Deck 8: Planning Processes and Techniques

Question 1

Although planning focuses attention on defining and setting objectives, it doesn't concern itself with implementation of those objectives.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Effective planning improves focus and flexibility, provides an action orientation, helps to improve coordination, and facilitates better control and time management.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Planning is a five-step process that includes defining objectives, determining current status relative to objectives, developing premises regarding future conditions, analyzing action alternatives and choosing among them, and implementing the plan and evaluating results.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Planning is the process of setting objectives and determining what should be done to accomplish them.

Question 5

Stretch goals are performance targets that we must work extra hard to reach.

Question 6

Controlling is the management function that establishes the platform for further managerial efforts.

Question 7

The planning process is a systematic way of ensuring that performance objectives have been attained.

Question 8

Planning is an ongoing process engaged in simultaneously with other daily work processes.

Question 9

Without planning, control lacks objectives and standards for measuring how well things are going and what could be done to make them go better.

Question 10

Controlling is the process of setting objectives and determining how to accomplish them.

Question 11

Plans alone don't deliver results; implemented plans do.

Question 12

In the planning process, objectives refer to the specific results or desired outcomes that one intends to achieve.

Question 13

Leading refers to guiding the efforts of human resources to ensure high levels of task accomplishment.

Question 14

The planning process is a systematic way of setting performance objectives and deciding how to best achieve them.

Question 15

For effective time management, one must become calendar-bound by letting others control one's schedule.

Question 16

Planning helps us avoid simply being carried along by the flow of events, and focuses our attention on priorities.

Question 17

The management process involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the use of resources to achieve performance objectives.

Question 18

Planning in organizations creates a solid platform for further managerial efforts to assist managers to allocate and arrange resources to accomplish essential tasks in the organization.

Question 19

Planning eliminates the need for effective leadership.

Question 20

An organization with flexibility operates with an orientation toward the past rather than the future.

Question 21

Effective time management involves choices about the allocation of time to the most important priorities.

Question 22

Strategic plans ideally set forth the goals and objectives needed to accomplish the organization's vision in terms of mission or purpose and what it hopes to be in the future.

Question 23

Tactical plans tend to be intermediate-term plans that specify step-by-step means for using the organization's resources to put strategies into action.

Question 24

A functional plan indicates how different operations within the organization will help advance the overall strategy.

Question 25

Planning helps managers and organizations to stay ahead of the competition by creating a performance-oriented sense of direction, making sure the most important things get attention first, ensuring that all resources are used to best advantage, and anticipating problems and opportunities so they can be dealt with in the best way.

Question 26

Without controlling, planning lacks a framework for measuring how well things are going and what could be done to improve things.

Question 27

Planning provides action orientations for people and organizations that are results oriented, priority oriented, advantage oriented, and change oriented.

Question 28

Good time management involves prioritizing your work, screening calls and emails, and saying "no" to distracting requests.

Question 29

Strategic plans set broad, comprehensive, and longer-term action directions for the entire organization.

Question 30

Typical strategic plans in a business would include dealing with the methods and technology needed by people in their work and dealing with money required to support various operations. Typical operational plans in a business would include dealing with requirements of selling and distributing goods or services and dealing with recruitment, selection, and placement of people into jobs.

Question 31

As the time frames of planning are shrinking nowadays, top management is no longer responsible for setting longer-term plans and directions for the organization.

Question 32

An organization with focus knows the needs of its customers and knows how to serve them well; an individual with focus knows where he or she wants to go in a career or situation and can retain that objective even in difficult circumstances.

Question 33

All managers, regardless of their levels, will use the same time horizon to plan their work activities.

Question 34

Without planning, controlling lacks the follow-through needed to ensure that things work as planned.

Question 35

An organization's vision clarifies the purpose of the organization and expresses what it hopes to be in the future.

Question 36

Examples of functional plans include production plans, financial plans, logistics plans, and HR plans.

Question 37

When plans are coordinated among the various systems and components of the organization, there is less likelihood that multiple accomplishments will add up to the desired results for the organization.

Question 38

Strategic plans are focused only on a specific department of an organization.

