Bus 610 - Discussion Board Forum

Busi 610-Discussion Board Forum 2

Andrew Fagan

Liberty University

Professor Wilkins

1) How do you think planning in today's organizations compares to planning twenty-five years ago? Do you think planning becomes more important or less important in a world where everything is changing fast and crises are a regular part of organizational life? Why?

The importance of planning is in the value of having goals or a direction for the organization. Having a plan also means, you can document it, therefore communicate with, and thus work with all those with an interest in the organization. In many ways, planning in today's organization looks similar but has some differences from 25 years ago. One of the biggest factors is the technology available today that aides in the planning process. With the advances of technology, also came along a more modern approach to planning. The planning process is not very different however; the steps involved have likely increased from twenty-five years ago. Problems that occur in today's organizations are much more complex and require complex solutions and complex risk assessments. This is evident in the increased number of departments needed within an organization to handle the vast amount of work such as marketing, procurement, legal and E-business departments. Planning is much more important in a world that is constantly changing and crises are a regular occurrence. It is imperative that organizations select managers that are as diverse as the departments within the company. In a fast paced, changing world there are so many more levels of uncertainty and planning is a huge factor in the success of a business. Daft (2013) states, "Frequent changes require more information processing to achieve horizontal coordination."

2) Is changing the organization's domain a feasible strategy for coping with a threatening environment? Can you think of an organization in the recent news that has changed its domain? Explain.

Changing an organization's domain is not a good idea. This is especially true for an organization that operates in a complex environment. A complex environment is one where an organization interacts with and is influenced by numerous external elements; a simple environment is influenced by only a few external elements, all of which are similar. In a complex environment, a company would have to move its focus into a different market. This would make an entirely new business. It might be possible for a small "mom and pop" store to change its domain. For example if selling baseball cards does not work out, they could change to a post card store. Simply changing inventory and few things around the shop could help change the domain. A major university could not stop being an institution of higher learning, this would be the only way to change its' domain. The biggest company known to have changed their domain was Blockbuster Video. They have been facing huge difficulty with closing stores nationwide due to the introduction of movies on demand as well as Netflix. Blockbuster decided to merge into the online movie ordering of Netflix to allow

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