Page 145 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes Often it is said that planning is the basis, action is the essence, delegation is the key, information
is the guide and control is the lifeblood of the success of any business enterprise. Organisational
objectives cannot be achieved without planning and planning alone cannot be successful. If extra
efforts are put in planning and control is ignored, a business may suffer from a number of
administrative problems. These difficulties may be highly detrimental for the business in the
long run.
Effective control through efficient superiors can only be a guarantee for success. The control
system must be appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the enterprise.
Control is a fundamental management function that ensures work accomplishment according
to plans. The purpose of control is to ensure that everything in an organisation occurs in conformity
with pre-determined plans. Control also ensures that there is no kind of indiscipline and
incompetence in the organisation and employees are not able to put undue pressure on the
management.
Some people are not in favor of control because they feel that control is always used against the
employees. They advocate automatic control rather than forced one. But a balanced viewpoint is
that both the management and the employees should be put under some kind of control. Control
should be engrained in the basic policies of any type of business organisation.

7.4 Steps in Control Process

There are three basic steps in a control process:
1. Establishing standards

2. Measuring and comparing actual results against standards
3. Taking corrective action.

7.4.1 Establishing Standards

The first step in the control process is to establish standards against which results can be measured.
The standards the managers desire to obtain in each key area should be defined as far as possible
in quantitative terms. Standards expressed in general terms should be avoided. Standards need
to be flexible in order to adapt to changing conditions. The standard should emphasis the
achievement of results more than the conformity to rules and methods. If they do not do so, then
people will start giving more importance to rules and methods than to the final results.

While setting the standards, the following points have to be borne in mind:
1. The standards must be clear and intelligible. If the standards are clear and are understood
by the persons concerned, they themselves will be able to check their performance.
2. Standards should be accurate, precise, acceptable and workable.
3. Standards are used as the criteria or benchmarks by which performance is measured in the
control process. It should not be either too high or too low. They should be realistic and
attainable.
4. Standards should be flexible i.e., capable of being changed when the circumstances require
so.

7.4.2 Measuring and Comparing Actual Results against Standards

The second step in the control process is to measure the performance and compare it with the
predetermined standards. Measurement of performance can be done by personal observation,

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