Planning is a function of management that involves defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
Planning is the management function that establishes organizational goals or objectives and creates the means for accomplishing them. It is the first function that all managers engage in because it lays the ground work for all other functions. It maps out courses of action that will commit individuals, departments, and the entire organization for days, months, and years to come. Planning achieves these ends after setting in motion the following processes:
1. Determination of what resources will be needed (organizing)
2. Identification of the number and types of personnel the organization will need (staffing)
3. Development of the foundation for the organizational environment in which work is to be accomplished (directing)
4. Determination of a standard against which the progress toward the objectives can be measured so that corrections can be made if necessary (controlling)
The management functions of establishing objectives and developing plans to accomplish them.