Controlling:
It implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of deviation if any to ensure achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of controlling is to ensure that everything occurs in conformities with the standards. An efficient system of control helps to predict deviations before they actually occur. According to Theo Haimann, “Controlling is the process of checking whether or not proper progress is being made towards the objectives and goals and acting if necessary, to correct any deviation”. According to Koontz & O’Donell “Controlling is the measurement & correction of performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished”. Therefore controlling has following steps:
Establishment of standard performance.
Measurement of actual performance.
Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation if any.
Corrective action.
Top managers:
After the other elements are in place, a manager's job is not finished. He needs to continuously check results against goals and take any corrective actions necessary to make sure that his area's plans remain on track.
The top managers in the function they not have that much responsibility in this function because they have to manage the other function that we mentioned before that’s why the huge part of this function not on the top manager level.
Middle managers:
In order for management to be considered successful, it must attain the goals and objectives of the organization. This requires creative problem solving in each of the four functions of management. More so, success requires that management be both effective and efficient. Therefore, it needs to not only accomplish those goals and objectives, but do it in a way that the cost of accomplishment is viable for the company.
The low level in management:
who work in the working environment between the workers and they are so close with the environment work so in my opinion and depending on my knowledge of the management function the low management level they have the huge part or controlling the work that’s why the Compaq company they put the control system with the low level management and this is the main secret with the Compaq Company success.
Recommendations:
In our opinion, Compaq computers is one of the best managed companies in the world for one very simple reason; the management had the wisdom to listen to their subordinates and "change their ways" so to speak before they lost their best assets, their employees. One of the keys to successful leadership and management is the ability to listen to and accept criticism and react to it accordingly.
That is to say that if the criticism is coming from a poor source that is just complaining or talking about how much better they could run things but has no credibility behind it, then notes it and move on. On the other hand however, if the criticism is coming from say, your number one salesman or your top engineer, you may want to take heed and adjust your way of thinking in the area they are criticizing. That is exactly what Michael Dell and Kevin Rollins did.
According to the background materials, the main four functions of management are considered to be: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. No where in those four functions of management does it say that managers have to be unyielding know it all’s that are too good to listen to suggestions. In fact, they pretty much all say that managers should be the exact opposite. The ability to do each and every job of every employee in the company is not necessarily expected of the companies' managers. Therefore, if the manager does not know how to do the job of a specific employee, then it is in that manager's best interest to listen to the suggestions of that employee in regards to that particular area of the business.
Conclusion:
In most organizations, the number of managers at each level is such that the hierarchy resembles a pyramid, with many more first-level managers, fewer middle managers, and the fewest managers at the top level. Each of these management levels is described below in terms of their possible job titles and their primary responsibilities and the paths taken to hold these positions.
Managers are organizational members who are responsible for the work performance of other organizational members. Managers have formal authority to use organizational resources and to make decisions. In organizations, there are typically three levels of management: top-level, middle-level, and first-level. These three main levels of managers form a hierarchy, in which they are ranked in order of importance.
Additionally, there are differences across the management levels as to what types of management tasks and management functions (planning, organizing, staffing, controlling, and directing) each does and the roles that they take in their jobs. Finally, there are a number of changes that are occurring in many organizations that are changing the management hierarchies in them, such as the increasing use of teams, the prevalence of outsourcing, and the flattening of organizational structures.
References:
Articles:
Hutchinson, S. and Purcell, J. (2003), Bringing Policies to Life: The Vital Role of Front-line Managers in People Management, CIPD, London.
Kraut, A.I., Pedigo, P.R., McKenna, D.D. and Dunnette, M.D. (2005), “The role of the manager: what’s really important in different management jobs”, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 122-9.
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Relations, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 294-307.
George, C.S. (1972), The History of Management Thought, Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead.
Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (1997), Research Methods for Managers, Paul Chapman Publishing,
London.
Hales, C. (2005), “Rooted in supervision, branching into management: continuity and change in the role of first line managers”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 42 No. 3, May, pp. 471-506.
Priestland, A. and Hanig, R. (2005), “Developing first-level leaders”, Harvard Business Review,
Vol. 83 No. 6, June, pp. 112-20.
Webster, F.E. Jr (1975), “Determining the characteristics of the socially conscious consumer”,
Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 188-96.
Yang, T.Z. (2009), “Dell have 13 year online direct sale experience, make mistakes in many counties, the brutal truth is Dell doesn’t use their brain”, Business Weekly, Vol. 1129, pp. 54-5.
Zehir, C. (2005), “The activation level of crises and the change of strategic targets of enterprisesin Turkey during the depression era”, Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 293-9.
Websites:
http://www.compaq.com/country/index.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Companies/profiles/compaq/
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=260777
http://hum.sagepub.com/search?fulltext=management%20skills&sortspec=date&submit=Submit&andorexactfulltext=phrase&src=selected&journal_set=sphum