Control

Hi everyone.

This is week nine in Bu MGT 15 oh one

Management principles um and week nine is on control.

So managers all need to control their staff.

But there are different ways to control their traditional ways

and more um modern, progressive ways.

We're going to be looking in this short video just

at the at the meaning of control.

So um let's have a look at that.

That's the working definition is the process of monitoring, comparing

and correcting work performance.

Alright, so monitoring is referring to the ability to be

able to supervise.

You don't actually have to supervise with your eyes.

You can actually look at different ways to monitor staff.

And that could be through some type of electronic forms

or it could be through a checklist or it could

be through meetings or something like that.

Um Then there needs to be some type of comparison

as well because uh control is really a conclusion um

uh from the occurrence of something else.

So you need to compare um staff one staff member

against another staff member or even one team against another

team or one group against another group.

And from there you can identify where the similarities are,

where the differences are, where the uh strengths are where

the weaknesses are.

And there you can make conclusions after making the conclusions.

You can then make decisions on what are the weaknesses

or the um the disadvantage is that need to be

fixed within that individual the group the team.

And then you can undertake some corrective action.

So that corrective action could um be a change in

the tasks that change in the strategy is the change

in the approach to the work, the delivery of the

work, the attitude of um the individual, the group, the

team and so forth.

So that's really up to managers to decide as to

how to make that correction.

But that is the working definition of control, the way

that you do.

That is obviously um uh up for discussion, up for

debate. There are lots of theories and philosophies about that.

So we will look at some of those um in

this um uh present video as well as future present

videos too.

But first I want to talk about why control is

important. So um control is important for a number of

reasons. Um firstly it's because it is the only way

managers know whether organizational goals are being met.

So um if uh a goal is not being met,

then there is not sufficient control.

There isn't sufficient monitoring.

There isn't sufficient comparison of strengths and weaknesses and there

isn't sufficient corrective action.

So it is important to understand what the goals of

the organization are and then to be able to use

that as the measure of determining whether um uh more

control or less control is needed and what type of

control should that be control also empowers workers.

So, female empowerment is a big issue at the moment,

making sure that women are included in the workforce, women

are included at higher levels and senior levels in the

workforce, and making sure that there is a parody of

wages amongst women.

Um But control from the manager perspective allows um the

ability to overview the situation and to compare the situations

in this case.

Um If it's to do with female empowerment is to

compare the situation of the female worker in the workplace

with um situation of the male worker in the workplace

and then to make some corrective action.

If there is disparity of wages, there is a different

percentage of men compared to women in senior positions and

so forth.

That could be done though, in relation to all types

of tasks.

So that could be done in relation to making sure

that you empower workers so that they have a level

of independence to be able to innovate, to be able

to make decisions that they are technically capable of doing

so. Control ensures that there is a sufficient level of

um uh management as well as a sufficient level of

um worker ability to complete their tasks.

Control also protects the organization and its assets with comprehensive

control activities strategies, but also backup plans.

So it's important to have backup plans because if um

the initial ideas of how to control workers in an

organization fails to be able to achieve the goals that

are set by the organization, then it's important to consider

what other alternatives are there.

How else can we achieve those goals?

What activities or strategies or plans can be put in

place, enable to achieve those goals more efficiently or effectively

or at all.

Um So control um comes in uh as a very

important concept in workplaces and there are three main reasons

for that.

All right, I want to move on now and talk

about a particular type of control method.

So there are different types of of ways of controlling

staff for organizational goals, um as I mentioned, but we

need to look at some concrete examples.

Hopefully that will give you some more understanding practical understandings

of the concept.

Um So the feedback control method is a control method

that focuses on the organization's outputs.

Um So sometimes it's also called the post action or

output control method, um and it involves a number of

steps. The first step is to establish standards of performance,

so standards um that are established what needs to be

achieved. That that's the level or the level that needs

to be achieved by workers, needs to relate to the

strategic goals of the organization, because that's what gives it

its legitimacy, its justification.

Um, so once you have these standards, uh, then you

can actually look at the performance of staff and you

can then make comparisons and if necessary, take corrective action.

So having a standard that all staff need to meet

is essential, then you need to actually measure the actual

performance of the staff.

So there's no point having a standard if you're not

going to utilize that as a, you know, as a

measuring stick for actual performance of workers.

Once you uh measure the performance of workers, you can

compare that performance against the standards.

So you've got a benchmark, uh and uh an ability

to make a comparison and ability to make a conclusion.

Um Once you do that, then you can take corrective

action. If corrective action is needed, obviously it's not needed

in all cases.

And that's something that you'll need to uh decide as

a manager.

So it is a judgment court, but it's a judgment

call based on um uh an objective criteria and then

a way of of understanding performance.

Obviously, you need to consider how you're going to measure

actual performance.

Um You may use observations, you may get feedback from

others, you may use statistics, um but you'll need to

develop a way of measuring actual performance.

Um then you can compare it and you can make

some corrective action if necessary.

If no action is needed, then that's fine.

Um You've addressed the um standard and that the standards

being met and and therefore the strategic goals of the

of the organization should be able to be achieved from

the actual performance.

Another example um of control is the balance school sheet.

Now the balance school shape um is a management control

system that balances traditional financial measures with operational measures relating

to a company's critical success factors.

So it's a very comprehensive way of analyzing um the

performance of of um workers and an organization.

And there are actually four perspectives for main perspectives in

relation to this type of control system.

Um So one issue is the financial control.

So financial control is able to address um financial targets

and um and then able to measure those um actual

financial achievements uh and then determine whether the targets have

been met.

Uh And if not then corrective action could be taken.

So it looks at um the organization from four perspectives

and the key one.

The first one not the only one, but the key

one is financial performance.

And then um the next consideration it's customer service.

So again, the same thing takes place here.

There needs to be some targets set.

And then your niche actually need to measure um customer

service performance.

And then you need to determine whether that's been um

uh with the targets have been achieved.

And if not, then there needs to be some corrective

action taken.

So it's um similar to the feedback control method, but

it has a more comprehensive approach by looking at the

organization from a number of perspectives.

The third perspective is the internal business processes.

So there again, you'd be looking at whether the uh

you know, whether the way that businesses manufacture or deliver

or produce goods and services um uh is meeting target.

So again, you set the targets, You have to assess

the um whether those targets have been met, uh and

then uh once you compare that you can make a

conclusion as to uh whether corrective action needs to be

taken or not.

And the fourth perspective, in relation to the balanced scorecard

control method is to look at the learning and growth

that takes place within the organization.

So there should be some targets there and it really

depends on the organization, but um you could normally put

in targets such as uh improved qualifications or improved um

training in particular software or new software, um and then

to assess the actual measurements um to actually assess whether

they've been achieved and if they haven't been achieved, that

some corrective action needs to be taken.

So um that's all I wanted to discuss in this

Prezi video.

Um And so in summary, it's just a look at

uh an introduction that control and understanding of the definition

of control um and an understanding of how control can

um take place by looking at the balanced scorecard, a

system as well as the feedback control model.

Hopefully that's been informative for you.

I'll see you in the next video.

Control

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