'Most of the time, employees do not even attempt to formulate plans. They only carry out orders.'

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

Planning reduces creativity

The correct answer is Option 4- Planning reduces creativity.

Planning reduces creativity: Planning is an activity which is done by the top management. Usually, the rest of the members just implements these plans. As a consequence, middle management and other decision makers are neither allowed to deviate from plans nor are they permitted to act on their own. Thus, much of the initiative or creativity inherent in them also gets lost or reduced. Most of the time, employees do not even attempt to formulate plans. They only carry out orders. Thus, planning in a way reduces creativity since people tend to think along the same lines as others. There is nothing new or innovative.

* 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.

* Planning does not guarantee success: The success of an enterprise is possible only when plans are properly drawn up and implemented. Any plan needs to be translated into action or it becomes meaningless. Managers have a tendency to rely on previously tried and tested successful plans. It is not always true that just because a plan has worked before it will work again. Besides, there are so many other unknown factors to be considered. This kind of complacency and false sense of security may actually lead to failure instead of success. However, despite its limitations, planning is not a useless exercise. It is a tool to be used with caution. It provides a base for analysing future courses of action. But, it is not a solution to all problems.

* 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.