Exam 7: Foundations of Planning

Strategic plans can be categorized as long term, directional, and single use.

Planning Factors (Scenario) As vice president of a local manufacturer, you are interested in developing a new organizational plan. However, you are not sure who you should assign to the varying planning tasks. At the same time, several other issues that could deeply affect your business are pending, including rising interest rates and the potential formation of a new employee union. You must also consider your firm's contracts with large vendors that extend five years into the future. -Which plans should you and other top management members be developing?

Amana Highway Collaborative (Scenario) The Regional Planning Council convened a group of stakeholders, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Community Affairs, who are interested in working together on improving a major highway called Amana Highway. Firas is the senior planner for the Regional Planning Council. Firas successfully obtained a technical assistance grant. The intent is to organize the 15 small communities along Amana Highway into an intergovernmental unit. All of the communities will share the same visioning processes of mission, objectives, and tasks. Firas is now charged with developing a strategic plan for this group, called the Amana Highway Collaborative. -First, Firas must determine the goals he wants to achieve. To do so, he must follow a series of steps for goal setting. The first step in setting goals for this new group should be to ____________.

A city's policy concerning smoking in public buildings that provides guidance for police action would be considered what type of plan?

When the hierarchy of organizational goals is clearly defined, it forms a ___________.

Goals and objectives are two terms used interchangeably in the planning process.

Retail Planning (Scenario) Tarek is president and CEO of a retail chain that is about to begin operations in numerous major cities across the Arab region. The stores will sell home furnishings that are considered moderately priced for the average- income buyer. During the last few months he has been working to lay out directions for the managers of the stores. Tarek and his vice presidents have decided that each store should have sales equal to or greater than $100 per square meter per day. To attract an adequate number of customers, the store should be well maintained both inside and out. -When setting goals for the plan, what should Tarek do after he evaluates available resources?

In an uncertain environment, managers want to develop ____________ plans.

When we categorize plans as being directional versus specific, we are categorizing them by___________ .

Amana Highway Collaborative (Scenario) The Regional Planning Council convened a group of stakeholders, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Community Affairs, who are interested in working together on improving a major highway called Amana Highway. Firas is the senior planner for the Regional Planning Council. Firas successfully obtained a technical assistance grant. The intent is to organize the 15 small communities along Amana Highway into an intergovernmental unit. All of the communities will share the same visioning processes of mission, objectives, and tasks. Firas is now charged with developing a strategic plan for this group, called the Amana Highway Collaborative. -While each community in the Amana Highway Collaborative maintains its identity and independence, Firas believes that the leverage of multi- governmental applications will ultimately secure more major funding in the future. However, due to the intergovernmental nature of the organization, Firas, although in charge of the collaborative, wields little direct power over any community member individually. Which contingency factor best represents Firas' situation?

Amana Highway Collaborative (Scenario) The Regional Planning Council convened a group of stakeholders, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Community Affairs, who are interested in working together on improving a major highway called Amana Highway. Firas is the senior planner for the Regional Planning Council. Firas successfully obtained a technical assistance grant. The intent is to organize the 15 small communities along Amana Highway into an intergovernmental unit. All of the communities will share the same visioning processes of mission, objectives, and tasks. Firas is now charged with developing a strategic plan for this group, called the Amana Highway Collaborative. -Firas told the Collaborative's members that the more current plans affect future commitments, the longer the time frame is for which managers must plan. This concept is also known as the ___________.

A wireless networking technology called Wi- Fi that links together information devices is___________ .

explain how strategic plans and operational plans differ in terms of time frame and scope?

What is the first step in a typical MBO program?

To encourage proper planning in Arab societies, Arab managers need to ____________.

A Business Plan (Scenario) Imagine that you are the owner of a small company that sells typewriters, business equipment, and computer hardware. You employ about 40 people. You know that the organization needs to move in a different direction, and you want to set some long- term goals for the company. You want to write a plan that will cover the next three years only, knowing that business needs change somewhat frequently. Your goal is to write a plan that provides direction but does not contain extremely well- defined, potentially restrictive objectives. -The fact that your plan covers three years suggests that your plan is most consistent with what type of plan?

What happens to traditional goals as they make their way down from top management to lower levels?

Goals provide the direction for all management decisions and actions and form the ____________ .

The quality of the planning process and the appropriate implementation of the plans probably ___________.

Operational plans encompass a particular operational area of the organization.