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Educational Management

Notes 5. Controlling is related with planning : Planning and Controlling are two inseperable functions
of management. Without planning, controlling is a meaningless exercise and without controlling,
planning is useless.

Planning presupposes controlling and controlling succeeds planning.

9.3 Process of Controlling
Robert J Mockler’s definition of Control helps us in determining the necessary steps of the control
process. According to him, “Management control is a systemic effort to set performance standards
with planning objectives, to”:
• design information feedback systems.
• compare actual performance with these pre-determined standards,

• determine whether there are any deviations and to measure their significance, and take any
corrective action required to assure that all corporate resources are being used in the most
effective and efficient way possible for achieving corporate objectives.
This definition, thus mentions four steps to be followed in the controlling process :
• establishing performance standards,
• measuring performance,
• comparing performance with standards, i.e. interpreting results, and
• taking corrective action.
(1) The first step in any control process is establishing standards. Standard is a desired or expected
event which should grow out of organisational objectives. Standard may defined as a unit of
measurement which can be used to evaluate performance. Actually with the setting of standards
the process of control begins. Standards may be both quantitative and qualitative. Three common
types of standards are :
• physical standards which include quantity of product, number of customers, clients, quality
of the product, etc.
• monetary standards which include selling costs, material costs, gross profit, net profit, etc.
• time standards refer to the speed and deadline within which the job is to be performed or
completed.
Depending on the nature of the task and considering other related issues the management sets
the standard for a task.
For example, upgrading the skills of a guide would be a vague objective unless it is specified
what upgradation means and by what time it has to be achieved. In a service industry like
tourism, measurements may include the time of the service a customer has to wait for.
(2) After setting the standard the second step is the measuring or monitoring of performance. It
is a continuous ongoing process done with the help of an appropriate mechanism. Systematic
flow of information is necessary to keep effective control over performance and this necessitates
timely availability of accurate reports. For this you must design simple reporting systems as
per the requirement of the activity. This will help you in detecting problems and accordingly
make amends to work as per the plan.
(3) Next step in the control process is to compare the performance that the managers have been
monitoring with the standards established at the first stage. R.C. Davis identifies four phases
in the comparison;

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