Essentials of Planning and Managing by Objectives

FOR DISCUSSION1. "Planning is looking ahead, and control is looking back." Comment.2. Draw up a statement of policy and devise a brief procedure that might beuseful in implementing it. Are you sure your policy is not a rule?3. Take an organization that you know and identify its purpose or mission,even if it is not formally stated by the enterprise.4. To what extent do you believe that managers you have known in business orelsewhere have a clear understanding of their objectives? If you think they donot, how would you suggest that they go about setting their objectives?5. Some people object to defining long-term goals because they think thatknowing what will happen over a long period is impossible. Do you believe thisis an intelligent position to take? Why or why not?6. Do you think that managing by objectives could be introduced in agovernment agency? A university? A college fraternity or sorority?7. What are your five most important personal objectives? Are they long- orshort-range? Are the objectives verifiable?8. In your organization, what does your superior expect from you in terms ofperformance? Is it stated in writing? If you wrote down your job objective andyour boss wrote down what he or she expects of you, would the two beconsistent?EXERCISE/ACTION STEPSIn this chapter, the overall objectives of a university were identified. Developoverall objectives for your university, for your college, and for the variousdepartments in your college. Show how these objectives are interrelated to form anetwork.INTERNET RESEARCH1. Use a search engine to look for "management by objectives" and identify howMBO is used: as a planning tool? for managerial appraisal? for motivatingpeople? in conjunction with strategic planning? for developing managers?2. Search the Internet for the term "budget" and discuss your findings with theclass.