St. Raphael Medical Center just opened its new Performance Improvement Department. Ms. Valencia is appointed as the Quality Control Officer. She commits herself to her new role and plans her strategies to realize the goals and objectives of the department. Which of the following is a primary task that they should perform to have an effective control system?
A. Make an interpretation about strengths and weaknesses.
B. Identify the values of the department.
C. Identify structure, process, outcome standards & criteria.
D. Measure actual performances.
Correct Answer: B. Identify the values of the department
Identify the values of the department will set the guiding principles within which the department will operate its activities. Some control techniques, such as those involving standard hours and costs, budgets, and various financial ratios, have general application in various situations.
Option A: Control techniques should reflect the plans they are designed to follow. Managers need the information that will tell them how the plans for which they are responsible are progressing. An effective control system will disclose where failures are occurring and who is/are responsible for the failures and it will ensure that some corrective action is taken.
Option C: Control systems and information are, of course, intended to help individual managers carry out their function of control. An effective control system must fit in with the organizational culture. If employees have been managed without allowing them any participation in decision-making, the sudden introduction of a permissive control system will hardly succeed.
Option D: As far as possible the information provided by the control system should be objective. If on the other hand, controls are subjective, a manager’s or an executive’s personality may influence judgments of performance and make them less accurate. Thus, the control system should ideally provide objective information to the manager for evaluation and action.