Question

Asha was running a business of producing and selling pickles, murabbas and papad etc. She was earning a good profit for the last many years. Now, she wanted to add some new products in her product line. Seeing the growing demand of millets, she decided to add some millet products. After doing a lot of market research, she found out that the demand for millet noodles, pasta and ready to eat millet cereals was increasing day-by-day. To give a different taste and to have uniqueness in her products, she prepared a new tasty herb based sauce for cooking these products and decided to launch this along with millet products in the market. For this Asha hired 10 additional women workers specially trained for the same. However, despite adding more workers, to her surprise, production was not upto the mark. Concerned about this and to ensure that the activities were performed as per the plans, and that the resources were being used effectively and efficiently for the achievement of predetermined goals, Asha appointed a supervisor Nabita. Nabita monitored the activities and discovered that two of the newly hired workers were spending their whole day gossiping and distracting the other workers. As a result the production was low.

1. Identify and state the function of management discussed above.
2. State any five points of importance of the function identified in (i) above.

Answer 1

(i) The function identified in the given case is controlling.

(ii) Importance of controlling:

1. Helps in achieving organisational goals: Controlling ensures that performance meets established requirements by finding and addressing deviations. When actions follow a plan, organisational objectives can be easily met.
2. Improves efficiency: It minimises resource waste and makes the best use of labour, resources, and time.
3. Facilitates coordination: It links individual efforts with corporate goals, resulting in a smooth workflow. Predetermined standards apply to all employees and departments.
4. Ensures discipline and order: Controlling helps maintain discipline and reduce undesirable behaviours like fraud and corruption by monitoring employee behaviour (such as chatting in this case).
5. Judging accuracy of standards: Controlling helps in determining whether the standards or targets established are accurate or not.