Management Fundamentals: Canadian Edition
Management Fundamentals: Canadian Edition
to Accompany Chapter 8 of
Management Fundamentals
Canadian Edition
Schermerhorn Wright
Planning
– The process of setting objectives and determining how
to best accomplish them.
Objectives
– Identify the specific results or desired outcomes that
one intends to achieve.
Plan
– A statement of action steps to be taken in order to
accomplish the objectives.
Benefits of planning:
– Improves focus and flexibility.
– Improves action orientation.
– Improves coordination.
– Improves time management.
– Improves control.
Contingency planning
– Identifying alternative courses of action that
can be implemented to meet the needs of
changing circumstances.
– Contingency plans anticipate changing
conditions.
– Contingency plans contain trigger points.
Management Fundamentals - Chapter 8 13
Study Question 3: What are the useful
planning tools and techniques?
Scenario planning
– A long-term version of contingency planning.
– Identifying alternative future scenarios.
– Plans made for each future scenario.
– Increases organization’s flexibility and
preparation for future shocks.
Benchmarking
– Use of external comparisons to better evaluate
current performance and identify possible
actions for the future.
– Adopting best practices of other organizations
that achieve superior performance.
Management Fundamentals - Chapter 8 15
Study Question 3: What are the useful
planning tools and techniques?
Controlling
– The process of measuring performance and taking
action to ensure desired results.
– Has a positive and necessary role in the management
process.
– Ensures that the right things happen, in the right way, at
the right time.
– Organizational learning and after-action review.
Feedforward controls …
– Employed before a work activity begins.
– Ensures that:
• Objectives are clear.
• Proper directions are established.
• Right resources are available.
– Focuses on quality of resources.
Management Fundamentals - Chapter 8 26
Study Question 4: What is the
control process?
Concurrent controls …
– Focus on what happens during work process.
– Monitor ongoing operations to make sure they
are being done according to plan.
– Can reduce waste in unacceptable finished
products or services.
Feedback controls …
through reprimand.
Purchasing control …
– A productivity tool
– Trends in purchasing control:
• Leveraging buying power
• Committing to a small number of suppliers
• Working together in supplier-purchaser partnerships
Inventory control
– Goal is to ensure that inventory is just the right
size to meet performance needs, thus
minimizing the cost.
– Methods of inventory control:
• Economic order quantity
• Just-in-time scheduling