'Planning essentially involves a choice from among various alternatives.'

Which feature of planning is highlighted in this statement?

Planning involves decision making

The correct answer is option 3- Planning involves decision making.

Planning involves decision making is highlighted in the given statement.

Planning involves decision making: Planning essentially involves choice from among various alternatives and activities. If there is only one possible goal or a possible course of action, there is no need for planning because there is no choice. The need for planning arises only when alternatives are available. In actual practice, planning presupposes the existence of alternatives. Planning, thus, involves thorough examination and evaluation of each alternative and choosing the most appropriate one.

OTHER OPTIONS

• Planning is pervasive: Planning is required at all levels of management as well as in all departments of the organisation. It is not an exclusive function of top management nor of any particular department. But the scope of planning differs at different levels and among different departments.

• Planning is a mental exercise: Planning requires application of the mind involving foresight, intelligent imagination and sound judgement. It is basically an intellectual activity of thinking rather than doing, because planning determines the action to be taken. However, planning requires logical and systematic thinking rather than guess work or wishful thinking.

• Planning is futuristic: Planning essentially involves looking ahead and preparing for the future. The purpose of planning is to meet future events effectively to the best advantage of an organisation. It implies peeping into the future, analysing it and predicting it. Planning is, therefore, regarded as a forward looking function based on forecasting. Through forecasting, future events and conditions are anticipated and plans are drawn accordingly.