What Is The Relationship Between Control And Planning

Two of the most commonly-cited managerial functions are that of planning and control, although they are distinct albeit interrelated processes. Planning is the actual determination of the organization’s objectives and long and short-term goals. Goals are not achieved haphazardly and there must be a clear and sequential line of steps to determine that the necessary actions are taken to ensure that the goals are achieved. Control is the process of determining that the performance of the planned steps is in line with what is needed. For example, it might be determined that meeting certain productivity goals are required on the part of a project management team, and that certain steps must be achieved in a timely fashion (Tanuja, n.d.). Controlling might involve placing sanctions on the team if the project falls short or goes over time and budget, unless there is a good reason for such a failure.

In some instances, if there has been a critical misalignment between resources and goals, effective planning will require a reconfiguration of the planning or the execution functions of the organization. Regardless, without control, planning is all for naught. On the other hand, having controls in place without a clear sense of planning is not effective, either. A good example of this can be seen in one of my former places of employment, where there were strict controls in regards to employees coming in on time, meeting specific productivity goals, and not wasting time at work (for example, it was prohibited to use company Internet and phones for any personal purposes). These controls were put into place based upon the assumption that employees should be following the rules very strictly.

On the other hand, it was not researched adequately why these specific productivity goals were needed; they were rather arbitrarily determined, based upon the assumption that increasing productivity would inevitably be a good thing, without adequate research into whether the human and logistical resources were available. This shows a failure of the planning function. Likewise, having such a stultifying atmosphere at work, where employees felt as if they were constantly being monitored, made workers feel as if they had to be relentlessly on their guard. The result was high turnover and low levels of worker satisfaction. Some of the best employees left the organization, despite being compensated at the industry average, simply because of the lack of respect shown to them regarding how they had to account for every single moment of their time.
Again, this shows the need for planning and control to be linked. There must be a plan to justify the use of the particular controls at the organization. Planning means that managers must also be aware of the opportunity costs of particular decisions. Although having workers come to the office on time is important, if managers are unreasonable about engaging in surveillance and show little respect for or trust in workers, this can result in substantial costs of office morale and goodwill. Planning determines that the right actions will be taken and controlling determines that the actions will be carried out. Without determining that the right plans
have been made, controlling will not result in optimal results.

The ultimate goals for every organization usually involves a mix of profitability and productivity, although how these objectives are defined will vary from organization to organization. Also, some organizations are more concerned with the longer-term than other organizations, particularly if an entity is just securing its niche within the industry. A good planner will be able to assess the potentially subtle effects of various decisions and have an awareness of the stage of the business cycle in which the organization is located to determine that the plans are realistic and appropriate. Finally, the types of plans that are made must be measurable and specific, so they can be controlled in a clearly determined fashion.


References

Tanuja, A. (n.d.). Notes on relationship between planning and control. Business Management Ideas. Retrieved from: http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/notes/management- notes/techniques-of-control/notes-on-relationship-between-planning-and-control/5225