Importance of Planning and Monitoring to the Organization, Individuals and Managers - Assignment Example

Managing operational plans Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Question One: Importance of planning and monitoring to the organization, individuals and managers Planning involves setting goals and expectations for performances of individuals and groups where their efforts are routed to attaining the objectives of the organization. Managers become more effective when work is planned and expectations are set. In operational planning, managers are the heads of specific operations in their functions and are tasked with continually plan and monitor performance, rewarding good performance, developing performance capacity and planning work. When employees are involved in the operational planning process, it becomes easier for them to understand the organizational goals. They easily understand how work needs to be done, why it should be done and the specifics of what is to be done. Managers also develop the standards and elements of the contingency, operational, tactical, and strategic plans. Top-level managers provide a way of achieving strategic plans by designing and implementing the plans based on the mission, vision and values of the organization. In most cases, strategic plans involve boosting returns on investment, attaining growth, profitability and productivity over a period of three to ten years. The strategic plans help the lower and middle managers to develop their own operational plans that align well with strategic goals. To achieve organizational goals, managers specify mission and objectives, conduct environmental scanning, formulate and implement strategies and perform evaluation and control. On the other hand, managers use tactical plans to activate and get a strategy to work because it has narrower scopes and shorter time frames. The middle-level manager is tasked with identifying and implementing the specific tactical actions. For example, a middle level manager can have a plan to support organizational goals by increasing production by five percent and cutting costs by ten percent in the next one year. The manager is in charge of specifying goals with fixed deadlines, listing budgetary requirements, listing all the resources, and the immediate activities such as retailing, manufacturing, funding and marketing. Meanwhile, operational plans are necessary to undertake day-to-day operations in the organization and it involves the interaction of supervisors, low-level managers and individual job-holders. Being specific and aimed at achieving short-term objectives, the plan provides a roadmap to attain tactical goals. Operational plans can be ongoing or single use. The former is carried out on ongoing basis and involves policies, rules and procedures that are changed as required and created on ad-hoc basis. The later are meant for single occurrences of activities or events such as recruitment drive or marketing campaigns. Policies such as terminating contractors and hiring employees influence decision making at micro-level. Again, rules regulate functions in an organization and need stringent enforcement such as reporting times for employee or no smoking condition. Procedures accomplish specific objectives such as guidelines to source raw materials, and hire and train employees. When employees and their supervisors meet the objectives on daily basis, it becomes easier to achieve organizational goals. When supervisors and individual employees adhere to operational plans, they move the organization from a start-up to success as well as operate efficiently and stay focused. It is critical that all the operational plans are implemented and carefully monitored to achieve the desired results. A process of monitoring progress of implementing operational plans requires a calendar of events with yardsticks to measure risks, incidences, and identifying resource requirements and staffing. Other measures involve close monitoring of opening and closing procedures to ensure security as well as time ordering and purchasing of raw materials. Monitoring ensures that operational plans augur well with the schedule especially on use of resources and performance. Common evaluation systems such as SMART and key performance indicators (KPIs) are useful in monitoring progress. Plans are monitored for budgetary sense, success and their progress. In ensuring that the operational plans are within the specified timeframe, suppliers, contractors and individual job-holders are monitored. This demands project management skills, people management and good time management. Again, the manager needs to know the closeness to meeting objectives and the time limits using methods such as action plans, Gantt charts, milestone charts and project evaluation and review (PERT) diagrams. Action plans help managers and employees to identify specific tasks while milestone charts indicate timeframes to implement specific activities. Gantt charts will track project progress while PERT will show the costs and timeframes to achieve the specific objectives. Question Two: Why operation plans fail and their remedy Operational plans have some specific activities and tasks that may fail or not achieved successfully. In this case, it demands that the manager investigate the probable cause of failure if there is evidence. Otherwise, there is need to monitor progress of operational plans on an ongoing basis to ensure they are on track and is set to achieve desired organizational results. Common causes of operational plan under-performance range from employee skills to priorities within the organization. Tasks may not be completed to the desired quality and technical performance when employees lack motivation, knowledge and required skills. Sometimes, failure to set aside sufficient funds and poor communication among staff frustrates the completion of the project. In some cases, organizational resources are diverted elsewhere as well as change in priorities within the organization. External factors such as economic recession and changes in technology can impose changes within the organization. At times, poor coordination of resources especially human resources results in conflicts and mix up in communication of milestones and project progress. Employees find it difficult to complete tasks when the timelines are insufficient especially where the manager has failed to continually check on the expected project outcomes. However, investigations can help to pinpoint or troubleshoot the problem. The causes of action are two pronged. First, the strategy is abandoned if the problem is difficult to be fixed and the resources channeled to other strategies. Second, the manager decides on a suitable way to fix the problem and intervene