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For the attainment of the desired objectives, organisations make plans. Planning is an essential activity for any organisation and sets the basis for its functioning. However, sometimes the things do not go as per the plan. Unforeseen changes in the business environment often dampen the plans of the organisation. Moreover, the process of planning has its own limitations that hinder the accomplishment of all the objectives of an organisation. Following are some of the limitations of planning which may result in the abandoning of the organisational objectives.
(i) Rigidness: Once plans are made to decide the future course of action the manager may not be in a position to change them. Following pre decided plan when circumstances are changed may not bring positive results for organisation. This kind of rigidity in plan may create difficulty.
(ii) Cannot Deal with Dynamic Environment: Business environment is dynamic and thereby, very uncertain. However, planning cannot foresee such changes and fails at times of changes and uncertainties. This may lead to failure in the accomplishment of objectives. An organisation must adapt its functioning to the changing environment.
(iii) Gigantic Costs: Formulation of plans involves huge costs in terms of time and money. As planning is based on future predictions, it requires a lot of thinking and analysing. It involves scientific calculations along with the figures and the facts, which are to be used in formulating the course of action. This involves high costs. Moreover, sometimes it might also happen that the benefits derived from planning fall short of the costs incurred.
(iv) Lack of accuracy: In planning we are always thinking in advance and planning is concerned with future only and future is always uncertain. In planning many assumptions are made to decide about future course of action. But these assumptions are not 100% accurate and if these assumptions do not hold true in present situation or in future condition then whole planning will fail.
(v) Time Consuming: Formulating plans is a very time consuming task, as it involves looking forward in the unforeseen situations. It involves a lot of research and evaluation. This increases the time consumed by the managers and the actual actions may get delayed.