Planning - Test Papers

 CBSE Test Paper - 01

Chapter - 4 Planning

  1. In which step of the planning process the best and most feasible plan will be chosen to be implemented?
    1. Selecting an alternative
    2. Developing premises
    3. Evaluating alternative courses
    4. Setting Objectives
    1. only i
    2. ii and iii
    3. iii and iv
    4. only iv
  2. Estimated cash outflows and cash inflows are ________.
    1. Budget
    2. Procedure
    3. Rules
    4. Programme
  3. Planning of different departments is ________.
    1. Mutually dependent
    2. Individual
    3. Neither related not dependent
    4. Both mutually dependent and individual
  4. Rules are ________ details.
    1. special
    2. general
    3. none of these
    4. uncommon
  5. Kohinoor foods ltd. has banned smoking in factory premises. Identify the plan.
    1. Method
    2. Strategy
    3. Programme
    4. Rules
  6. State whether each of the following statement is True or False:
    1. Planning is closely connected to creativity and innovation.
    2. Planning guarantees success.
    3. No smoking in the factory. Anybody found smoking in the factory will have to face a penalty equal to 10% of the salary. It is an example of a policy.
    4. Rules do not allow for any flexibility or discretion but the penalty is not imposed on their violation.
  7. Fill in the blanks with suitable words:
    1. Planning requires taking ________ since it involves making a choice from options.
    2. The business environment is ________ nothing constant, so planning may not work in such an environment.
    3. Planning is a ________ exercise.
    4. The nature of corrective action required depends upon the extent of ________ from the standard.
  8. Match the following:
    (i) Planning provides(a) risk of uncertainties
    (ii) Planning leads to(b) innovative ideas
    (iii) Planning reduces(c) rigidity
    (iv) Planning promotes(d) direction
  9. Saurabh decides to start a chocolate manufacturing business. He set the target of earning a 10% profit on sales in the first year. As a good businessman, he was concerned about the future of the business, which was uncertain. He gathered the information that the demand for chocolates is increasing day by day. He used this information as the base for future planning and shared it with his team. On the basis of the gathered information, he scheduled a meeting in the following week to find innovative ways to achieve the objectives.
    List the first two steps, which have been followed by Saurabh that are related to the process of one of the functions of management.
  10. What is meant by 'Policy' as a type of plan?
  11. Give one limitation of the planning function.
  12. Josh Ltd. is one of the largest two-wheeler manufacturers in India. It has a market share of about 42% in the two-wheeler category. The company had witnessed almost a 35% drop in the booking as the currency crunch was prompting people to withhold new purchases due to demonetization. Therefore, the production manager of the company had decided to align production to factor in slower sales in the market.
    In the context of the above case:
    1. Identify and explain the function of management being discussed in the above lines.
    2. Which limitations of the function of management as identified in part (i) of the question were the production manager trying to overcome due to demonetisation?
  13. Explain how “Planning is a mental exercise”.
  14. Explain how 'planning leads to rigidity'.
  15. What do you mean by planning?
  16. A jeans manufacturing company wants to become a market leader. For this, detailed planning is done. The first step is to set targets for the three months duration of selling the maximum number of jeans in the market which they set as ₹1,00,000. The team does not want to make any mistake. So they decided to do proper planning. They decide to chalk out alternate plans so that they could arrive at the best possible plan. However, the team is surrounded by doubts. To remove doubts it goes for judging the plans to get the most profitable one. The plan is taken to the whole organisation and the concerned persons and the best plan is finalised. Finally, it is put into action. Without much caring for the results, the company starts working on the other project simultaneously.
    1. Identify the steps involved in the process of planning which has been applied by the organisation in the above case by quoting the lines.
    2. Identify the steps of the planning process which have not been indicated.
  17. Diamond Public School in Bahadurgarh decides to implement the literacy program of the government in its school. It is decided that within a year the 45 support staff employees of the school will be made literate by the school counsellors and social workers. In order to enhance the learning process, the school decided to use audiovisual aids. To start the program the school has to first procure the literacy books from State Resource Centre, at Jamia. Besides the curriculum, each literacy book contains a series of nine tests that the volunteers have to get completed by the learners during the program. Moreover, by implementing the plan of 'each one teach one' each student of the school from class fifth to tenth will be encouraged to make one person literate. The student volunteers may either select a learner by adopting any one of the two ways. Either from the slum areas adopted by the school or on their own within the vicinity of their residence. As per the norms of the Delhi Government, it is mandatory for the volunteers to send back the filled copy of only the ninth test paper in the series to the authorities as conclusive proof of the completion of the course, else the certificate of commendation will not be awarded to them. Considering the implementation of the program to be a part of its corporate social responsibility initiative the school has decided to spend around Rs. 50,000 on the distribution of free stationery items, refreshments of the learners, etc.
    In the context of the above case:
    1. Identify the various types of plans being used by Diamond Public School in order to implement the literacy program in their school.
    2. Categorize the various types of plans as identified in part (a) into single-use plans and standing plans.
  18. Planning is an important function of management. State any four reasons in favour of the statement.

