Management control is not about keeping people on a tight leash! Rather control refers to the measures that
management puts in place to monitor how well an organization is doing against goals that were developed as
part of the planning process. A popular measurement tool is the balanced scorecard. This was developed by
Kaplan and Norton as a means of monitoring performance using a holistic set of measures rather than the
more historical short term focus on just financial performance and profits (albeit those are important). The
balanced scorecard is discussed on pages 363 -364 of the course textbook. It’s important to remember that all
measures are not just used to monitor how the organization is performing but also as a starting point for future
plans.
Adapt a typical balanced scorecard to measure your current skills in the four functions of management:
Planning, Organizing, Leading and Control as the key areas in which you need to excel to be an effective
manager.
Identify the core skills and your objectives for each function and where you would currently assess your own
performance in each of them.