What best describes the relationship between strategic, operational, and tactical planning?

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Planning in a hierarchy ties big goals to concrete actions over time. Strategic planning sets the long-term aims, direction, and priorities—where the organization wants to go in the future and why those goals matter. Operational planning then translates that strategy into how the organization functions: it links strategy to day-to-day operations, outlining processes, resources, and responsibilities so the plan can be carried out across departments. Tactical planning focuses on the specific actions, tasks, and short-term initiatives needed to implement the operational plan—detailing what will be done, by whom, and when. This integrated structure means the levels are distinct but connected: strategy guides overall direction, operations connect that direction to everyday functioning, and tactics specify the concrete steps to execute the plan. The other ideas misstate the relationships—for example, planning isn’t all the same at every level, operational work isn’t limited to budgets, and tactical planning doesn’t govern all decisions.