O S M – Prof. Rajesh Satpathy

The Management Science School:

During World War II the United Kingdom was faced with many complex problems. Operational research teams composed of mathematicians, physicists & other scientists were set up. These teams pooled their knowledge to solve problems.

After the war these ideas were applied to industrial problems which could not be solved by conventional means. With the development of the electronic computer, these procedures became formalized into a ‘management science’ school.

Management Theories

The ‘Management science’ school, by its use of computers and quantitative analysis, has made it possible to consider the effect of a number of variables in an organization which may otherwise have been overlooked.

This approach to management uses precise quantitative techniques like:

>> Quantitative Management—utilizes linear programming, modeling, simulation systems.>> Operations Management—techniques to analyze all aspects of the production system.>> Total Quality Management (TQM)—focuses on improving quality throughout an organization.>> Management Information Systems (MIS)—provides information about the organization.

Management Theories

“In planning, we understand the past, envision the future and manage the present”.

Planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior and is as old as mankind. Planning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale.

What isPlanning?

Planning is a forward looking process and hence it looks into the future. Planning is the basic process aided by it we select our goals and determine the ways to realize them. A lot of information is gathered and processed during plan formulation. In planning we have to put the gathered information together properly.

This topic has two sections. They are:

>> Purpose of Planning>> Steps of Planning

What isPlanning?

Organizations often collapse and projects fail not because of the shortage of resources, but because of poor planning.

Primarily the purpose of planning is to find answers to the following questions:

>> Why am I preparing this plan?>> What am I trying to achieve?>> What resources do I need to execute the plan?>> How I find the resources?

Purpose of Planning

Establish the goal:

Establishing goal is the process of taking decision on what the individual/business/organization wants to achieve within a given time frame. Awareness of the opportunities and their evaluation in the light of the organizational strengths and weaknesses is essential to set goals in a realistic way.

Similarly quantitative expression to the goals should be given to the maximum extent possible.

Steps of Planning

Establish planning premises:

The plans are being prepared for the future operation. Therefore it is essential to make certain assumptions about the future. This is called premising. Premises provide the basic framework for the plans to operate.

There are two kinds of premises:

>> Internal premises: This includes policies and resources of the organization, skills and attitudes of the people etc.

Steps of Planning

Establish planning premises:

>> External premises: This includes all the influential factors in the environment outside the organization such as technology changes, government policies, general economic conditions, socio-cultural changes, political stability, market conditions, availability of various resources etc.

Steps of Planning

Decide the planning period:

How far in the future should be covered in the plan? - this is the most crucial questions to be answered. The earlier steps should definitely help to take this decision.

Selecting the course of action from alternate options:

Most often it can be seen that same objective can be achieved through different course of actions. Such reasonable alternatives may be listed out and select the most logical one. The alternatives may be evaluated in the light of the premises and the overall goals of the organization.

Steps of Planning

Preparation of Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP):

Strategic Implementation Plan is chiefly a sequential and logical listing of all the above steps in a tabular form. It will give the listing of objectives, actions with reference to objectives, target area, implementation time, and monitoring system.

Steps of Planning

Preparation of Detailed implementation Plan:

Based on the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP), a detailed implementation plan has to be prepared. It will be a derivative of the SIP and should be split into Department/Unit implementation plans with detailed activity/sub activity/sub sub activity narration, outputs, outcomes, intermediate milestones, risk factors, Monitoring & Evaluation System (M&E System )and budgeting.

Steps of Planning

The Management Cycle

The Monitoring and Evaluation System (M & E System) should be integrated within the project management cycle.

Preparation of Monitoring and Evaluation Plan:

Monitoring and Evaluation are crucial for the successful implementation of any plan. Modern management thoughts say that M&E should start from the very beginning of the planning process itself, and go throughout the plan and complete after completion of the plan.

M&E is a fast developing technique and its tools are highly related to the nature and context of the business to be monitored and evaluated. There for selection of appropriate method of M&E is very important.

Steps of Planning

Key points:

>> Planning is as old as mankind>> Planning is a forward looking process>> Eight important activities is sequence can be identified in an ideal planning process

Steps of Planning

ThankYou!