Balancing Workplace Control

Workplace control systems are tools that are necessary to monitor, forecast, or diagnose performance and performance deviations.

There are many mechanisms that help detect operational performance issues.

On the other hand, control systems may seem to run an organization rather than the other way around. When this occurs, workplace culture can become negative and inefficient.

It is up to management and organization leaders to find the balance between control and maintaining a positive work environment.


Too much workplace control

Tension can arise throughout an organization when management maintains too much control over an organization’s plans and projects.

Mike Ridpath, of Evergreen Team Concepts, states that “employees can become dissatisfied when they are not allowed to express their opinion or use their creativity and experience to make decisions. They may begin to feel unappreciated.”

When a supervisor exercises too much control, power, and authority, employees may respond with resistance.

New managers may have difficulty adjusting, because they are trying to become comfortable in their position and they want to demonstrate to everyone that they are in charge.

Some inexperienced managers simply cannot handle the responsibility of instructing people and become intimidated when the people they are instructing are older or have been on the job longer. As a result, the manager wanting to appear “in control” may come off as overbearing, says Ridpath.  

Too much control can bring about a hostile work environment and negatively affect employee morale. Moreover, excessive control can result in decreased employee productivity.  

Neglecting workplace control

Yet, putting too much emphasis on workplace culture can also cause a different imbalance in the workplace.  

Companies want to create a good work environment for many reasons.  One reason is to avoid employee burnout.

However, if too much emphasis is placed on this aspect of the workplace, employee tasks may not get completed, and creative freedom may be focused on extracurricular activities that are not goal- oriented.

Prioritizing maintenance of a good work environment over control can result in an undisciplined, unmanageable workforce. In this instance, the workforce seems to dictate what happens operationally, says Ridpath.

Balance is important when creating a sustaining business in today’s marketplace. When organizational improvement falters, so does the business. With proper balance, a good workplace can become great.

Strategies for a healthy workplace balance

A healthy balance is important to an organization’s ability to achieve specific goals.

Control strategies and mechanisms must be in place to ensure that plans stay on track and sustain quality.

According to Ridpath there are three broad strategies for achieving organizational control:

1.Bureaucratic control covers how we use rules, regulations, and formal authority to guide employee performances. As we need to regulate behaviour and results, this includes such things as budgets, statistical reports, and performance appraisals.

2.Market control covers how we use pricing mechanisms to regulate activities in organizations. Profit and loss scenarios form the evaluating basis for managers.

3.Clan control covers areas in which an organization’s employees may share values, expectations and goals and thus act in accordance with them.

Management has to look at an organization’s nature and culture of its workforce, together with the organization’s objectives, in order to determine the best strategy to use.

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Posted by: suhujitha on 2009-07-22 14:22:38

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