Now that you’ve discovered more about the basic
activities associated with managers and how management
environment has changed over the years, it’s time to get into
specifics. And ironic as it may seem, to do this we have to
start at the end. Where is it you want your organization to go?
The old saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road
will take you there” is perfectly true. We need to know what
final destination we want to arrive at in order to choose the
correct path towards that location. It applies to your life, to
your career, and certainly, to business. What is the end result
you want your business to accomplish? Where do you want your
firm to be in the next year, 5 years, 10 years? How best to make
decisions which lead to that end result? The answers to these
questions involve the managerial function of Planning, the first
of the four main functions of management.
The two modules contained in Topic 2 focus on
planning and decision making. You may already be familiar with
some of the concepts and ideas presented here because the
planning process is a vital component in almost every field and
discipline. You will learn more about this critical aspect of
management in Module 2.1. And, hand-in-hand with the planning
process is the act of decision-making. As you learned from the
previous topic, a manager’s life is filled with the act of
making decisions. In Module 2.2 you will learn the steps
involved in effective decision making as well as many of the
challenges and problems associated with decision making in
actual practice.
Let’s get started…….
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