Lessons to Management from the Control Loop Phenomenon

Authors: Raied Salman, Nazar Younis

Abstract:

In a none-super-competitive environment the concepts of closed system, management control remains to be the dominant guiding concept to management. The merits of closed loop have been the sources of most of the management literature and culture for many decades. It is a useful exercise to investigate and poke into the dynamics of the control loop phenomenon and draws some lessons to use for refining the practice of management. This paper examines the multitude of lessons abstracted from the behavior of the Input /output /feedback control loop model, which is the core of control theory. There are numerous lessons that can be learned from the insights this model would provide and how it parallels the management dynamics of the organization. It is assumed that an organization is basically a living system that interacts with the internal and external variables. A viable control loop is the one that reacts to the variation in the environment and provide or exert a corrective action. In managing organizations this is reflected in organizational structure and management control practices. This paper will report findings that were a result of examining several abstract scenarios that are exhibited in the design, operation, and dynamics of the control loop and how they are projected on the functioning of the organization. Valuable lessons are drawn in trying to find parallels and new paradigms, and how the control theory science is reflected in the design of the organizational structure and management practices. The paper is structured in a logical and perceptive format. Further research is needed to extend these findings.

Keywords: Management theory, control theory, feed back, input/output, strategy, change, information technology, informationsystems, IS, organizational environment, organizations, opensystems, closed systems.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1070655

References:

[1] Ashby, W.R., An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman and Hall, London, 1956.
[2] Baker, F., Organizational Systems: General Systems Approaches to Complex Organizations, Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1973.
[3] Bennis, W., "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future," in H.Leavitt, L. Pinfield & E. Webb (Eds.), Organizations of the Future: Interaction with the External Environment, Praeger, New York, 1974.
[4] Hall, R.H., Organizations: Structure and Process, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1977.
[5] Huber, G.P., "The Nature of Organization Decision Making and the Design of Decision Support Systems," MIS Quarterly, (June 1981).
[6] Katz, D. & Kahn, R.L., The Social Psychology of Organizations, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1966.
[7] Kotter, J., "Managing External Dependence," Academy of Management Review, 3 (1979), 87-92.
[8] Leavitt, H.J. & Whisler, T.L., "Management in the 1990s," Harvard Business Review, (November-December 1958), 41-48.
[9] Malone, T.W. & Crowston, K., "Toward an Interdisciplinary Theory of Coordination," Technical Report 120, Center for Coordination Science, MIT, 1991.
[10] Malone, T.W. & Smith, S.A., "Tradeoffs in Designing Organizations: Implications for New Forms of Human Organizations and Computer Systems," Working Paper 112, Center for Information Systems Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 1984.
[11] Mintzberg, H., The Structuring of Organizations, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979.
[12] Ramstrom, D.O., "Toward the Information-Saturated Society," in H.Leavitt, L. Pinfield & E. Webb (Eds.), Organizations of the Future: Interaction with the External Environment, Praeger, New York, 1974, 159- 75.
[13] Samuel C. Certo Modern Management (9th Edition), Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN: 0130670898.
[14] Sharlett Gillard and Jane Johansen, "Project management communication: a systems approach", Journal of Information Science, 30 (1) 2004, pp. 23-29.
[15] Simon, H.A., "The Architecture of Complexity," in The Sciences of the Artificial, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1968, 84- 118.
[16] Terreberry, S., "The Evolution of Organizational Environments," Administrative Science Quarterly, 12 (1968), 590- 613.
[17] The MathWorks products MATLAB®. Tom Peters, "Liberation Management", Ballantine book 1992.