Effectiveness of Management Control - Essay Example

TOPIC: EFFECTIVENESS OF MANAGEMENT CONTROL (NAME) (INSTITUTIONS NAME) (COURSE) 3rd, MAY 2008 Introduction Management control is the process by which managers are able to bring influence on other members of the organization in order to implement the strategies of the organization. Effectiveness of management controls depends in large part upon the manipulation of human beings into compliant patterns. This view of management is true to large extent because order and organization in any place of work require a set of rules and regulations that govern the running of activities in the organization. Sanity in the organization is brought by making each player in the organization adhere to the laid down standards regardless of whether the standards are favorable top oneself or not. According to Zed 2006, psychology has noted that for along time the self plays a crucial and a double role in regulation and control and it become a target of self regulative activities as well as the origin of the same. Personal skills of self regulation and control become the platform on which people are able to coexist. In any organization effective coexistence of the employees is made possible by management controls which ensure that every employee has a conducive working environment in which to work in and there are no hindrances that are set by other employees on the performance such an employee. Organizational and social problems arise due to the failure of people to control their behaviors, emotions and ones thoughts. It is in this perspective that order has to be maintained in every organization however small or big it may be. The moral standards that prevail in the organization affect to a great deal the image and the overall performance of the organization and this results into continuation of the organization or its collapse. Managers are well set to ensure that they manipulate the diverse behaviors of the organizational employees to comply with the set patterns of behavior which are aimed at achieving the organizational goals and objectives. (Rogers 2007) Every control system used by mangers in an organization must have four systems of control, which are, detector, assessor, effector and communication network. Good management control is only achieved in a compound perspective. The first control that is exercised by managers is to avoid occurrence of problems in the organization. This is done by ensuring that every employee complies with the set regulations in order to avoid conflicts of interests in the organization. Manipulation of the behaviors of the employees is done effectively when the manager sets the objectives that each employee is supposed to attain at the end of the day. Good management control also entails centralization of the organization’s activities such that every employee strives to achieve the objectives of the organization using the organizational code of ethics and other rules that govern individual’s behaviors. Another good control method is the risk sharing. The employees have to know that they carry or share a common burden of risk incase the organization’s goals and objectives are not achieved. For example if the organization suffers loses then the employees and the management and other shareholders carry the burden. The employees may lose their jobs and in some case lose their benefits also. In this regard the manager is able to manipulate the behaviors of the employees to comply with the patterns that should be followed in the running of the organization. The administrative tools that should be utilized by the manger to manipulate the behaviors of other members of the organization in order to comply with the set patterns are regulation, rules, and procedures. Rules, regulations and procedures in the organization are formulated to enable smooth running of the activities. A manager is able to make the employees comply with laid down patterns when he/she sets rules that should be observed by each employee as they carry out their chores. For example, rules should be set as to when employees should report for work in the morning and at what time they should leave in the evening. Procedures eliminate conflicts in carrying out different activities in the organization. For example, a transaction should be completed by the manager after he/she signs the transaction document. If this procedure is not followed then conflicts arises which brings about loses and mistrust in the organization. (Henry, 2006) The manager has to set down the procedures which manipulates the pattern behaviors in carrying out the transactions. Another important tool that the manager uses to manipulate the behaviors of the employees is the use of plans, budgets, and standards. Plans are meant to guide the employees into what they should do and what they should not do. They have to use the plans set by the manger to carry out their activities because the plans reflect the objectives of the organization. Budgets set should not be adhered to ensure that there is no overspending. A manager is able to exercise control in this capacity by allowing the employees to implement the projects that revolves within the given budget constraint. The set standards are also effective tools that the manager uses to ensure that the employees comply with the set patterns. Rewards and sanctions allows the best performer who complies with the patterns in the organization to strive harder to observe the set procedures, rules and regulation and it encourages those who did not get the reward to comply so as to get the reward next time. Sanctions hold the poor performers accountable for their actions and these results into improved compliance rate by employees in the organization. Organizational manuals acts as reminders to the members of the organization on what is required of them once they are in the organization. It also acts as the voice of the manager that circulates in the organization (Skinner, 2005) Recruitment policies are tailored into ensuring that once an employee joins an organization in whatever capacity is in a position to recall the recruitment policies and thus adjust into observing those policies. Training enables the employees to get empowered and perform their duties with minimum supervision. As a result the manger expects that every employee knows his/her responsibilities in the organization. Training is also tailored to ensuring that employees gain the necessary knowledge that is required in the improvement of the organizational performance without much need fro the manger to move around reminding