Fundamentals of Management 7th Edition by Ricky Griffin

Exercise 17

Control Systems at State University
Purpose: This exercise offers you an opportunity to practice analyzing an organization's need for controls. You also will describe likely challenges to implementation and list ways to overcome resistance to control.
Introduction: The case below represents an organization with seriously deficient control systems, which is rather unrealistic. However, most organizations do suffer from one or more control efforts that are lacking or ineffective. In addition, implementing controls is usually more difficult than simply diagnosing the need for controls, especially when organization members resist the control.
Instructions:
Step 1: The instructor will divide the class into small groups. Read "The University Control Problem" short case here.
The University Control Problem
You are committee appointed by the State University Student Council to help the new president deal with a number of problems that have plagued the campus for years. For example, the university regularly runs out of funds before the academic year ends, causing major disruptions of student services. In fact, some departments seem to have no knowledge of how much money they need or how much they have spent. Students are upset because tuition fees are constantly being changed in an effort to match the university's varying demands for money. Department chairs have no idea how many students are being admitted, so they never schedule the appropriate number of courses. Some buildings are in bad physical shape. Classrooms are assigned to departments, and some classrooms seem to sit empty while others are overcrowded. There seems to be an oversupply of research equipment but a shortage of computer equipment for students. Some schools, such as the business school, don't have enough faculty to teach their classes, while some departments in liberal arts have surplus faculty with no students to teach.
Step 2: As a small group, reach consensus about how to
complete the University Control Matrix, shown here. Identify the different controls that might be established for each of the four resources-physical, financial, human, and information-and remember to consider each type of control. Preliminary controls focus on inputs into the university. Screening controls act upon the university's transformation processes. Postaction controls control the university's outputs.
Step 3: As a small group, develop responses to the Discussion Questions listed below. Discuss your responses with the class.
Will the controls receive some form of resistance? If so, describe which organization members are likely to resist and the likely form of that resistance.