Question 39

In business, tactical plans often take the form of operational plans that indicate how different components of the enterprise will contribute to the overall strategy.

Question 40

Planning facilitates control by defining the objectives and using specialization to motivate workers.

Question 41

Budgets are single-use plans that commit resources to activities, projects, or programs.

Question 42

Qualitative forecasting uses expert opinions to predict the future.

Question 43

Procedures set broad guidelines for making decisions and taking action in specific circumstances.

Question 44

Using the opinions of persons with special expertise to make predictions about the future is called qualitative forecasting.

Question 45

A fixed budget is defined as one that allocates a fixed amount of resources for a specific purpose.

Question 46

Policies set expectations for many aspects of employee behaviour.

Question 47

Operating budgets allocate resources like labour, equipment, and space.

Question 48

A zero-based budget allows the allocation of resources to vary in proportion with various levels of activity.

Question 49

A monthly operating budget is an example of a single-use plan that serves the needs and objectives of a well-defined situation in a timely manner.

Question 50

Operational plans form the foundation for strategic plans, whereas strategic plans specify the activities and resources that are needed to carry out the operational plans.

Question 51

Operational plans include single-use plans like budgets that apply to one specific task or time period.

Question 52

Procedures present a plan of action for specific situations whereas policies are broad guidelines.

Question 53

Operational plans define what needs to be done in specific functions or work units to implement strategic plans and achieve strategic objectives.

Question 54

A flexible budget allocates resources as if each budget were brand new.

Question 55

Standard operating procedures are rules that are can be found in employee manuals.

Question 56

A zero-based budget and a project schedule are examples of standing plans that are designed to cover recurring situations.

Question 57

To be "over budget" is generally considered bad for a company or an individual; to come in "under budget" is generally good.

Question 58

Fixed budgets define specific task objectives, link activities to be accomplished with due dates, and identify the amounts and timing of resource requirements.

Question 59

Policies and procedures are single-use plans for meeting the needs of a well-defined situation in a timely manner.

Question 60

Budgets are standing plans that are used repeatedly.

Question 61

Quantitative forecasting techniques use expert opinions to predict the future, whereas qualitative forecasting uses mathematical analyses to predict future events.

Question 62

Internal benchmarking encourages members and work units to learn from competitors and non-competitors alike.

Question 63

Contingency planning contains trigger points that indicate when preselected alternative plans should be activated.

Question 64

Contingency planning focuses on early identification of possible shifts in future events.

Question 65

Contingency planning identifies alternative courses of action to take when things go wrong.

Question 66

If staff planners are used, people may often lack commitment to implement the plans no matter how good they are.

Question 67

An important risk associated with the use of staff planners is the communication gap that can develop between staff planners and line managers.

Question 68

Scenario planning helps Royal Dutch/Shell make major adjustments in strategies and operations and to be better prepared than competitors for future shocks.

Question 69

Benchmarking is done to determine what other organizations are doing well and planning on incorporating those good ideas into one's own organization.

Question 70

Using mathematical and statistical analyses of historical data and surveys to predict future events is called quantitative forecasting.

Question 71

Contingency planning identifies alternative courses of action that can be implemented to meet the needs of changing circumstances.

Question 72

Forecasting is a process of making quantitative or qualitative predictions about what will happen in the future; yet in the final analysis, forecasting is subject to error because it always relies on human judgment and interpretation.

Question 73

Scenario planning is a short-term version of contingency planning.

Question 74

Scenario planning involves identifying alternative future states of affairs that may occur and then developing plans to deal with each case should it occur.

Question 75

Contingency planning does not specify different courses of action under different conditions.

Question 76

The purpose of benchmarking is to find out what other people and organizations are doing very well, and then plan how to incorporate these ideas into one's own operations.

Question 77

Staff planners are individuals who lead and coordinate the planning function for an organization for one of its major components.

Question 78

Benchmarking is used to gain perspective on current organizational performance by using external comparisons.

Question 79

Internal benchmarking refers to those things that are done by both competitors and non-competitors that enable them to achieve superior performance.

Question 80

Contingency planning occurs when planners decide the future will be identical to the past.