Management can control by several different means.
Control can be achieved through the organisational structure, that is, the structure of the organisation, which is often bureaucratic. The employee is provided with a job description upon starting work in the organisation, and this states what the employee is (and in doing so what the employee is not) able to do when at work for the organisation. If the employee is wondering whether they can do something, they can provided that it is also on their job description. The job description incorporates the employee into the hierarchy of the organisation and makes them aware of those above them in the hierarchy whom the responsibility of their work lies with. Control can also take the form of timesheets that are set into the bureaucracy of the organisation. The drawback of using bureaucracy to control is that the organisation may become too rigid.
Control can be exercised over the workers by selective recruitment and selection procedures. This is demonstrated where organisations:
“Recruit only those individuals with the technical competence and professional interest to perform on their own the necessary tasks to the required performance levels.” (Huczynski A & Buchanan D, 1991)
To keep the stability and order in the organisation that is part of control, unstable people are not selected for the job during the recruitment and selection process because they would bring a lack of control to the organisation. Only selecting the right candidate helps the managers and other workers in their jobs. People whose belief systems fit in with the organisational culture are also more likely to be selected. Greene King is well known for controlling workers through recruitment and selection. They achieved this by employing members of the same families in order that the family members would keep one another in order. A Kenyan security company employed 90% of their workers from the same ethnic group to keep them all under control, and making them understand that they all had collective responsibility for each other. Recruitment and selection of the right people can be a good method of organisational control. The drawback of this method of control is that an otherwise acceptable employee may not be considered on the grounds that they do not fit in with the organisation. This can make the recruitment and selection process more difficult, and longer and this makes it more expensive for the organisation.
Control can be through rewards and punishments system. The withholding of a reward may be just as effective in terms of people control as giving a reward. Individuals whose performance is efficient and effective get rewards. Those individuals whose performance is not up to scratch do not get rewards. Rewards can take the form of a company car, cheap shares or free meals on the extrinsic side, or on the intrinsic side rewards can be satisfying work and increased responsibility. Rewards, their availability and their award can be used to control employee’s behaviour. Punishments are not such an effective control procedure, Rewards and punishments are known as the carrot and stick situation, and it is not always a good method of control because it can lead to rebellion.
Control can be exercised through the rules and regulations of the organisation. Rules and regulations provide norms for employee’s behaviour and norms for employee performance. In this way rules and regulations are establishing standards for the employees to work to in their daily routine. Control through rules and regulations is a good strategy for management control providing that there are not too many rules and regulations, or ridiculous ones, which again can cause rebellion.
Control can be exercised through budgets, or alternatively funding arrangements. Sections of an organisation can be given financial targets for them to achieve throughout a time period. Upon completion (or non-completion) of these targets budgets for the next time period may be set, allocating resources to where management thinks resources are required. In this way year on year management has the power to expand or alternatively slowly close down sections of the organisation through budget arrangements. Budgets create pressure and there is no reward for being successful in this field even though there is a penalty for failure.
Control can be enforced by machinery. This form of control is used extensively throughout the manufacturing industries where computers control other computers that sequentially control the pace of work for their human counterparts. Control through machinery is an effective management control strategy although it is not always practical in every industry.
Control was initially introduced by machinery as a management control procedure by FW Taylor, once a steel worker, under the guise of scientific management, which was breaking jobs down into their individual parts to enable the division of labour. He pioneered a system that enabled management, rather than the workers to be in full control of the work. He did this by timing each task and setting his workers targets based on the output and introduced a performance related pay system, controlling by rewards. He followed Adam Smiths ideas about the division of labour and created the production line system of work, which was a revolution.
Taylor’s ideas were used extensively throughout the world, especially in Henry Ford’s car factories, where a production line system revolutionised the way and the speed that the work was completed at. There were strict rules on the production line and labour was often exploited.
This process however, by which labour was broken down into small tasks led to the deskilling of workers. Once they had manufactured whole cars and now they were reduced to tightening the same two bolts each time the part came past on the production line. These ideas was introduced by Harry Braverman, in his book The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, 1974, who believed that Taylorism and Fordism led to skilled workers being reduced to less skilled workers, and alongside this, came the rise of management to control the pace and nature of the work, which was in fact management domination over underrepresented workers. Workers had no say in the matter and were being alienated by the harsh days at the factory. Alienation occurred when there was too much control over the worker, and chances are they would rebel against this control if they could whilst getting away with the rebelling.
Braverman was a Marxist and in his arguments for alienation and the degradation of work did not take into account the fact that some workers prefer deskilled jobs, and he “underrates the knowledge needed by unskilled workers.” (Attewell P, 1987)
Output control works on the principal that a given amount of output (finished product, small part) can be completed in a given amount of time. This means that by working at a constant rate the worker completes so many units of output. This output can then be rewarded if it is good or not as discussed previously. In this way control is achieved through output. This system is however open to abuse as workers can rate-bust or artificially slow down their work in order to achieve a comfortable output for themselves. In some situations it is also hard to measure what a unit of output is (e.g. in a law firm.)
Output control is used extensively today in call centres where workers have to complete a given number of calls (or sales) per day. Targets are set and a reward system works (refer to earlier notes on control through rewards and punishments). Call centres have become the new production line.
Controls are required to be in place for the organisation’s success. Humans at work have a psychological need to be controlled. Control gives feedback on performance, gives structure and definition to the work and encourages dependency on the control system. The control system in fact encourages work that is good for the organisation.
Control can be through social pressures. This works by the fact that there is an informal organisation at work within the organisation. This informal organisation exerts pressure on all members to work at the same rate as the others, and shapes their day by the social networks that it provides them with. Management in the form of team working can create informal organisations, which can be an effective control strategy for increased output as Elton Mayo found in the Hawthorne Studies.
There is definitely a need for a management control system in every organisation. Control is needed to ensure the correct allocation of resources and to keep workers on their toes to ensure that they work for the organisation with the same aims as the management team.
Management control systems work on the basis of the control procedures outlined previously in this essay, through the structure, recruitment and selection, budgets, rewards and punishments, rules and regulations, machinery, output, social pressures and psychological means.
The object of management is to create a balance between enough controls to get the job done and enough control to maintain a comfortable working environment. With enough control the organisation is effective, the workers are well motivated, the task is getting done, and management is meeting the aims of the organisation. The balance occurs because there must not be too little control, which results in the job not being done, and too much control, which stifles motivation and causes rebellion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Attewell P, 1987, The Deskilling Controversy: Work and Occupations
Beardwell I & Holden L, 2001, Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition, Great Britain, Pearson Education Limited
Blunt P, 1980, Bureaucracy and Ethnicity in Kenya:Some Conjectures for the Eighties, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, Volume 16 p336-353
Braverman H, 1974, The Degradation of Work in The Twentieth Century, New York, Monthly Review Press
Huczynski A & Buchanan D, 1991, Organisational Behaviour, 2nd Edition, Great Britain, Prentice Hall International
Mullins LJ, 2002, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 6th Edition, Spain, Pearson Education Limited