'Plans decide the future course of action and managers may not be in a position to change it.'

Which of the following limitation of planning is highlighted in the above statement?

Planning leads to rigidity

The correct answer is Option 1- Planning leads to Rigidity.

Planning leads to Rigidity- In an organisation, a well-defined plan is drawn up with specific goals to be achieved within a specific time frame. These plans then decide the future course of action and managers may not be in a position to change it. This kind of rigidity in plans may create difficulty. Managers need to be given some flexibility to be able to cope with the changed circumstances. Following a pre-decided plan, when circumstances have changed, may not turn out to be in the organisations interest.

* Planning may not work in a dynamic environment: The business environment is dynamic, nothing is constant. The environment consists of a number of dimensions, economic, political, physical, legal and social dimensions. The organisation has to constantly adapt itself to changes.

* Planning is a time-consuming process: Sometimes plans to be drawn up take so much of time that there is not much time left for their implementation.

* Planning involves huge costs: When plans are drawn up huge costs are involved in their formulation. These may be in terms of time and money for example, checking accuracy of facts may involve lot of time. Detailed plans require scientific calculations to ascertain facts and figures. The costs incurred sometimes may not justify the benefits derived from the plans. There are a number of incidental costs as well, like expenses on boardroom meetings, discussions with professional experts and preliminary investigations to find out the viability of the plan.