Control Types and Sources
Types of Control.
At the moment of their use, we have the following types of organizational controls:
Preventive controls are the group of mechanisms and procedures that are used to analyze the operations projected to be carried out, before they are authorized or before they are put in place. This is done to determine the truth and legality of such operations. And finally, to determine its conformity with plans, programs, and budgets.
These controls guarantee that before an action is started, budgets for Human Resources, materials and finance needed have been done. Financial budgets are the most common type of preventive control for the action. This is because the acquisition of employees, machinery and supplies require money. Programming is another important type of preventive control, since this preliminary activities also require time investment.
Preventive control is of exclusive responsibility of every organization as an integrating part of its own internal control systems. For this reason, it is said that preventive control is always internal. This is because the administrators of every enterprise are responsible of assuring that the preventive control is integrated inside the administrative and financial systems, and for it to be performed by the responsible internal staff of carrying out such labor.
Concurrent controls, are the ones which are carried out while an activity is performed. The most common form of this type of control is direct supervision. A supervisor observes the activities of the workers, and he can correct problematic situations as soon as they emerge. These days, computer systems can be programmed to render an immediate answer to the operator if he commits a mistake, or if information has been processed incorrectly. The concurrent system controls reject the order and will let him know where the mistake is.
Subsequent controls, are the ones which take place after the action. In this way, we can determine the causes of any deviation from the original plan, and the results are applied to similar future activities. For example, in Accounting Audits, statistics, accounting, etc.
Control sources.
According to Don Hellriegel, the basic sources of control are four: interested groups, the organization itself, groups and individuals.
The control of interested groups, it refers to external pressures that the enterprise receives to modify certain conducts. Examples of this type of sources are syndicates, government organisms, clients, providers or suppliers, stock holders, etc.
Organizational control, it refers to formal rules and procedures, may them be preventive or corrective for plan deviations and the accomplishment of the desired objectives. Examples of this type of control can be rules, policies, norms, budgets, audits and others.
Group control, it refers to the rules, norms, values that the members of a group share and keep through rewards and punishment. For example the withdrawal of the right to vote from a member of the group, to choose a representative before other groups, etc.
Individual auto-control, it consists of the orienting mechanisms that operate in an individual or person, be it in a conscious or unconscious manner. The so-called Professional Ethic constitutes a very important starting point for individual self-control. To be a successful professional, it is necessary to acquire detailed knowledge, specific abilities, attitudes and forms of basic conduct. It doesn't matter what the profession is; Public Accountant, Lawyer, Engineer, Business Administrator, Doctor, etc. it is expected for them to exercise individual auto-control when they are performing their jobs, based in ethical and moral norms of their respective profession.
