Control and why it is important in the organizational development
Control in management refers to continuous checks on the operating processes to ensure that they run as expected. The general requirements of organizations are normally on the basis of reducing expenditures while at the same time maximizing the quality of output in the processes carried out by an organization. The essence of control is the alignment of objective to the desired plans of an organization.
According to Singla (2006), control is the last function in managing an operation. The process that starts with planning and subsequent implementation of the outlaid plans needs to be counterchecked to ensure that they are “efficiently, economically and successfully implemented” (Singla, 2006, p. 218).
Control therefore plays the role of comparing the actual realization of the organization and the planned or ideal situations with the aim of identifying deviations for appropriate measures to be taken for correcting the deviations. One of the benefits which accrue from control is that it helps managers to identify possible areas in which actions are necessary.
The importance of control is also exhibited by its fundamental nature in the management process. Though identified as the last management tool, control is the most important in managing since other aspects such as planning and organization can not guarantee success without being checked.
It is the monitoring and evaluation processes of control that gives direction to the management on decisions to make with respect to the plans and organization that had been previously adopted. It forms the basis for making improvements or even reversing changes to processes that do not conform to the organizations desired goals (Singla, 2006).
The counterchecking aspect of control also helps an organization to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its employees through identifying weaknesses that are then corrected. In the same way, weaknesses are identified with respect to operations and appropriate decisions made for the attainment of the outlined goals (Singla, 2006).
Control is also identified to undertake prior checks over problems that can be anticipated in the processes. With this, it helps the management in identifying the problems beforehand and subsequently taking appropriate measures. It is therefore a preventive tool.
It also undertakes concurrent measures to identify immediate problems for actions as well as being used to analyze past processes to offer information for future planning by the management (Vallabhaneni, 2009). The outcomes of the control measures are then implemented to the adjustment or termination of inconsistent processes.
Individual development and organizational development
Development is a process of positive changes that are realized with respect to an entity’s objectives. Such developments can either be instantaneous with discontinuity or they can be gradual and continuous.
Developments in organizations are normally triggered by weaknesses or failure as realized with individuals who are responsible for different processes in the organization. It therefore means that a failure in an organization that will result in the need for development results from people in the organization (Weick & Quinn, 1999).
The process of ensuring development in an organization can either be based at individual level in which people in the organization are developed or empowered to ensure a culminated growth in the organization or can be based on the organization as a whose.
The approach of empowering individuals to develop the organization thus illustrates the link between the two with the concept that developing individual members of an organization is a development to the organization (McLean, 2005).
References
McLean, G. (2005). Organization development: principles, processes, performance. New Jersey, NJ: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Singla, R. (2006). Business Studies. New Delhi, India: FK Publications.
Vallabhaneni, D. (2009). What’s Your MBA IQ? A Manager’s Career Development Tool. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Weick, K & Quinn, R. (1999). Organizational change and development. New York, NY: Cengage Leaning.