Essential characteristics of planning are as follows:
(1) Anticipatory in Nature:
Through planning, managers decide what to do and how to do before it must actually be done.
(2) Primacy:
The managerial function of planning usually precedes all other functions. Obviously, without setting goals to be reached and the lines of action to be followed, there is nothing to organize, to direct or to control in the institution. However, planning is not isolated from other managerial functions.
(3) A System of Decisions:
It involves making decisions that define desired future states and the actions required to achieve them.
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(4) Continuity:
Planning is a continuous and never-ending activity. One plan begets another plan in quick successions. Actually, a hierarchy of plans exists and operates in an institution at any time.
(5) Flexibility:
Planning leads to the adoption of a specific course of action and the rejection of other alternatives. This reduces flexibility. But if future assumption upon which planning is based proves wrong, alternative courses of action need to be adopted. Thus, flexibility is to be ingrained in the planning process.
(6) Unity:
There should be consistency, integration and unity in long-term plans, medium-range plans, year’s plan, unit plan and lesson-plans as well as between plans of various departments or sections of an institution. Objectives provide a common focus for unifying plans.
(7) Precision:
Planning must be precise concerning its meaning, scope and nature. It must be intelligible and meaningful in terms of expected results. It must be realistic and based on SWOT analysis for the institution.
(8) Pervasiveness:
It’ is a pervasive activity covering the entire school or college with all its segments and every level of management (including teachers as classroom managers).