Strategic Planning and Management Control [antikvár]

1 Planning and Control in Organizations: The Need for New Perspectives Planning and control have long been accepted as fundamental to the practice of management. Early treatises on management, such as that of Fayol (1949), viewed planning and control as the beginning and end of the management process. Later, experts began to recognize the complex and diverse nature of planning and control in organizations. Anthony (1965), for instance, offered a seminal analysis of the vastly different purposes, processes, time horizons, and levels of managers involved in various planning and control activities in organizations. But his excellent framework does not recognize the different kinds of organizations that may be involved, nor does it readily lend itself to translation into systems that managers can use. There have been constant developments in the theory and practice of planning and control over the last three decades. In the 1950s, budgeting systems were considered the answer to managerial planning and control needs. The 1960s saw the emergence of long-range planning systems. And the environmental volatility and management aggressiveness of the 1970s led to the development of strategic planning systems. Despite the enormous progress that has been made, managers are still driven by the need to develop better systems of planning and control. The corporate corpses that litter the economic landscape of the 1980s are perhaps a symptom of the pressing nature of the need for better planning and control systems. Another symptom is that many organizations that pride themselves on their managerial prowess and view themselves at the forefront of management technology have recently been overhauling their planning and control systems. General Electric, Texas Instruments, and Westinghouse are typical of such organizations. The popular press {Business Week), managerial magazines {Planning Review), and judicious journals {Sloan Management Review) have been forums for voicing widespread disenchantment with planning and control systems. The increasingly complex, demanding, and even hostile climate facing organizations in the private and public sectors accentuates the need for better planning and control systems.