Introduction
The essay discusses connection blunders case study. The paper answers four questions related to control function in a business organization. It focuses on how the different aspects of management control referred to in the questions apply to the case study.
What type of control-feedforward concurrent, or feedback – do you think. would hive prevented this situation from first occurring?
The case study points out that the company has a problem in delivering modems to its customers on time. This is enough evidence that some of the controls put by the management are not working. The type of control which would have prevented the problem from occurring before it even arose is fed forward control. Feedforward control is a form of preventative control that identifies and prevents variations in standards and inputs before they happen (Daft, 2011). Feedforward control regulates personnel, material, and funds that flow through an organization and makes sure that the resources are enough to support the company’s operations.
Through the use of feed-forward control, the company would have been able to gain timely and correct information from the different stakeholders of the company. These would have enabled them to take collective action on time. Feedforward control would have helped the company to detect variations in the number of modems from the required level and allowed for corrective action to be implemented before the problem escalated. The company should introduce feedforward control to ensure that the problem does not occur in the future.
How might immediate corrective action have been used in this situation? How about basic corrective action?
Collective action is taken to improve the existing conditions of departments that do not meet the required standards set by the company or department. Implementing a collective action has its costs and benefits. The existing situation in the company requires that the company implements collective actions to improve the processes and meet customer satisfaction to remain competitive in the market. The company is required to take both immediate and basic collective action.
Immediate collective action in this situation facing the company requires taking several actions to improve the areas of the company’s operations that are not up to the required standards. The first immediate collective action would involve improving the procurement and delivery process of the modems to the company’s premises. This would require engaging more reliable suppliers and transporters who can deliver the modems on time.
The company would need to improve on its ordering process to ensure that the modems are ordered on time to eliminate delays caused by slow and late ordering. The company would also be required to implement controls in the procurement process to ensure that there are no delays. Another immediate collective action that needs to be taken is control of the information which the company disseminates to its customers. The company should put in place measures to control the flow of information to ensure that the information collected during market research is accurate.
The basic collective action implemented by the company’s management would take different forms depending on the department. Basic collective actions would be implemented in areas that do not meet the required standards. The basic collective action the company should implement is enabling different departments to coordinate their work. These would ensure that there is a timely flow of information and variations are detected on time and action taken.
Could the company’s control have been more effective?
Effective control within a company plays an important role in ensuring that a company achieves its goals. It ensures that performance is measured and corrections made to the areas which diverge from the expected. The case study points out that the company’s controls are not as effective as expected. The controls would have been made more effective than they currently are by implementing several measures. First, the company should have established standards to measure the performance of different departments. From the case study, it appears that the company did not have the proper means of gathering and reporting information (Daft, 2010).
The company should have put in place controls to ensure that accurate data is collected and reported from the different operations of the company. The company should also have integrated the company’s process to ensure that they perform harmoniously. From the case study, the company’s processes appear to be divided with each department performing its activities without consulting the others for coordination. Integrating the departments would have improved the company’s performance in information control. The company should also have prepared collective actions to be implemented when performance deviates from the required standards of the company in advance to ensure timely action.
What role would information control play in this situation? Customer interaction controls? Benchmarking?
Information control plays a central role in ensuring the success of any business organization’s activities. In businesses, information control is very important in the coordination of business operations. In the case study, the company appears to have put no measure in place for information control. In the company’s situation, information control would have been very important in several ways. First information control would have ensured that the company collects the right kind of information and the information was transmitted in the proper language to avoid distortion when being disseminated. Since the company operates in a highly competitive environment, the information would be very important for proper decision making.
Information control would have helped in comparison of the collected information to detect any deviations from the companies plan. This would have helped the company in taking timely collective action. Information control would also have played a role in helping the receiver of the information to verify its accuracy and significance. These would have helped in deciding the right measures that would be implemented to collect the problem.
Customer interaction control would have played a very important function in managing the challenges faced by the company in creating good relationships with both existing and prospective customers. In the situation the company was facing customer interactions control would have played a role in managing the information that was exchanged between the organization and customers. Customer interactions control would have ensured that accurate information was passed to the customers promptly and that feedback was obtained from customers to measure their satisfaction and collective action taken in case of problems.
Setting benchmarks is very important for businesses in controlling the activities of the business to ensure that the goals of the organization are achieved. Setting benchmarks would play a very important role in the organization (Kreitner, 2009). Benchmarking would ensure that the best practices in the industry were introduced into the company. These would help the company identify its weak and strong areas and focus on improving the weak areas to achieve the required standards. Benchmarking would improve the efficiency of the company’s operations, lower the cost and improve customer interactions which would improve the overall outcomes of the company’s processes.
Conclusion
The control function is a very important management function and can influence the success a business achieves. The case study points out that the management of the company is not up to standard in implementing proper controls in the operation of the business. The management should take immediate and basic collective action to ensure they have proper controls in place to improve the performance of the two departments.
References
Daft, R. L. (2010). Organization theory and design. Mason, Ohio : South-WesternCengage Learning.
Daft, R. L. (2011). Understanding management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Kreitner, R. (2009). Management. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co.