Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses for McGuigan and Eisner- myassignmenthelp.c

Question: Discuss about theFerguson Plarre Bakehouses for McGuigan and Eisner. Answer: The Planning Process adopted by Managers in Organizations Organizational managers develop planning to allow them achieve their set goals. Choonhaklai and Wangkanond (2014) refer to planning as the process of selecting goals and designing appropriate strategies that would make them accomplish their goals. According to McGuigan and Eisner (2003), planning offers varying benefits to organizations. Managers and their employees can develop more efforts when it comes to implementation of established plans. Planning also makes managers and employees gain persistence in their roles. This implies that they can work hard for a long time to achieve their objectives or goals (Jong, et al., 2015). Jones and Hillier (2016) maintain that even in an environment where an organization is likely to have a short-term success, it allows employees to gain more motivation and encouragement to remain focused. Managers in organizations follow a given process when they want to achieve and benefit from their goals. Several scholars that have focused on this topic, ha ve come up with different models that guides managers on ways to plan. The model points out that planning goes through five stages-setting goals, developing commitment to the goals, developing effective action plans, tracking progress to achieve the goals, and maintaining a high level of flexibility when planning. The first stage in any planning process demands that managers set goals. Choonhaklai and Wangkanond (2014) explain that the fact that planning requires management to choose on goals and design strategies that assist them achieve such goals, they must first identify and set their goals. Riley (2016) maintain that goals must be challenging to direct behaviors and achieve desirable results. For example, a goal such as to increase the sales volume by 24% in the next three years is likely to put more energy in sales team than simply stating that the sales department seeks to increase its sales volume. Besides, Riley (2016) explain that whether managers in charge of a department or an entire organization sets goals, such goals must be guided by a SMART principle. Any goal must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and achieved within a time-bound. Above goal is specific to what the sales department wants to attain-24% increase in sales. It is measurable in that managers can measu re profits or number of units sold in quantitative terms. It is attainable because it falls within what the department performance. The goal is also time bound within a period of three years. Planning require that managers develop a high level of commitment towards the already established goals. Lee, Keil and Wong (2015) maintain that just because a manager has designed a given goal, this does not imply that employee will implement it. In case employee fail to care about the goal, this would simply mean that they will fail to gain encouragement to working harder to achieve what managers have set. Lee, et al. (2015) define commitment towards a given goal as the determination that employees develop to help them achieve the goal before them. Employees and managers work in liaison to gain commitment and ensure that the goal becomes successful. Furthermore, Wilson and Dobson (2008) posit that managers can increase commitment among employees when they involve them to participate in setting of goals. He worn that managers should not go ahead to assign or communicate to employees their goals. In fact, managers and employees should work together to select goals. It is through this that they can make a plan to work and become successful. Planning process also require that managers develop effective action plans. White (2013) refers to action plan as a list of specific actions that answers questions such as who, what, when, and how. According to the author, is that the four answers will assist managers in identifying the key people to perform the job, what to do, the time that they need to work and complete the job, and the procedure they need to follow in terms of strategy. A goal such as increasing a sales volume by 24% for a period of 3 years, would require that managers appoint sales representative and marketing department. The strategy would be to design different marketing mix strategies. While the time covers a period of three years. Indeed, effective action plans would help list down a list of to do things to achieve a plan in organization. Tracking progress of already developed goals play a key role to how far management is able to achieve organizational planning. Rose (2015) groups methods of tracking progress into proximal goals and distal goals. Managers use the former to track on their short-term goals such as those occurring within a period of 1 to 2 years. While on the other hand, the latter method involves long-term or primary goals occurring for a period of more than years. Furthermore, distal method calls for managers to collect and provide frequent performance feedback concerning goals with the objective to come up with corrective measures. Besides, both managers and employees should work is liaison to help identify strengths and weaknesses. Managers achieve success in their planning process by maintaining flexibility. Not every manager design fixed and workable plans. Sometime plans fails to work as required because of change in external or internal environment. Lin, Lan and Chuang (2013) suggest that managers can adopt options-based approach to maintain a high-level of flexibility. Managers that use this approach have been found to keep their options open through small and simultaneous investments within different plans. It is from the best alternative that managers select as workable plans. Furthermore, Eichler and Maltritz (2013) maintain that while the role of an action plan is to commit