Management Planning

Running Head: MANAGEMENT PLANNING

Management Planning Paper: Arthur Anderson

Dana Ashe

Management: Theory, Practice, and Application

University of Phoenix - MGT/330

Professor Tony E. Calloway

February 17, 2011

Management Planning: Arthur Anderson

What is management planning? How effective or ineffective can planning affect managing a company? These are just some of the questions that may come to mind when thinking about management planning. As learned from week one, the planning function of management is just one of the four basic functions of management (the others are organizing, leading, and controlling). Planning means looking ahead and tracking future actions to be followed to achieve a successful outcome. Planning is one of the key functions of management.

Management planning is a skill that is undervalued when planning goes well but whose true value becomes evident when planning is insufficient and things go awry. For example, think about the debacle at Enron involving the giant accounting firm Arthur Anderson. While Enron's underhanded tactics shocked the world when the truth came out, much of what Enron did was accomplished in complicity with Arthur Anderson, without whose help Enron could not so easily have concealed its enormous debts and avoided paying federal income tax over many years. At least partly as a result of Arthur Anderson's duplicitous handling of Enron's accounting, both firms ended up going out of business, and tens of thousands of employees lost their jobs ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 2005).

Following in this paper, an evaluation of the planning function of management within Arthur Andersen will be completed. Specifically, the paper will discuss at least one legal, ethical, and social responsibility issue that impacts Arthur Andersen.   Additionally, this paper will analyze the impact these factors have on Arthur Andersen’s management planning.   In closing, this paper will discuss at least three...