Business Organizational Goals

Planning and Goal Setting

Unit 2 DB

Marilyn Swartz

American Intercontinental University

Planning and goal setting are intertwined. In order to define organizational goals, there must be put into place a strategic plan. This written plan must be shared with all company members and should be specific in what goals are to be achieved and when and how they are to be achieved (Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M., 2009, p 144, para 3). Planning provides direction for management and everyone in the company to efficiently achieve its goals.

To obtain a goal, there must be a journey and an attainable, defined goal which allows a company to reach that goal at the end of the journey. Goals should be measurable and specific (Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M., 2009, p 161, para 1) with a set time frame for accomplishment so the plan can be reviewed periodically to assess its progress and focus on any changes that may need to be made in the goal’s approach.

Short-term objectives should be used in creating and accomplishing a company’s long-term goals. It is recommended that an easy way to think about the short-term objectives is to make them S.M.A.R.T. (Vanden Bos, P., 2010): Specific. Measurable. Action-oriented. Realistic. Time specific. That is certainly the way one company in particular has put into action, their goals.

Most people identify us by our green trucks and green bins. They think of us as a garbage company, but as a team member myself, I know Waste Management, Inc., is more than that. Waste Management is an environmental services company that is in the process of educating the world on how they extract the value from waste in ways that protect and enhance the environment. Waste Management (WM) has a goal – to help ensure that we pass on the planet to the next generation in better shape than we inherited it. With that main goal in mind, Waste Management has set four goals to achieve by the year 2020 (Steiner, D., 2008).

1) Waste is a renewable energy source and by...