This essay will seek to define the term control in the context of an organization while giving examples and explanations of various types of controls used by managers. Secondly it will show how the control function is important to the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization.
Robbins & Coulter, “control refers to the process of monitoring, comparing and correcting work performance.” The control process measures the activities to make sure they are being executed as planned to ensure the activities are achieving the organizational goals. This actual performance is measured against and compared to a standard and managerial corrective actions are taken to correct deviation or inadequate standards.
In this process we assume that standards already exist. The organization has set goals and objectives against which performance can be measured and there are a number of tools that can assist managers in monitoring and measuring organizational performance. Some ideas of these controls are feed forward control, feedback control, and concurrent control.
In feed forward control the goal is for manager to anticipate possible problems beforehand and attempts to takes corrective measure by making resources available to accomplish these goals. For example the implementation preventative maintenance measures taken by major airlines for aircrafts where they schedule checks to the systems and equipment on a frequent basis to alleviate or minimize loss time or breakdowns before they occur. Another example would be in the financial planing process creating specific targets which allow the manager to plan how resources will be allocated across departments with a view to ensuring that the organization meets its objectives.
Concurrent control this is monitoring of activities as they take place and correcting problems as they occur. This allows the manager to interact directly with