if investigations show that the problem can be fixed. Where planned outcomes have not been achieved, the managers can intervene especially in areas relating to staff issues, finances and communication. To start with, staff requires regular mentoring and coaching to help them improve on their performance. There is need to also provide staff with off-the-job training and re-allocate duties depending on their skills and team harmony. Any staff member(s) who fail to achieve organizational objectives over a specified period are given warnings, notices or letters of termination and possible replacement made. Employees have issues ranging from salary, work conditions, personal growth, achievement and responsibility. The manager should understand that the said employees are beyond the hygiene factors such as relationship, pay and security and work conditions and are interested in motivators such as personal growth, achievement and work itself. Managers, by motivating employees, give them enthusiasm and a reason to pursue organizational goals. Understanding the attitudes and behavior of employees is one way to satisfy their needs which in turn will go into fulfilling organizational goals. Operational plans fail due to poor management of budgets, inadequate funding or situations where the organizational finances are running out. The first sign of financial problems should trigger the intervention of the manager. Until any shortfalls are filled, the cost of the remaining projects should be reduced. As well, additional funding should be sought to make up any shortfalls. Implementation of a strategy can be put back to a later date while funds that become available can be utilized as some activities are abandoned. Also, managers face a number of communication challenges while implementing operational plans which may frustrate achievement of organizational goals. The manager should fix after identifying problem communication areas. To improve communication, there is need to train and equip staff with adequate communication skills such as writing and speaking skills. The manager can identify websites and newsletters or social media networking as possible additional communication strategies to emails, memos, face-to-face and board meetings. Employee engagement is fundamental where the organizational personnel are encouraged to make suggestions and valid contributions on how to improve communication. Where disputes among staff are involved, there should be attempt to prevent or settle the situation from potential reoccurrence. These measures can be terminating or moving party involved, carefully determining the parties that should be placed in potential conflict situations. Again, both or one of the parties can be relieved of their responsibility. Where original plans are inadequate, alternative courses are needed to adjust to the changing circumstances. A carefully crafted alternative case can go wrong when the event is beyond the control of the manager as unanticipated events and problems occur frequently. As this is done, the managers should change their plans. Change management will be a reconditions in situations where changes are always anticipated in the planning process. It is vital for the manager to develop alternative plans that stand alongside existing plans to remedy circumstances that are adverse to the achievement of organizational objectives. The management should also have its options open and contingency plans ready. Successful and intelligent management is dependent on constant pursuit of flexibility and adaptation as well as mastery of changing conditions. Question Three: Differences between a good and poor operational plan A good operational plan communicates mission, values and vision of the organization hence positioning it against competitors based on strategic priorities. A poor plan curtails the vision and mission of the organization hence unable to attain organizational goals. A good plan sets clearly linked and measurable objectives while a poor plan establishes objectives that do not support the organizational strategy. Besides, a good plan creates goals that can be measured and support objectives while a poor plan are when the management and staff fail to impact success. While a good plan sets up clear timeframes and accountability, a poor plan does not specify anybody who is responsible for monitoring deadlines, goals and objectives. A good plan provides ways of knowing the expected impact on financial performance while a poor plan does not expect changes to expenses and revenue which eventually hamper financial goals of the organizational. As well, a good operational plan articulates contingencies that have potential impacts on organizational finances and suggests further measures. On the other hand, a poor plan fails to identify actions to actions that make the actual results unachieved. A good plan provides a means of tracking progress on regular basis hence keeping abreast the goals and objectives alongside strategic priorities. Meanwhile, a good operation plan has ingredients such as budgetary information, maintenance schedules, calendar of events, training plans, consultation and facility use schedules. A poor plan has some of the ingredients mentioned above missing or misplaced. For example, in a good plan, the calendar of events is spread throughout the year while a poor plan has some activities missing and sparsely distributed within the year. A good plan brings on board facilitators, team leaders and supervisors to support tactical plans and develop operational plans. A good plan has a budget that predicts amount of income, sources and specifics on the expenses to the particular projects. On the contrary, a poor plan has a budget that does not address specific allocation and appropriation to given activities. A good plan has policies, rules and procedures of doing work and guide decision making. The plan addresses directions of tasks and activities in a step-by-step manner and provides a standardized way as a response to an iterative problem. On the other hand, a poor plan does not connect individuals with the responsibility to connect tasks and sequence. For example, a poor operational plan can have a requisition originating from management then to the supervisors or purchasing department. A good plan has rules that guide the management and employees to observe a common behavior, uniformity and safety while at work while a poor plan does not have the ‘don’ts and do’s’ which blatantly fails to address employee safety and behavior. For example, a poor plan does not provide rules on how supervisors address absenteeism and tardiness. This implies that the company will have challenges in instilling discipline, and making rapid decision with greater level of fairness. Read More