Establishing policies, guidelines, limits, procedures, and other protocols for controlling how employees and departments carry out their tasks is a part of organizational control. These controls may include establishing guidelines or rules for business operations, employee conduct, and particular procedures for the entire organization or for certain departments. A control may rely on a single employee abiding by the rule or call for multiple parties to concur on a course of action.
A common internal business control target is regulating financial procedures. As a result, communication is enhanced, managers can assess whether their efforts are meeting annual goals, and fraud and errors are avoided. These safeguards include requiring each department head to submit and monitor an annual budget, placing restrictions on who can write checks, requiring management approval before making large purchases, conducting routine audits, and monitoring budget variances to identify potential issues before they become out of control.
A company must convey its offerings in a consistent manner to its target market in order to increase sales. This includes promoting the brand through marketing messages as well as through your product’s price, the location in which you sell it, its features, and its packaging. Organizational controls frequently mandate that the marketing department be consulted before making any decisions regarding a product’s price, promotion, or distribution. This lessens the likelihood of brand messages being inconsistent, such as when a promotions manager offers a two-for-one coupon at a upscale salon or restaurant.
Organizational control seeks to improve departmental collaboration as one of its goals. Establishing specific communication protocols, weekly departmental meetings, and routine management memos will help you achieve this. Your controls may include disseminating a thorough organizational chart so that everyone is aware of who reports to whom in order to enhance the performance of individual employees.
Organizational Control in Management
Why is organizational control important?
Organizational control is crucial because it enables you and other team members to concentrate on and accomplish your goals. By providing instructions on how to carry out specific tasks or ensuring employees meet specific sales targets, organizational control systems can help your business save time and money. Additionally, having a predetermined system in place that you can refer to can help you deal with unforeseen circumstances or difficulties better.
What is organizational control?
Managers and other leaders use organizational control as a method to make sure their organization achieves its objectives. It entails developing policies, guidelines, or ideal practices for a specific person or division within an organization. These guidelines can assist you in guiding the behavior of your group or other employees, which could boost your company’s productivity as a whole.
Types of organizational control
There are three main types of organizational control:
1. Output control
Any organizational control measure that emphasizes factors you can directly measure, such as the volume of sales, the number of clients you serve, or the number of hours you work, is known as output control. This kind of control focuses on the end result or effects of an action. Sales quotas, the number of potential clients you contact within a certain time frame, and the quantity of unused ingredients you have at the end of the week are a few examples of output control.
2. Behavioral control
Behavioral control refers to the laws or systems that regulate certain actions, whereas output control deals with the outcomes of a specific action. Behavioral control can outline rules for proper workplace conduct or instructions on how to carry out specific tasks. Dress codes, safety protocols, and attendance policies are a few examples of behavioral control.
3. Clan control
Clan control is an indirect form of control that motivates people to work toward a company’s objectives by utilizing common expectations, values, and social norms. This type of control, which frequently ties into corporate culture, encourages employees to work toward the organization’s objectives. Company retreats, group meetings, company newsletters, and opportunities for people to offer suggestions about the organization are policies that may have an impact on clan control.
What makes an effective organizational control system?
A policy, tool, resource, or combination of these that aids in the process of organizational control is known as an organizational control system. Effective systems often have these qualities:
Focus
A quality control system focuses on enhancing a single element of a business’s objectives. You may find it easier to decide which specific processes to include when a system has a clear focus, which could improve the system’s overall effectiveness. Because the system has a specific, established goal, it can also assist you in measuring success.
Integration
Typically, organizational control systems work best when they are well-integrated with other systems and existing policies within the organization. Integrated systems can help your company achieve a specific goal while not conflicting with other organizational control methods you already employ. Look at your current policies before developing any new control systems to ensure that you can properly integrate with them.
Acceptance
Every employee or member of an organization must consent to some extent to any type of organizational control. People are more likely to abide by the rules that can improve how well a control system works when they accept it. By conducting surveys to learn about their preferences, hosting meetings to discuss the policy, and enhancing your workplace culture or clan control, you can encourage your team to accept control systems.
Information
Giving your team or other company members information about the control systems you employ can help them understand the system, which can increase the likelihood that they will adhere to the policies and potentially increase the effectiveness of that system. Make sure your team has easy access to the information when creating a new policy or control system. For instance, an effective policy might include a safety manual that people can read or signs and posters that describe pertinent safety information at various workstations if you want your team to adhere to your restaurant’s safety protocols.
Feasibility
You may need to consider the resources your business has to implement any policies or systems in order to create an efficient organizational control system. For instance, you may need to ascertain whether your company has enough funding to purchase pizza each week if you want to organize weekly pizza parties to aid in clan control. When attempting to create a system, take into account asking your supervisor about the resources you can use.
Measurement
An efficient quality control system has specific requirements or a set of requirements that it can use to precisely gauge the development of your business. You can determine how well a particular type of control operates by evaluating how well a policy or system aids your business in achieving its objectives. It might also provide you with more information that you can use to develop new systems.
How to exercise organizational control
You can use the following actions to help you exercise organizational control at work:
1. Establish your company standards
To develop procedures or a corporate culture that aids in your company’s achievement of its objectives is the goal of organizational control. Consequently, knowing the goals of your organization can help you develop policies that are appropriate. For instance, organizational control initiatives may concentrate on growth or client satisfaction if a teddy bear company wants to become the most well-liked stuffed animal seller worldwide.
2. Decide what your control type should be
Once you are aware of your company’s objectives, you can consider which type of organizational control will enable you to meet those objectives. Although most organizations combine all three control types, choosing a primary type for a particular objective may help you concentrate your policies. For instance, if your company’s main objective is to increase sales, you can develop output control techniques to raise your pricing or the quantity of a product you sell.
3. Measure your teams performance
You can evaluate the success of your organization’s goals-achievement efforts to see how well your policies are working and whether you need to change or add organizational control. Some objectives can be quantified in numerical terms, such as the quantity of goods sold or the number of days needed to finish a project. By examining data relevant to that skill, you can also assess subjective forms of progress. For example, you could assess how well a policy fosters creativity by keeping track of how many independent projects your team completes each quarter. Think about the measurement techniques that will help you achieve your goals, then use them.
4. Create an organizational structure
You can establish a procedure or structure to help you exert more control once your organization’s goals and the way you gauge your team’s progress are clear. For instance, you can create a policy restricting the websites your team can access on company computers and use software to help enforce that policy if you want to use behavioral control to increase productivity at your coding office. Despite the fact that clan control is an indirect form of organizational control and lacks official policies, you can still create some kind of structure, such as holding recurring events or creating a box for customer feedback.
5. Experiment with leadership styles
Your team’s performance under your leadership may directly impact the objectives of your company and contribute significantly to organizational control. However, you might not initially be aware of the best leadership philosophies for you and your group. Setting aside time to experiment with various leadership philosophies and keeping a journal of your feelings and the reactions of your team can help you change this.
6. Review your organizations policies
By reviewing your policies, you can learn how well your organizational control initiatives work and possibly replace or change any that could use improvement. When designing your form of control, take into account establishing a fixed time period and regularly evaluating the procedure to make sure it is effective.
