Assignment due sunday

Atha Corporation: Planning

Mary Atha, CEO

One role of corporate leadership is to articulate a vision, define the mission, and establish goals for the organization. This is accomplished through effective communication, among other things. At some point, management must convert these goals into getting things done.

Management encompasses four principle elements; to plan, organize, lead, and control the limited resources of an organization, to achieve the stated goals.

The first of those elements is to plan. That is the focus of this week’s lecture.

Think of the management cycle of plan, organize, lead, and control, as a circle.

At the top of the circle is plan, the activity of developing a strategy for accomplishing the goals assigned to management.

This is like tasking a military unit with taking a hill. Soldiers in the unit do not ask why, they just figure out how to get it done! The corporate leadership staff doesn’t have to care how the task is achieved, as long as it is accomplished within the established boundaries or rules of engagement. Management must quickly and accurately complete an assessment of current capabilities, including available resources, and an analysis of the barriers to success. They allocate assets, identify critical activities, and define the tasks required to support those activities.

The following four questions must be answered during the conversion of goals into objectives and activities: What must be done? How and why must it be done? What does success look like? And, how will we know if we are on the right track?

You are managing the human resources department, and another functional area of your choice.

Your predecessor has been fired. As a recent college graduate, you have been brought in to turn the department around and lead it to the established goals. You must first begin to apply the planning process to your assigned goals.

Assess your capabilities, allocate your resources wisely, anticipate where the barriers to success may lay, and apply the four questions to your strategy.

Currently, you have a serious employee problem. Turnover was very high under the previous department manager. The employees are skeptical, having seen any number of “strategies-of-the-month” rolled out, only to see them quickly abandoned, and replaced by still other meaningless initiatives.

You have to make something positive happen, quickly, in order to gain their trust.

Begin to analyze what activities must be accomplished, in order for the department to reach its assigned goals.

You will also need to determine how you will achieve the initiatives, and in what time frame.

Credits

Title:

Atha Corporation: Planning

Subject Matter Expert:

Sam Palmeri

Instructional Designer:

Mo Yang

Interactive Design:

Patrick Lapinski, Joe Birr

Project Management:

SueAnn AdamsBottolfson, Julie Greunke, MAEd

On-Camera Talent:

Patty Matthews