Avoiding The Barriers

Certain guidelines if followed by managers can help them deal with the roadblocks to planning. These include:

(a) Planning should start at the top

Top managers should set the goals and strategies that lower level managers will follow. Top management committed is crucial for any plan to actualise.

(b) Planners should recognize the limits

Managers must recognize that no planning system is perfect. Planning has limits and cannot be done with absolute precision.

(c) Communication

Vertical communication within the organization hierarchy can facilitate planning. People should be let to know what is expected of them at all times.

(d) Participation

Managers who are involved in planning are more likely to know what is going on and therefore be motivated to contribute.

(e) Integration

As much as possible the long term, intermediate and short range plans must be properly integrated and the better they are integrated, the more effective the organizations overall planning system.

(f) Contingency planning

Managers should develop alternative actions that a company might follow if conditions change.