Costs and Benefits of Planning

Planning has advantages as well as disadvantages. This means that even though planning aids in improving organizational and individual performance, it might not work very well all the time throughout the existence of the organization. One important benefit of planning is that it encourages managers and workers to direct their persistent efforts towards activities that accomplish their goals and away from those that are less relevant.

One of the major costs of planning is that over-commitment to plans will impedes company’s efforts to adapt to frequent changes in their environment. Another easily identified pitfall is that planning usually fails when the planners (usually the top management) are detached from the actual implementation of the plans (done by the development team). To prevent this, the planners should have active participation and provide extensive support for the implementation
activities.

Research Reference:
1. Williams C. (2007). Management (4th ed., ). Thomson South Western.