them of the need to work hard. The manager has to exercise social controls in order to ensure that the employees comply with the patterns in the organization. This entails among others the group norms that should be observed by all regardless of the cultural affiliations. The organizations resources that need to be shared should be shared in a justifiable manner and the standards of mutual help should be encouraged. This makes the employees feel as one family and allows the manager to implement his/her polices of compliancy in the side of the employees. In addition informal guidelines which are not official but originating from the group leaders also help the managers to advance their policy of compliance among the members of the organization. To further manipulate the human behavior to allow for compliance the manger should define the results dimension he desires. The employees adjust in this perspective to ensure they are more focused on the dimension stipulated by the manger in order to achieve the required results. The manager sets the performance measures to ensure that all employees work hard towards achieving the required results. Each employee at the end of the day should be seen to have contributed towards the overall performance of the organization. (Larry, 2003) To enhance further compliance the manger should set rewards for those who work more than other and whose evaluation or appraisal performance sheet show that they have contributed more on the desired results. These actions are manipulative and are aimed at ensuring that the employees behaviors comply with the desired patterns. Self regulated behaviors which allow members of the organization to develop a high level of self control and the norms that encourages social control are also important steps that the manger takes to ensure that the members of the organization comply with the set organizational patterns. The society requires certain standards of behaviors from different people. Organizational members being part of the larger society must comply with the norms in the society and this character is inculcated into the personality of different members of the organization who in turn comply with the set patterns. The managers should be driven by the critical success factors of the organization in order to determine the choice of control tightness whether lose or tight. The costs and benefits of the control should be determined to ensure that the route to be adopted in implementing the controls is clear of any impending dangers that may be hidden. Tight controls should be implemented if the benefits outweighs the cost and this ensures that the decision mad do not fire back to the performance of the organization. For example, tight controls may result to resigning of the most dependable and experienced employees who feel they can not bear up with the strict and tight controls. This trickle down into affecting the performance of the organization especially when long serving employees with a permanent specialization in a certain department opts to resign. Lose controls can be implemented if the costs of implementing the compliance are higher because they can still be changed (Henry, 2006) The manager should know that controls do not always result to controls because a rigid rule may cause the manager to opt for the easiest instead of the effective control method, adopt the simple decision making procedures instead of pursuing the right decision making procedures, it may also cause the management behavior to be rigid and the ability of the firm to solve problems become impaired. The organization thus reacts by prescribing more controls which might not be effective either. As a manager in one of the leading firms in the town manipulating human behavior to comply with the patterns required has been effective. Among the tools of control I have used to achieve this are administrative control tools such as rules and regulations and procedures that should be followed in the organization in carrying out different activities. Rewards are also tools of making the employees comply because each employee once promised to be rewarded for exemplary performance strives hard to ensure that they work towards. I have also used organizational manuals to remind the employees more often of the objectives of the organization and that they should work towards achieving those objectives. During recruitment of the employees they are meant to know the organizational policies of performance and this becomes a binding factor in ensuring that what they promised during recruitment is implemented once they start their new job. This way the employees comply with the set patterns in the organization. In my organization employees must go under strict training to learn about their purpose in the organization and the goals they bare supposed to achieve in the organization. They therefore get more encouraged to comply with the organizational set patterns. The social control tools that I use are group norms, standard of mutual help and sharing of valued resources which allow the employees to fill part and parcel of the organization. This being a behavioral manipulative technique enables me to effectively control the behavioral pattern in the organization. I make the employees focus on the results required of them by defining the dimension along which the results are desired. Performance standard is inevitable in ensuring that the employees deliver to the required maximum and performance measurement enables me as a manager to know who to reward and to sanction for poor performance. Accountability on the members of the organization is also a tool that I have used and discovered that it yields fruits of compliance. The employees and other members of the organization are made to know that they will be answerable for their own actions whether good or bad and this regard transaction are carried out with utmost care. Procedures are followed by every body and this has helped in manipulating the behaviors of the employees into compliance patterns. REFERENCES Skinner, F. (2005) computers in human behaviors, business process management journal, Vol (13) pp 67-89. Zed, W, (2006) Mental processes and consciousness in human control, journal of management studies, issue No (4) pp 25-34. Larry, P.(2003), Human Information Processing, international studies of management and organization, Vol (2) pp 12-34. Rogers, B. (2007), Control Of Human behavior, journal of management education, Vol (1) pp 12-16 Henry, W. (2006), perceived behavioral control, journal of applied social psychology, Vol (5) pp 12-35. Read More