Need for control in organizations

By Abhinash on April 24, 2012

Management is defined as the art of getting things done by others (Dale, 1969).  Efficient management involves five major functions namely planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling (Miner, 2007). Of all the five functions, management intends purely in controlling the activities and operations of an organization. Control is nothing but the action of taking corrective actions when there are deviations between the expected and actual results of a process.

Control is one of the five vital functions of management. Control is a systematic process which managers adopt in order to make their subordinates perform well and achieve the organization’s goals and objectives (Elsbach, 2006). A person exercises control on others through his positional power in an organization. For example, a team leader working in a software development company has rights to exercise control and give instructions to the software developers working under him as a part of his team. Every employee working in an organization has rights to exercise certain degree of control on others.

Management is considered as a controlling profession. Stafford Beer conveyed by this definition that the essential purpose and function of having the managers in an organization is to ensure that all the activities which are undertaken is contributed towards the attainment of entire objectives or aims (Beer, 1995). The purpose of managerial work is to try to control and monitor the individual activities and coordinates them in a way that entire purposes are achieved. Control is exercised in organizations based on designation hierarchies.

Thus, control is essential for any organization in order to make it function systematically, since control prevents chaos at workplace.

References

  • Dale E (1969). Management Theory and Practice. Newyork: Red Book Store.
  • Elsbach K D (2006). Organizational Perception Management. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.. p.211
  • Beer S (1995). Cybernetics in Management. Oxford: The English Universities Press.
  • Miner J B (2007). Organizational Behavior: From theory to practice. USA: Sharpe Inc.

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