Control (management)

Control in management includes setting standards, measuring actual performance, and taking corrective action in decision making.

According to Harold Koontz:Controlling is the measurement and correction of performance to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are accomplished.

Robert J. Mockler presented a more comprehensive definition of managerial control:Management control can be defined as a systematic torture by business management to compare performance to predetermined standards, plans, or objectives to determine whether performance is in line with these standards and presumably to take any remedial action required to see that human and other corporate resources are being used most effectively and efficiently possible in achieving corporate objectives.

the managerial function of management and correction of performance to make sure that enterprise objectives and the goals devised to attain them are accomplished.

In an elementary school system, the hours a teacher works or the gain in knowledge demonstrated by the students on a national examination are examples of characteristics that may be selected for measurement, or control.

The actual person, device, or method used to direct corrective inputs into the operating system may take a variety of forms.

It may be a hydraulic controller positioned by a solenoid or electric motor in response to an electronic error signal, an employee directed to rework the parts that failed to pass quality inspection, or a school principal who decides to buy additional books to provide for an increased number of students.

Exactly what information needs to be transmitted and also the language that will best facilitate the communication process and reduce the possibility of distortion in transmission must be carefully considered.

In an industrial example, frequency distribution (a tabulation of the number of times a given characteristic occurs within the sample of products being checked) may be used to show the average quality, the spread, and the comparison of output with a standard.

The citizens must decide whether to revise the police system so as to regain control, or whether to modify the law to reflect a different norm of acceptable behavior.

A small amount of energy can change the operation of jet airplanes, automatic steel mills, and hydroelectric power plants.

After the reasons for deviations have been determined, managers can then develop solutions for issues with meeting the standards and make changes to processes or behaviors.

At a certain time each evening, a mechanical device closes the circuit and energy flows through the electric lines to light the lamps.

Corrective properties may sometimes be built into the controller (for example, to modify the time the lights are turned on as the days grow shorter or longer), but this would not close the loop.

The reason for such a condition is apparent when one recognizes that any system, if it is to achieve a predetermined goal, must have available to it at all times an indication of its degree of attainment.

In automatic machine systems, inputs of information are used in a process of continual adjustment to achieve output specifications.

Consider the complex missile-guidance systems that measure the actual course according to predetermined mathematical calculations and make almost instantaneous corrections to direct the missile to its target.

To illustrate, let us refer once more to a formalized social system in which deviant behavior is controlled through a process of observed violation of the existing law (sensing), court hearings and trials (comparison with standard), incarceration when the accused is found guilty (correction), and release from custody after rehabilitation of the individual has occurred.

More recently, writers have tended to differentiate the control process between that which emphasizes the nature of the organizational or systems design and that which deals with daily operations.

General plans are translated into specific performance measures such as share of the market, earnings, return on investment, and budgets.

For example, if an organization's output backlog builds rapidly, it is logical to check first to see if the problem is due to such readily obtainable measures as increased demand or to a drop in available man hours.

The most difficult task of management concerns monitoring the behavior of individuals, comparing performance to some standard, and providing rewards or punishment as indicated.

For example, the plan may not make the best use of the inputs of materials, energy, or information — in other words, the system may not be designed to operate efficiently.

[7] When objectives are not limited to quantitative output, the measurement of system effectiveness is difficult to make and subsequently perplexing to evaluate.

It is usually more effective for an organization to maintain continuous measurement of its performance and to make small adjustments in operations constantly (this assumes a highly sensitive control system).

Parents are confronted with this dilemma in expressing what they expect of their children, and business managers face the same issue in establishing standards that will be acceptable to employees.

Some theorists have proposed that workers be allowed to set their own standards, on the assumption that when people establish their own goals, they are more apt to accept and achieve them.

There is a danger, however, that we may measure characteristics that do not represent effective performance (as in the case of the speaker who requested that all of the people who could not hear what he was saying should raise their hands), or that improper information may be communicated.

For example, if large company employees have CCTV (Close Circuit TV) to control their work, they will challenge this process.

Management control system design within its organizational context: Findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 28(2-3), 127-168.