List the types of plans.
a) Operational Plans
These are predominantly short-term plans undertaken at the lower managerial levels and tend to concentrate on the firm’s current scale of operations. They are sometimes called routine plans because they relate to the day to day running of the organisation
b) Tactical Plans
These, on the other hand, are medium term plans undertaken by middle management and they focus on the organisation’s current scale operations, with particular emphasis on efficiency in resource utilisation.
Typical examples in this category would be the budgets which tend to concentrate on how the organisation is sticking to certain set standards for example relating to expenditure.
c) Strategic / Corporate Plans
These are long term “survival” plans for the whole organisation undertaken by top management. They provide the basic framework for all the other plans already discussed. Their main focus is on the organisation’s future scale of operations, with the emphasis being on investments and divestments, mergers and acquisition, and all other issues pertaining to the expansion and contraction of the firm’s scale of operations.
There are also other two types of plans (1) Specific plans, and (2) Directional plans.
- Specific plans are plans that are formulated for a specific task
- Directional plans provide a skeletal framework while according the manager some reasonable leeway as to how they are to formulate their plans.