CBSE Test Paper - 01
Chapter - 4 Planning

Solution

  1. (a) only i
    Explanation: Selecting an alternative is a step where the alternative is selected.
  2. (a) Budget
    Explanation: To predict Cash inflows comes from sales and other revenue-generating activities and cash outflows in the form of expenses over a period of time, a type of budget is prepared which is called cash budget.
  3. (a) Mutually dependent
    Explanation: Planning of different departments is mutually dependent.
  4. (a) Special
    Explanation: Rules are special details.
  5. (d) Rules
    Explanation: Rules are very specific statements that define an action or non-action. Not following rules can have severe consequences.
    1. True
    2. False
      Explanation: False, planning does not guarantee success. The success of an enterprise is possible only when plans are properly drawn up and implemented.
    3. False
    4. False
      Explanation: False, as rules are very specific statements that define an action or non-action. Also, rules allow for no flexibility at all, they are final. All employees of the organization must compulsorily follow and implement the rules.
    1. decision
    2. dynamic
    3. mental
    4. deviations
  8. (i) - (d), (ii) - (c), (iii) - (a), (iv) - (b)
  9. The first two steps, which have been followed by Saurabh that are related to the process of Planning as the functions of management are described below:
    1. Setting Objective
    2. Developing the Premises.
  10. A policy is a general statement that guides thinking or channelizes energy in a particular direction. It is the organisation's own customized way of handling the problem. e.g. policy to give admission in school who secured 60% or more.
  11. It is a time-consuming process.
    1. Planning is the function of management which is being discussed in the above lines. Planing is the fundamental management function, which involves deciding beforehand, what is to be done, when is it to be done, how it is to be done and who is going to do it. It is an intellectual process which lays down an organisation’s objectives and develops various courses of action, by which the organisation can achieve those objectives. It chalks out exactly, how to attain a specific goal. Planning is nothing but thinking before the action takes place. It helps us to take a peep into the future and decide in advance the way to deal with the situations, which we are going to encounter in future. It involves logical thinking and rational decision making.
    2. The production manager is trying to overcome the following limitations of planning:
      • Rigidity
      • Planning may not work in a dynamic environment
  13. Planning is an intellectual process involving logical thinking, foresightedness, intelligence, imagination, vision and sound judgement. Planning is not merely a pure guesswork rather it is thinking before doing. A planner has to think about the following questions:
    • what to do
    • how to do
    • when to do
    • who is going to do etc.
    1. The rigidity of planning mismatches the current performance with the prevailing environment and thus, planning suffers from inflexibility in meeting its targets.
    2. Policies and programmes of the enterprise have to be established in course of the preparation of the plan. Once these are finalised it is difficult to change them.
    3. Secondly, commitments have to be made for long-term capital investment. This is done at the time of preparing the plan. Thus, capital investment is planned for the future in terms of the forecasts made now.
  15. In the words of Koontz N O'Donnell, Planning is the process of deciding in advance what to do, how to do, when to do and who is going to do it. It bridges the gap between where we are and where we want to go. It is a trap to capture the future.
    There are 3 key elements in the concept of planning. These are:
    By providing direction, planning promotes efficiency and reduces the risk of uncertainty.
    • Establishing clear, precise and realistic objectives for a given time period.
    • Identifying alternative courses of action
    • Selecting the most suitable alternative.
      1. Setting objectives
        The first step... set as ₹1,00,000.
      2. Identifying alternative courses of action
        They decide to chalk out alternative plans... could arrive at the best possible plan.
      3. Evaluating alternative courses of action
        To remove doubts... most profitable one.
      4. Selecting an alternative
        ...the best plan is finalised.
      5. Implementing the plan
        Finally...put into action.
      1. Developing premises
