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Management Control Systems

Notes further these goals. The management control process is the process by which managers at all
levels ensure that the members of the organization implement these strategies.
The Management Control Process is more complicated than what has been described in detectors,
assessors, effectors and a communication system. These are as follows:
1. The standard is not preset: Rather it is a result of conscious planning process where
management decides what the organization should be doing and as part of control process
it is also comparison of actual with these plans.
2. Like controlling an automobile, management control is not automatic: Some of the detectors
are mechanical (i.e. routine comparison of actual with standard), but important information
is detected through the managers’ own eyes, ears and other senses (specially the judgment
whether the difference between actual and standard performance is significant to warrant
action). Action taken to change organizations behaviour involves human beings.

3. Unlike controlling an automobile (a function performed by a single individual),
management control requires co-ordination among individuals. An organization consists
of many separate parts and management control must ensure that each part works in a
harmony with the others.
4. The connection from perceiving the need for action and the action required to obtain the
desired result may not be clear. In the function, as an assessor manager may decide that
“costs are too high” but there is no easy or automatic action or a series of action that will
bring costs down to what the standards say.
5. Control in an organization does not come about solely or even primarily as a consequence
of actions. Much control is self control i.e. people act in the way they do, not primarily
because they are given specific instructions by their superiors, rather their own judgment
tells them what action is appropriate.

1.2.2 Control

The control process is similar to control process in an automobile. In an automobile if an
accelerator is pressed it goes faster, when the break pedal is pressed it slows or stops, when the
steering wheel is rotated it changes its direction. With these devices, the driver controls the
speed and direction of the vehicle. If any of these devices does not work, the automobile will be
out of control.
An organization must also be controlled i.e. there must be devices to ensure that it goes where
the leaders want it to go. But control in an organization is much more complicated than controlling
a vehicle.
Every control system has at least four elements:
1. A detector or sensor – a device that measures what is actually happening in the situation
being controlled.
2. An assessor i.e. a device for determining the significance of what is happening i.e.
comparison with some standard or expectation.
3. An effector i.e. a device that alters behaviour if the assessor indicates the need. This device
is often called “feedback.”
4. A communication network, i.e. devices that transmit information between the detector
and the assessor and between the assessor and the effector.

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