control strategies applied to employees and control systems that a manager should implement after an evaluation in an organization
Abstract
This paper analyzes the control strategies applied to employees and control systems that a manager should implement after an evaluation in an organization. Some of the control strategies discussed are the positive reinforcement strategy that involves rewarding employees based on their performance. The discipline control strategy, where the manager makes sure employees don’t display unwanted behaviors. The control situation strategy, the managers, handles an issue before to escalates into a big problem. The approach of coaching and feedback, where a manager creates time and coaches the employees on his expectation, and also giving feedback. Some of the control systems based on the nine characteristics of effective controls that should be improved on by a manager include having a control system that is acceptable to all employees. A control system that quickly registers deviations in an organization. The control system should be flexible to enhance adjustments by the employees. It should also be economical for easy implementation and benefits being better in comparison to the cost of implementation. The control system should also be able to show accurate measures. There is a need for better control strategies, and control systems should follow the nine characteristics for adequate control.
Introduction
PepsiCo offers a variety of food services to the hospitality and foodservice sector, that include hotels, restaurants, office, and many other organizations. The company manufactures a range of food products, and the products include flavored snacks, chips, cereals, pasta, and dairy-based products. The company also makes beverage products. The beverage products that are produced by the company include carbonated soft drinks, ready to drink coffee and tea, juices, bottled water, and sports drinks. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Discussion
The manager in the company I was working made sure he was using the right control strategies towards the employees to achieve the set goal. He often used a positive reinforcement strategy to control the employees (Mone and London, 2018). The main strategy focus was on rewarding employees who displayed excellent performance in the tasks they are assigned. Many employees were highly motivated to perform their responsibilities to their level best after being recognized by the manager. The rewards were in different forms that include praises and bonuses. An excellent example of the positive reinforcement strategy in the company is a situation where the manager assigned an employee a task. To make sure that all the beverages that were requested by a consumer were delivered on time. The assignment was given to the employee because the request from the consumer came late. Also, with limited time for the distribution to be done. The employee executed the assignment on time, which made the manager happy, hence during a meeting, he recognized the efforts made by the employee. After the praises, the employee received his focus towards work improved. Therefore he was always making sure that assignments are done on time. With such a positive mind, most of the task meets the goals set.
The discipline control strategy also played a more significant role in making sure that most of the set targets are met. The discipline strategy’s main focus was to make sure that employees always keep time. Employees who would be late to report at work stations and also being late in delivering tasks given they faced the consequences accordingly. The strategy ensures that the habits of individual employees are disrupted, hence enabling an organization to achieve its goal. The manager applied this strategy to make sure that he discourages unwanted behavior in the work premises. A good example where he used the policy includes a certain period in the organization where most of the set targets were not being achieved. According to the manager, the problem was caused by most of the employees not keeping time in the duties offered and also reporting late to work. One day the manager decided to suspend four of the employees for an unidentified period of time. The discipline action proved to have positive energy towards the remaining employees since many feared to face the same consequence. Hence many of the employees were keeping time in arriving at work station and being timely in duties offered. The suspended employees, when they allowed coming back to work, did not repeat the same mistakes they made in the past, leading to their suspension. The strategy seemed to be useful in making sure that the organization achieved its overall goal. It was more comfortable for the manager to assign the task and control the employees.
The control situation strategy also was effective in controlling the employees. The approach enabled the manager to handle situations that seemed unfavorable towards the employees. The manager makes sure that he makes adjustments that will help in solving the case and also leading to the employees performing the assigned tasks. An example where the manager applied the concept was when he decided to regroup teams that were in existence. The regrouping aimed to enable the employees to gain experience from different departments participates in the same task. The regrouping made it hard for various teams to achieve their goals. The manager realizing that the new technique was not going to work, he intervened and returned the teams to their previous grouping. Many of the employees were in agreement with the decision.
The manager also applied the strategy of coaching and getting feedback to control the employees. The plan involves monitoring what the employees are doing, but the manager will not interfere with the progress of work, therefore creating time for coaching and giving feedback. With this strategy, the manager allows an employee to commit a mistake. Then learn from the error, thus minimizing the occurrence of the same mistake again. For instance, there is a period in the company when the manager realized that one of the employees instead of working, she was just giving orders. He observed the situation and then later when people were almost leaving the office. The manager convened a meeting where he coached about the ethical values of employees in a working environment. The employee learned from her mistake and never repeated the same error. It was also a lesson to other employees who shun away from such behaviors. Hence, making it easy for the manager to control the employees.
The control system that was applied by the manager about the nine characteristics of effective control that should be improved includes, making sure that his control systems are acceptable to the employees. A control system should be fully supported by the employees, therefore making it easier to manage. In that case, most of the employees will not want to manipulate or cheat just to show the management what they want to see. Another characteristic that needs some improvement is that the manager must make sure that his control system is understandable. It will enable him to be well aware of all the control systems he is putting in place, hence making it easier for him to monitor operation and give guidance where it is needed.
The control systems by the manager should be natural to register deviations (Lueg and Radlach, 2016). Most of the systems were designed in a manner in which it is tough to identify a variation and to make it difficult to send a warning signal when things aren’t right. Having a coherent control system makes sure that actions are taken when the need arises as soon as possible to avoid further damages. He should consider having economic control systems, hence making it easier to implement. Most of his control systems didn’t portray benefit compared to the cost used in developing and maintaining a control system.
Some of the control systems the manager put in place were not flexible. That made it hard for employees to adjust to changes put in place. Therefore, it was hard for the organization to take advantage of new opportunities when they arise. There is a need to have control systems concerning the activity that is under consideration. With such reviews, it is easier to achieve goals that are outlined by the organization. It also makes it easier for employees to adhere to the control system. Having control systems that are not in consideration with the current issue that is affecting a particular task makes it hard for employees to perform the given task.
The manager should also put into consideration that his control system must have accurate measures. The implementation of a control system that gives inaccurate information makes it hard for individual decisions to be made by an organization since it will be based on the erroneous data. Finally, the manager’s control systems should be able to take corrective action. The system should be able to identify the cause of a problem, therefore giving suggestions for the activities that should put in place.
Conclusion
A manager should use the right control strategies to enable the employees to perform to their level best. The approach will also allow the organization to achieve its overall goal and increase its productivity level. The use of control systems that have the nine characteristics of adequate controls will lead to a more productive organization. Since the employees will fully support the control system. It will make it easier for a deviation to be made when need arise. It will enhance flexibility in a work environment, and also it will implement the control system to be more economical. Organizations should make sure that the managers that are being appointed can come up with better control systems and control strategies (Kerzner, 2018). When the management of an organization is well organized. It will create a conducive environment that will be appreciated by all the employees. The satisfaction of employees with better management skills usually leads to better yields.
References
Kerzner, H. (2018). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence.
Lueg, R., & Radlach, R. (2016). Managing sustainable development with management control systems: A literature review. European Management Journal, 34(2), 158-171.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.