An organization is made up of a group of people and a defined purpose, which the people work towards, to attain a common goal.

However, there is no assurance that all organizational activities are on track as planned and that goals are being attained. Therefore, a manager must impose a control system that monitors the bodys performance. The biggest idea of a control system is its effectiveness; to help ensure that the organizational activities are working to attain the goal, and its effectiveness is determined by how good it is in facilitating that. The effectiveness of a control system is gauged by 9 other qualities that one shall fulfill. I. Accuracy

Accuracy talks about the reliability of the information gathered, and by reliability, we can branch it out to validity and consistency of the measurements. For example, lets talk about information gathered through personal observation by a manger himself. Personal observation is immediate and first hand. However, it also gives possibility to filtered information. Specifically, a manger may practice favoritism and more positive feedback may be given on a likened subordinate. Or, a manager may give less positive feedback on an employee who may have angered him on that particular day. This result in inconsistency of performance readings and affect the reliability of its II. Timelines

Also known as timely, this asks for the information gathered to be regularly up to date and accuracy met as of the moment of impromptu needs at any time. This thus also suggests that the information shall lose value as it passes the time of its recording. Therefore, it is important that information must be accurate at point of retrieval as outdated measurements may impose ineffective corrective implementation. If we use the same example as for accuracy, in this case then, if a manager has a prejudiced current conclusion on a particular employee who had less than acceptable working performance the month before, but had evidently omitted his improved performance that current month, then the information is deem to be invalid at time of need. III. Economy

This points calls for the control system to be economic feasible and realistic. It means that the control measure implemented shall not outweigh its benefits in term of monetary value. For example, an organization may prefer to adopt a control system that emphasized on external market shares, like price competition. If the company wish to engage an addition group of specialist separated from it core body to keep track of its market share, then the valuation of this group of specialist shall be carefully work out by it finance team, so that the entire cost of engaging the specialist to carry out the specific task do not exceed the company eventual gain. In another word, the use of external power shall not be easily overstated.

IV.

Flexibility

The idea of a flexible control system suggests that the activities it compasses are to be able to function harmoniously with the rest of the organizations bodies. In fact, the control system shall be easily amended accordingly to the needs and situational change of the companys structure and behaviors. In all circumstances, the control system shall not obstruct the progress of any organizational improvement. For example in bureaucratic control, the company place emphasis on the employees punctuality, and one day the leader of a team is changed and the new manager allows a 15mins grace period for her staffs to report ever morning. Then, the control system shall be able to adjust to that for the particular team. V. Understandability

The control system has to be easily understood and thus accepted by the employees. It should be laid out as explicitly as possible to avoid confusion among the people, and such confusion may leads to other complex implication on work performance and standards. In worse cases, the ambiguity may cause the employees to entirely ignore the terms of the control system. Only when the terms are accurately and correctly conveyed, then will the staffs be more willingly to accept and commit it. For example, in a big profitable organization where there are bound to be a good mixture of people from different races and nationalities, if a new implementation is not being

properly communicated due to negligence in language barrier, then a particular staff in such losing end shall not be able to abide to the control activities correctly. Such deviation may influence others and snowballed. VI. Reasonable Criteria

The organization shall not implement a control system that calls for unrealistic measurements. When the standards are unattainable by majority, then it will set off an unwanted bell curve in the result of the entire companys performance that affects the organization standards of achievement on the whole. For example, in a company that adopts the clan control system, if the majority strength of the organization is of a certain religion and beliefs similar to that of the overall managing team, then the company shall not demands that all of it staffs to practice his way of beliefs and his working attitudes that feeds upon that beliefs. Such rules and regulation is deemed unreasonable to unfit employees and will create possible omission of commitment, thus create deviation between actual performances and standards. VII. Strategic placement on importance

When implementing the control system, the manger shall place emphasis and importance in areas that facilitates that purpose of implementation; to help achieve the organizations goal. The manager shall put place the companys interest as priority, instead of oneself benefits. For example, if a certain company project is being held up behind time and the completion clearly affects the overall company standards and actual performance, then the performance control measure shall be adjusted to favor the completion and companys interest, instead of making adjustment that only favor oneself. VIII. Multiple Criteria

The control system shall measure more than one area of performance so as to create more reliable comparison and balancing among the information. For example, personal observation should not be the only implementation to gauge an employees performance, lest the possibility of filtered information. Having another source of measurement allow lesser manipulation and provide a more accurate result when combined.

IX.

Corrective Action

A good control system provides managers with effective corrective measure in times when deviation is detected. For example, if a company relied on external market mechanism to watch its performance, then when a problem is detected for example, a sharp decline in revenue of the particular month, then from the control system, the managers shall be able to generate a conclusion on an area that have gone wrong, for example, a weak marketing strategy. Reference: 1. 2.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com Ryszard Barnat, LM., DBA, PH.D. (strat. Mgmy) http://www.strategic-control.24xls.com/ Weihrich and Koontz, Essentials of Management, 7th, 2006, McGraw Hill Publishing.

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