Purpose of organization
Organizations are started for a purpose(s) and to accomplish these purposes, organizations employ both human and non human resources. The human resources in an organization can be referred in other words as manpower. These organizations do not operate in a vacuum but in very complex and dynamic environments with changes in many aspects. For example changes in technology or growth of organizations, sometimes organizations experience decline in their markets, sometimes employee requirements change, other times an organization may experience high rates of employee turnover. All these changes have enormous impact on human resource requirements. Due to these changes organizations need to identify appropriate reservoirs of labour. This can be done by implementing a manpower plan. So manpower planning can be defined as the ongoing analysis of human resource requirements in the organization. It includes the analysis of manpower requirements arising from vacancies due to transfers, promotions, retirements, discharges etc. It also includes an appraisal of future manpower needs as a result of anticipated (forecasted) levels of activity in the organization.
Manpower planning spreads through most of the activities of the personnel function. The manpower plan also determines recruitment and selection policies such as whether positions will be filled from within or without the organization. The process of manpower planning represents an integrated perspective of the organization's human resources requirements with emphasis on achieving efficient decision making in personnel matters both in the short and long run.