THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
                     IN MODERN ORGANIZATIONS

                       Marilen Pirtea, West University of Timisoara
                      Cristina Nicolescu, West University of Timisoara
                       Claudiu Botoc, West University of Timisoara


ABSTRACT: There is a very important relationship between strategic planning and
performance management. Performance management is really about setting and
achieving goals at the employee level, and identifying and fixing barriers related to
achieving those goals. But where do the goals come from? That's where strategic
planning comes in. Strategic planning (and also tactical planning), are methods a
company, and its individual work-units define their goals and objectives. In turn, those
goals and objectives are used to determine and analyze the goals and objectives of each
employee in a work unit. This is called cascading of goals. When done properly, setting
employee goals should rely on the goals of the particular work-unit, which gets its goals
from the planning done by the next bigger work unit, and so on. That's why the setting of
individual goals and objectives should be done once the goals and objectives of the work-
unit are established. No enterprise will be successful today without a solid, integrated
strategic plan driven by a clear vision and supported by a strong performance
management system.

Key words: strategic planning, organization, performance management.

JEL codes: L26, L21