      2. Follow-up action.
    1. The various types of plans being used by Diamond Public School in order to implement the literacy program in their school are as follows:
      1. Objectives: "It is decided that within the year all the 45 support staff employees of the school will be made literate by the school counsellors and social workers."
      2. Strategy: "In order to enhance the learning process the school decided to use audio-visual aids."
      3. Policy: "Moreover, by implementing the plan of 'each one teach one' each student of the school from class fifth to tenth will be encouraged to make one person literate."
      4. Procedure: "To start the program the school has to first procure the literacy books from State Resource Centre, at Jamia. Besides the curriculum, each literacy book contains a series of nine tests that the volunteers have to get completed by the learners during the program."
      5. Method: "The student volunteers may either select a learner by adopting any one of the two ways. Either from the slum areas adopted by the school or on their own within the vicinity of their residence."
      6. Rule: "As per the norms of the Delhi Government, it is mandatory for the volunteers to send back the filled copy of only ninth test paper in the series to the authorities as conclusive proof of the completion of the course, else the certificate of commendation will not be awarded to them.
      7. Budget: "Considering the implementation of the program to be a part of its corporate social responsibility initiative the school has decided to spend around Rs. 50,000 on the distribution of free stationery items, refreshments of the learners, etc."
    2. Single-use plans are the ones that are formulated to deal with new or non-repetitive situations that may arise in an organization from time to time. This includes programs, budgets, and projects.
      Standing plans refers to the types of plans which once formulated may be used for a long period of time in similar or repetitive situations that may prevail in an organization. This includes policies, procedures, methods, and rules.
  18. The following facts show the importance of Planning:
    1. Planning Provides Direction: Under the process of planning the objectives of the organisation are defined in simple and clear words. The obvious outcome of this is that all the employees get a direction and all their efforts are focused towards a particular end. In this way, planning has an important role in the attainment of the objectives of the organisation.
    2. Planning Reduces Risks of Uncertainty: Planning is always done for future and future is uncertain. With the help of planning, possible changes in future are anticipated and various activities are planned in the best possible way. In this way, the risk of future uncertainties can be minimised.
    3. Planning Reduces Overlapping and Wasteful Activities: Under planning, future activities are planned in order to achieve objectives. Consequently, the problems of when, where, what and why are almost decided. This puts an end to disorder and suspicion. In such a situation, coordination is established among different activities and departments. It puts an end to overlapping and wasteful activities.
    4. Planning Promotes Innovative Ideas: It is clear that planning selects the best alternative out of the many available. All these alternatives do not come to the manager on their own, but they have to be discovered. While making such an effort of discovery, many new ideas emerge and they are studied intensively in order to determine the best out of them. In this way, planning imparts a real power of thinking in the managers. It leads to the birth of innovative and creative ideas.
    5. Planning Facilitates Decision Making: Decision making means the process of taking decisions. Under it, a variety of alternatives are discovered and the best alternative is chosen. The planning sets the target for decision making. It also lays down the criteria for evaluating courses of action. In this way, planning facilitates decision making.
    6. Planning Establishes Standards for Controlling: By determining the objectives of the organisation through planning all the people working in the organisation and all the departments are informed about ‘when’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ to do things. Standards are laid down about their work, time and cost, etc. Under controlling, at the time of completing the work, the actual work done is compared with the standard work and deviations are found out and if the work has not been done as desired the person concerned are held responsible.