Control

Child (2015) describes control as an essential and central process of management. Although mostly considered negative, control should be seen in a positive light. Control can be seen as ways to encourage members of the organisation to contribute to the things management deems important.

In the light of the organisation the definition of control Child uses is:

A process whereby management or other groups are able to initiate and regulate the conduct of activities such that their results accord with the goals and expectations held by those groups.

Control in an organisation can be achieved via

• power, the disposal of resources
• authority, delegated legal authorisations
• expertise, specialised knowledge
• rewards

Child takes control as an exposure of the management of the organisation and not an individual. He describes three aspects of control:

1. The extent of control
   • To what extent can control be centralised. A balance needs to be found between central and decentralised control.
2. The focus of control
   • What is the main point of control. Could be finance, customer satisfaction or production. Largely depends on the organisational structure. Autonomous business unit will receive financial control, but are free in the aspect of strategy.
3. The mechanisms of control
   • The way control is being employed. Child recognises the following characteristics
     • Positive or negative nature
       • Negative mechanisms want to prevent behaviour, positive want to promote desired behaviour
     • Formal or informal character
     • How they work
       • Content-oriented mechanisms for example are about detailed protocols
       • Context-oriented mechanisms are about setting the right mindset and attitude
       • Process-oriented mechanisms are about employee involvement and generating commitment
     • Feedback or feedforward

Child (2015) recognises 6 primary strategies of control.

1. Personal centralised control
   • Direct supervision of people's activities
   • centralised decision taking
   • personal leadership: founded upon ownership, expertise or charisma
   • rewards and punishments reinforcing conformity to personal authority
2. Bureaucratic control
   • breaking down tasks in easy definable elements
   • formal methods, procedures and rules
   • budget controls
   • routine decision taking
   • rewards and punishments reinforcing conformity to procedures and rules
3. Output control
   • Roles and units designed with responsibility for complete outputs
   • specification of output standards and targets
   • use of responsibility accounting systems
   • semi-autonomy, delegation of operational decisions
   • rewards and punishments linked to output targets
4. Control through electronic surveillance
   • Speed and quality of work recorded and remotely assessed.
   • employee's performance compared to others
   • monitoring of performance used to reward and discipline employees
5. HRM control
   • use of selection methods for new hires to fit desired attitude and capabilities
   • training and development to reinforce desired profile
   • assessment procedures and reward systems to encourage conformity
6. Cultural control
   • development of employee's personal identification with management goals
   • strong emphasis on collective of the organisation, e.g. family
   • employment characterised by security of tenure and progression within the organisation
   • semi-Autonomous working: few formal controls

More with less management and Fire all the managers describe ways to organise control differently.

References

Child, J. (2015). Organization: contemporary principles and practice. John Wiley & Sons.