Introduction to Controlling

Question 1

What is Control?

Answer 1

• controlling is a management function that involves monitoring, comparing, and correcting work performance.
• monitoring, supervising, checking, comparing, and correcting the performance of employees whether they’re reaching the standard, or target.

Question 2

The purpose of Control:

Answer 2

• the purpose of controlling is to achieve and accomplish organizational goals.
• controlling should happen in all managerial functions (it’s a circle)
• to ensure that activities are completed in ways that lead to accomplishment of organizational goals.

Question 3

Importance of Control:

Answer 3

• planning: controlling helps with keeping track of manager’s goals and plans and what future actions need to be taken.
• empowering employees: provides managers with information and feedback on employees performance.
• protecting workplace: protecting employees from violence, attacks, disruptions, etc…

Question 4

The planning-controlling link:

Answer 4

• all managerial functions go hand in hand
• the organizational goal cannot be achieved without the controlling function since we’re monitoring and making sure everything is going well.

Question 5

The Control Process:

Answer 5

3 step process:
1) measuring actual performance
2)comparing actual performance
3)taking managerial action to correct deviations or inadequate standards.

Question 6

Step 1: measuring actual performance (observation)

Answer 6

=> Sources of information (how to measure):
- personal observation
- statistical performance
- oral reports (not reliable and credible enough)
- written reports
=> Control Criteria: (what to measure):
* employees:
- satisfaction
- turnover
- absenteeism
* Budgets:
- costs
- output
- sales

Question 7

Step 2: comparing actual performance against the standards:

Answer 7

• determining the degree of variation between actual performance and the standard.
  => Range of Variation: the acceptable parameters of variance between actual performance and the standards.
  (you cannot achieve 100% of the standard which is why the range of variance is important)

Question 8

Step 3: Taking managerial action to correct deviations or inadequate standards

Answer 8

• What you need to do to achieve this goal
  (there needs to be a goal in an organization)
  => the center of all those steps is goal achievement.

Question 9

Step 3 pt2:

Answer 9

• correcting actual (current) performance
  => Immediate corrective action: corrective action that corrects problems at once to get performance back on track.
  => Basic corrective action: corrective action that looks at how and why performance deviated before correcting the source of deviations.
  => To do nothing: depending on the results, a manager’s decision is to do nothing, correct performance, or revise the standard.
  => Revise the standard: if performance consistently exceeds the goal, then a manager should look at whether the goal is too easy and needs to be raised.
• managers must be cautious about revising a standard downward.

Question 10

Tools for measuring organizational performance:

Answer 10

• Feedforward control: control that takes place while a work activity is done.
• Concurrent control: control that takes place while a work activity is done.
• Management by walking around: a term used to describe when a manager is out in the work area interact directly with employees.
• Feedback control: control that takes place after a work activity is done.

Question 11

input - processes- output

Answer 11

Input/ feedforward control: anticipates problems.
Processes/ concurrent control: corrects problems as they happen
Output/ feedback control: corrects problems after they occur.