Chapter 4 Planning

Planning is the process of ________ and ________.

• developing premises about the future, evaluating them

• measuring results, taking corrective action

• measuring past performance, targeting future performance

• setting objectives, deciding how to accomplish them.

The benefits of planning include ________.

• improved focus

• lower labour costs

• more accurate forecasts

• guaranteed profits

In order to implement its strategy, a business firm would likely develop a (an) ______ plan for the marketing function.

• benchmarking IT

• operational

• productivity

• zero-based

______ planning identifies alternative courses of action that can be taken if and when certain situations arise.

• Zero-based

• Participative

• Strategic

• Contingency

The first step in the control process is to ______.

• measure actual performance

• establish objectives and standards

• compare results with objectives

• take corrective action

Which of the following timeframes is associated with long-range plans?

• less than 90 days

• less than one year

• one to two years

• three or more years

Production plans, financial plans, and facilities plans are all examples of which type of plan?

• strategic

• optimizing

• ethics

• operational

A standing plan that communicates broad guidelines for decisions and actions is called:

• strategic plan

• operational plan

• policy

• procedure or rule

A process of joint objective setting between a superior and a subordinate is known as:

• scenario planning

• contingency planning

• management by objectives

• benchmarking

Objectives used in MBO should be:

• given flexible performance targets

• for a defined time period

• easily attainable for the employee

• judged by qualitative, not quantitative, standards