In: Operations Management
Think about your current or former job. If the organization where you were working were to go off track strategically, was there any readily available control mechanism to alert management of the deviation? Make sure to complete the Chapter 15 Reading, prior to beginning your participation in the Unit 5 Discussion.
Answer-
Strategically speaking, going off the track can prove very
costly for any organization. This is where control mechanisms can
prove very important. In this regard my organization has been able
to use two types of controls very effectively. One is quality
control and then the other is proactive. Proactivity is a type of
strategic control that keeps the organizations from going off track
strategically. For this purpose it has used both concurrent
controls and feedback mechanisms to help keep things on track
inside the organization. Concurrent control is a type of real-time
control that can be used to address the problems in real-time.
However, it requires monitoring for problems all the time. The
concurrent controls inside our organization allow people to raise a
red flag whenever anyone feels that a significant deviation has
occurred.
It is not just the supervisors but the other employees too which
can raise a red flag before the management to highlight a
significant deviation. If the deviation is minor and does not
require immediate attention, it can be raised before the supervisor
to be addressed. However, behind such controls, there is the power
of organizational culture. An organization that has established a
culture of innovation and empowerment finds it easier to apply such
mechanisms or controls that allow people to bring significant
matters immediately to light. An organizational culture can be a
more pointed tool for control and can ensure that everyone remains
focused on the strategic direction of the organization. Strategy is
crucial for organizations but even crucial is to remain on track
after having formulated a strategy. For this purpose the
organizations should apply proper controls to enable the employees
and projects to remain strategically on track.