Most companies have a vision, mission statement, and a set of core values. These three
things are normally made up by a group of senior managers or a leadership team. Once
these three things are decided upon, the upper management or leadership team should
deliver the information to the management below them, so the important information is
delivered to all levels of employees within the company. After the these three things have
been set, most companies will post their vision, mission statement and core values
somewhere for all employees to see. Often time new employees are given copies of these
three things in orientation or on their first day of work. Coming up with the vision, mission
statement and core values are just one way that managers get together to plan and set
goals. All functions of planning must be used by managers in order for the company to
succeed; planning helps the company to reach the set goals. All levels of management
should use strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning. Each level of
management tends to plan differently, but at the end of the day, all managers should
consult with each other when it comes to setting goals to successfully acting out each plan.
“Managers at all level–top, middle, and lower*ƒ²*ƒ”€šrequire each of the three planning
types discussed. Traditionally strategic planning has been associated with top-level
managers, operational planning has been associated with middle-level managers and
to-do-list”“ planning has been associated with lower-level managers or supervisors”“
(Carroll, 1993, para. 16).
Bateman and Snell (2007) stated, “Strategic planning involves making decisions about the
organization long-term goals and strategies”“ (Chap. 4, p. 122). The strategic goals are
usually set by high level managers because of the complexity of the goals. Strategic goals
tend to deal with the measure of growth of the company, market share and value,
profitability, return on investment (ROI), quantity and quality of outputs, productivity,
customer service, and contribution to society. A senior manager at a bank might use
strategic planning to track productivity for each branch manager. After the plan has been
implemented, that manager must target goals for that branch manager so he or she can
build on his or her strengths needed to reach the goals of the plan. Since strategic plans are
long term, the plan for the branch manager productivity might be to cross-sell 200 loans
with a brandnew account in four years. This is a long term goal that will have some
