Match List-I (limitations of planning) with List-II (situations):
| List-I | List-II | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| (A) | Planning is a time-consuming process | (I) | A sudden flood in the state forces a cement company to revise its sales targets for the year. |
| (B) | Planning involves huge costs | (II) | A company spends heavily on meetings with professional experts before it launches a new product line. |
| (C) | Planning reduces creativity | (III) | The festive-season plan of a retail chain takes so long to prepare that the season is almost over before it can be put into action. |
| (D) | Planning may not work in a dynamic environment | (IV) | The sales staff of a firm just carry out the orders of the top managers and do not suggest new ways of selling. |
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (A)-(III), (B)-(II), (C)-(IV), (D)-(I)
| List-I | List-II | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| (A) Planning is a time-consuming process | (III) The festive-season plan of a retail chain takes so long to prepare that the season is almost over before it can be put into action. | The plan takes so long to draw up that little time is left to carry it out. |
| (B) Planning involves huge costs | (II) A company spends heavily on meetings with professional experts before it launches a new product line. | Meetings with experts are incidental costs of making a plan. |
| (C) Planning reduces creativity | (IV) The sales staff of a firm just carry out the orders of the top managers and do not suggest new ways of selling. | Staff who only carry out orders stop thinking of anything new. |
| (D) Planning may not work in a dynamic environment | (I) A sudden flood in the state forces a cement company to revise its sales targets for the year. | A flood is a natural calamity. It changes the environment, so the sales targets must change. |
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “(ii) 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. It becomes difficult to accurately assess future trends in the environment if economic policies are modified or political conditions in the country are not stable or there is a natural calamity. Competition in the market can also upset financial plans, sales targets may have to be revised and, accordingly, cash budgets also need to be modified since they are based on sales figures. Planning cannot foresee everything and thus, there may be obstacles to effective planning.” “(iii) 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.” “(iv) 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.” “(v) 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.” |