Planning

The management function of setting goals and deciding in advance how resources will be used to reach them.

Planning is the forward-looking function. Scheduling next week's staff, committing to an inventory purchase before a busy season, and setting a sales target for the quarter are all planning.

Often confused with

Organizing
Planning decides what will be done and with what resources; organizing arranges the people and resources into roles to do it.

Taught in

See also

4.1.A.1