Managerial Role

Juan Carlos Reyes

Business 101

Final exam question #2

DR Atsunyo

12/8/04

The Managerial role of control

The managerial role of control is defined by Henry Fayol as, verifying whether everything occurs in conformity with the plan adopted, the instructions issued, and principles established. Controlling is also defined as, the process by which management assures that actions are efficiently and effectively directed toward the objectives and strategies of the organization. In my own words the controlling process is essentially making sure that things get done. Organizations usually have goals and objectives. In other words, they have a plan that will help the company succeed, therefore planning and controlling are linked closely together. There are four steps in the controlling process. There are also types of controls that managers use in order to bring success into their organizations.

The first step in the controlling process is establishing standards. These standards are divided into sections:

• Time standards

• Productivity standards

• Cost standards

• Quality standards

• Behavioral standards

Establishing standards is an efficient way for managers to communicate with their employees and identify what their expectations are. Without standards employees would do what ever they pleased. If standards are not established company money would be wasted and goals would never be reached.

The second step in the controlling process is measuring performance and criteria. The measurement of performance and criteria has three main points. The first is, measurement must be directly related to standards. For example, if one’s job is to clean the bathrooms, they can not be measured on how clean the hallways are. The second point is that the sample must be representative of the whole population. The third point is, measurement must be reliable and valid consistently.

The third step in the controlling process is comparing performance to standards. This step is also divided into several sections.

• Comparing what is to what should be.

• Managers determine how well results have met expectations.

• Performance levels that fall outside the range of deviation are considered exceptions that require management control.

• Management by exception holds that only significant variation from standards should trigger the control system.

This step is very important when it comes to measuring productivity. The performance of employees can significantly affect the productivity of the organization.