Controlling: Levels and Types

Mary is an ambitious lawyer in a partnership, but she often gets to work later than most. There is no official start time, so she gets her children off to school first. But when she gets to work, she faces snarky comments from her colleagues: “Oh, come in for a visit today?” or “Had a doctor’s appointment this morning?” And her colleagues sometimes meet without her to lay out the day’s activities, so she plays catch up during the day to find out what is needed. Mary is facing

• output control

• normative control

• regulative control

T.E. Lawrence was a hero in World War One. He had a strategic vision to use the Arabs against the Turks in WW1. The British paid their Arab allies £220,000 a month in gold to fight. Lawrence usually delivered the gold to Prince Faisal, who distributed it equitably. But while traveling in the desert, Faisal was not available and Lawrence delivered it Faisal’s brother, Abdullah. Abdullah distributed the gold to his tribe only. The other tribes and his British superiors were naturally angry with him for his error. His superiors threatened to pull Lawrence from the field. This was a huge failure of

• operational control

• strategic control

• tactical control

If an organization tracks its strategy implementation, looks for problem areas, evaluates whether the problem areas indicate any weakness in the strategy, and makes any necessary changes, then it is using:

• regulative controls

• strategic controls

• operational controls

Suliman manages a manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Customers are unhappy over late deliveries. Inventories of some parts are high. Others are critically short. Senior management told him he has 3 months to become profitable or the plant will close. In this case, the plant’s income statement is

• a tactical control

• a strategic control

• an operational Control

Budgets are financial controls that tell a manager how much he can spend to achieve his goals. Budgets are an example of

•  regulative controls

• normative controls

• tactical controls