Control in Organizations

Controlling:

The process of measuring performance and taking action to ensure desired results.

Importance of Controlling

The purpose of controlling is to make sure that plans are fulfilled and that actual performance meets or surpasses objectives. Controlling sees to it that the right things happen in the right way and at the right time. It helps ensure that the performance contributions of individuals and groups are consistent with organizational plans. It helps that the performance accomplishments throughout an organization are consistent with one another in means-ends fashion. And it helps ensure that people comply with organizational policies and procedures.

Steps in the Control Process

„X Cybernetic control system is self-contained in its performance-monitoring and correction capabilities

Step 1¡Xestablish objectives and standards

Performance objective should represent key results that one want to accomplish. The focus on planning should be on describing ¡§critical¡¨ or ¡§essential¡¨ results that will make a substantial difference in the success of the organization. The standards are important too and they must be considered right from the beginning.

Two types of standards:

„X Output standards-measure performance results in terms of outcomes like quantity, quality, cost, or time of accomplished work.

„X Input standards-measure effort in terms of the amount of work expended in task performance. They are used in situations where outputs are difficult or expensive to measure.

Step 2¡Xmeasure actual performance

The goal is to accurately measure the performance results and or the performance efforts. The measurement must be accurate enough to spot significant differences between what is really taking place and what was originally planned.

Step 3¡Xcompare results with objective and standards

This can be expressed as the following control equation: Need for Action=Desired Performance ¡V Actual Performance

There are different ways to compare desired and actual performance:

„X Historical comparison uses past performance as a benchmark for evaluating current performance

„X Relative comparison uses the performance achievements or other persons, work units, or organizations as the evaluation standard.

„X Engineering comparison uses engineered standards set scientifically through such methods as time and motion studies.

Step 4¡Xtake corrective action as needed

This process can be applied to personal planning as well.

This step is to take any action necessary to correct or improve things and it allows for a judicious use of management by exception the practice of giving priority attention to situations that show the greatest need for actions. This approach can save valuable time, energy, and other resources, while allowing all efforts to be concentrated on the areas of greatest need.