Policies define a sphere within which a decision is to be made and ensure that it will be reliable and contribute to an objective. Policies help to decide issues before they become problems, make it unnecessary to analyze the same situation every time it comes up and combine other plans thus permitting managers to delegate authority and still maintain control over their subordinates.

Procedures are chronological sequences of required actions. They are guides to action, rather than to thinking and they give in details the exact manner in which certain activities should be accomplished.

Rules interpret specific required actions or nonactions, allowing no discretion. They are generally the simplest type of plan.

Programs are a complex of goals, policies, procedures, rules, tasks and assignments, steps to be taken, resources to be employed and other elements necessary to carry out a given course of action; they are, as a rule, supported by budgets.

A budget is a statement of expected results expressed in numerical terms. Budgets are devices of controlling. They are the basic planning instrument in numerous companies. A budget is necessary for control, but it cannot supply a sensible standard of control unless it reflects the plans.

Task 25. Translate the sentences into English:

1. Для ефективної праці кожен працівник повинен розуміти завдання та цілі. 2. Планування – церозумне визначення дій та цілей компанії. 3. Основною метою бізнесу є виробництво та розповсюдження товарів і послуг. 4. Стратегія – це визначення довготривалих цілей підприємства та прийняття курсу дій для досягнення мети. 5. Політика компанії допомагає не допускати виникнення проблем та аналізувати подібні ситуації. 6. Процедура – це хронологічна послідовність дій. 7. Програма – це комплекс цілей, політики, процедур, правил, завдань. 8. Бюджет є основним інструментарієм планування та контролю. 9. Менеджер повинен знати, який вид контролю застосовувати. 10. Усі менеджери використовують планування у своїй роботі. 11. Ефективність плану залежить від розумного використання ресурсів для досягнення мети. 12. Кожне суспільство покладає на бізнес певні завдання. 13. І фірми загалом, і окремі відділи мають власні плани. 14. Стратегія забезпечує систему управління діяльністю підприємства. 15. Ця робота вимагає навичок планування та організаторських здібностей.

Task 26. Make up a plan of the text “PLANNING” in writing.