employees and limited resources towards a given course of action, the main target of an option-based planning is to make managers leave a commitment open through maintenance of slack resources. Managers prefer using a cushion of resources like finance, employees, production capacity or time to adapt to any future uncertainties. A brief summary of Ferguson Plarres organizational history Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses operates as a family owned business. The company was first established in 1901 in the Northern and Western Suburbs. Eliza Jane Ferguson first bought the restaurant in Swanston St, Melbourne in 1857. While on the other hand, Otto Plarre established reputation of his company as quality bakery in Melbourne to establish the first bakery in 1909. This was a few kilometers from that of Fergusson. For the better part of 1920s and 30s, Fergusson business sold much of its cakes to majority to Italian functions and famous Florentino restaurant. After successful operation as separate family businesses with almost similar operational models, the two companies formed a merger in June 6th, 1980 as Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses ((Ferguson Plarre 2013). The merger led to refining of product range. They considered to take the best from both businesses (Ferguson Plarre 2013). Consequently, they abolished those that failed to add value to customer experiences. Among the family members that joined the business through franchising included Anthony- Ken Fergusson as the retail manager, Steven-Ralph Plarres son as administration manager, Pam Fergusson as promotions manager, and Michael Plarre as production manager (Ferguson Plarre 2013). Research and development led to production of high quality product brands such as Tiddly Oggies, Mudcakes, Chocolate Moussecake, and Blackforest Cheesecake as the industry leading products. Ferguson Plarres approach to goal setting Goal setting starts at the point when one has completion of a strategic plan. Besides, it must align with the set mission and vision statement. Ferguson Plarre management applies centralized setting approach. Management together with the employees located in different stores, come together to make decisions. Besides, the goal hierarchy at Ferguson Plarre follows from the job output, performance targets, evaluation and feedbacks, determination of checkpoints, and final discussion of goals among managers and employees. During the job output stage, managers and subordinates discuss the output that subordinates heading different outlets are responsible. The performance targets then involves every subordinate heading a store, comes up with own formulated targets within their operational areas of responsibility. This helps meet the demand for every store. They ensure that every goal is quantitative, specific, measurable, concise and attainable, and time-bound. The last part of goal setting involves store managers discussing with Michael Plarre - production department manager. How Ferguson Plarre track progress toward goal achievement Ferguson Plarre Company adopts the use of distal goals to track records regarding the extent to which it has already achieved its goals. Management works with the store managers to collect and provide performance feedbacks (Ferguson Plarre 2012). Line managers and heads of stores provide regular and frequent performance feedback on demand from customers. Employees working in stores and the production facility can track the progress of their goals and the extent of achievement. The company obtains feedback as the major baseline from the employees safety behaviours from their makeup and wrapping department. The makeup department covers those involved in measuring, mixing of dough, rolling, and placing in pans. The baseline for employees in the processing department covers bagging, sealing, and assembling the finished cakes ready for freight to different stores (Ferguson Plarre 2012). The company human and resource department provides safety training and sets goals at 80% for the safety behaviors. Employees provide daily feedbacks that allow managers to identify possible improvement areas. References Choonhaklai, S, Wangkanond, R 2014, 'the linkage between elements in the strategic planning process: a qualitative study', International Employment Relations Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 27-43. Eichler, S, Maltritz, D 2013, 'An options-based approach to forecast competing bids: evidence for Canadian takeover battles', Applied Economics, vol. 45, no. 34, pp. 4805-4819 Ferguson Plarre 2012, Interview with Steve Plarre, Part 3: Planning, Cengage Learning Australia. Ferguson Plarre 2013, Our History, viewed {May 31, 2017}, https://www.fergusonplarre.com.au/about/history/ Jones, P, Hillier, D, 11, D 2016, 'the sustainable development goals and business', International Journal of Sales, Retailing Marketing, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 38-48. Jong, W, Lai, P, Chen, Y, Ting, Y 2015, 'Automatic process planning of mold components with integration of feature recognition and group technology', International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 78, no. 5-8, pp. 807-824 Lee, JS, Keil, M, Wong, KE 2015, 'The Effect of Goal Difficulty on Escalation of Commitment', Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 114-129 Lin, L, Lan, L, Chuang, S 2013, 'An Option-Based Approach to Risk Arbitrage in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Taiwan Takeover Attempts', Journal of Forecasting, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 512-521 McGuigan, PJ, Eisner, AB 2003, 'Overcoming Blind Spots in the Financial Planning Process', Journal of Financial Service Professionals, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 51-60. Riley, C 2016, 'Are You Aligning Training Goals With Business Goals? Four Steps to Establish Congruency', Professional Safety, vol. 61, no. 9, p. 20. 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