THE CONTROL PROCESS

Introduction

Controlling is the fourth function of managing and it involves the measurement and correction of the performance of employees, and of other organizational resources in order to ensure that everything is going according to plan. Any manager charged with putting plans into action must carry out control. Controls help to point deviations from plans so that corrective action can be taken. Controlling therefore assists the realization of plans. Before controlling can be done management must ensure the two prerequisites of the control system:

(a)    Controls require plans

Controls must be based on plans. One cannot know whether something is wrong unless what needs to be done is clearly spelt out. Managers cannot determine whether their units are achieving what is expected unless they know what is expected in the first place. Managers must first set plans and these plans become standards against which performance is measured. This implies that any good control techniques are in effect planning techniques. It is useless to try to design controls without taking into account plans and how well they are formulated.

(b)    Controls require a clear organizational structure

The essence of control is to take corrective action and to be able to do this we must know where in the organization the responsibility for deviation from plans is situated.

Organizational responsibilities must be clear and definite so that when something goes wrong one can tell at which position it did. Lack of a good structure means that managers may know something is going wrong but they cannot tell exactly where the responsibility for the problem lies. Without clear knowledge of exactly where things are going wrong, corrective action is impossible.