After understanding the role of control systems in management and how various Control Systems influence organizational operations, the next term is the control process that is completely associated with the control system as every control system operates through an ultimate and preplanned control process.
When talking about controlling as a management function, definitely it is one of the leading and necessary management functions of POLCA which is known for the most effective management. In simple words, the control system is a pre-designed mechanism to achieve organizational goals and meet certain challenges.
The Control Process
Controlling is the main structure of the entire organization, so hopefully, the control process must be as strict as possible. The primary process that is used for controlling covers a few major steps that are defined below.
01- Any organization must determine the areas to be controlled. Besides, it is also illogical to control every aspect of the organization. Simply, controlling every major aspect would be enough, and before controlling it, the managers should determine the areas. Major areas to control are those that were considered as organizational objectives and goals while performing the planning process.
02- The next step of the control process is to develop organizational standards for employees to evaluate their performance and behaviors of the employees. Standard spells out particular criteria for evaluating the above-mentioned factors.
There are three main purposes served by the standards development that are related to the employee’s behavior. At first, standards help employees recognize their basic job responsibilities and expected work as well as how their performance will be evaluated.
Second, Standards help to detect job difficulties that are associated with personal limitations. Third, standards facilitate reducing the negative effects due to goal incongruence.
03- The third step of the control process is to make a firm decision regarding when and how to measure performance based on prepared standards. To measure performance, Management by Objective is a well-known approach.
Many top organizations use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure performance. At last, the period of the performance depends on three main factors such as the importance of the goal, often possible change in the situation, and difficulty to solve certain problems.
04- This step of the control process involves the comparison of the performance with the standards. There are two approaches used for this purpose, i.e. Management by Exception and a 360-degree feedback system. Besides, most managers compare performance and standards by using personal observations.
Forms of Control Process
To keep the focus on a specific set of goals for different departments/units of an organization, the controlling process is divided into three main forms. Those forms are strategic, tactical, and operational. All three forms are precisely elaborated below.
1. Strategic Control
Strategic control covers critical sectors of an organization and involves maintaining and monitoring such critical organizational environmental factors that possess direct influence and may affect the capabilities of strategic plans.
Besides, examining possible effects that are the output of strategic actions and making sure that strategic plans are implemented as planned also lay under strategic control.
Typically, strategic control can be termed as a body of top-level managers who must analyze and check whether core competencies are maintained and developed.
2. Tactical Control
The main concentration in tactical control stays on examining the implementation of tactical plans at the medium level or department level along with monitoring related results and taking appropriate and firm actions when required.
Usually, tactical control is the concern of middle managers, but sometimes when things go out of control, then top-level managers get involved.
While on the other hand, the control involves weekly and monthly reporting cycles and department-level objectives as well.
3. Operational Control
The operating control focuses on the positive implementation of operating plans, managing daily results, and making the correct decisions as well as taking certain appropriate actions when needed. It comes under the responsibilities of low-level managers and thus it becomes the control of day-to-day processes.
The primary concern of the control is individual schedules, budgets, rules, and particular outcomes. To keep the control in an effective and smooth working condition, it is necessary to keep the control and above mentioned forms of control by one another.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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