ManagementLesson 3 of 8 in the course Organizational Planning and Controlling

Organizational Plans: Hierarchy, Use, Time, Scope, and Contingencies

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Organizations use different plans because their activities vary in scale, purpose, and frequency. This lesson explains how plans relate to organizational levels and how they differ according to whether they are used repeatedly or for a single purpose.

An organization can be viewed as having three connected levels of needs: the institutional level, the administrative level, and the technical core. Each level has a corresponding type of plan.

All flashcards

What do strategic plans do?
They set long-term organizational direction through vision, mission, objectives, and strategies, and help position the organization in its external environment.
How do administrative plans connect organizational levels?
They allocate resources among internal units and link institutional direction with implementation in the technical core.
What is an operating plan?
A plan that guides day-to-day activities in an organization’s technical core.
How does a rule differ from a policy?
A rule specifies what is or is not permissible without discretion in interpretation. A policy gives general guidance while allowing some discretion.
What are the three common single-use plans?
Programs, projects, and budgets. Programs combine elements to carry out a course of action; projects plan specific actions; budgets express plans numerically.

Quiz questions

  1. Which hierarchical plan type guides day-to-day operations in an organization’s technical core?Answer: Operating plans
  2. What is a primary purpose of administrative plans?Answer: Allocate resources among units and connect direction with implementation
  3. Which statement best describes a policy?Answer: General guidance for decisions that allows some discretion
  4. A manager sets a required sequence of steps for handling a recurring task. What kind of standing plan is this?Answer: A procedure
  5. Which single-use plan combines policies, rules, and procedures to carry out a course of action?Answer: A program

Based on Principles of Management by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, Eva Hartmann, K. Praveen Parboteeah, Jon L. Pierce, Monique Reece, Amit Shah, Siri Terjesen, Joseph Weiss, Margaret A. White, Donald G. Gardner, Jason Lambert et al. (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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