Sandwich Blitz

The Sandwich Blitz

By: Andrea Peña

Control is one of the fundamental forces that keep the organization together and heading in the right direction (Bateman, 2013). It is essential for every organization to have a control system in order for it to be successful. There are four major steps in a control system, which are: setting performance standards, measuring performance, comparing performance against standards and determining deviations, and taking actions to correct problems and reinforce success (Bateman, 2013). Dalman and Lei needed to apply bureaucratic control, which is the use of rules, regulations, and authority to guide performance (Bateman, 2013). In not doing so Lei has recently figured out that a supervisor was allowing an employee to report hours he has not worked, and worse of the company’s entire handbook had not covered that practice.  Once Lei reviewed the handbook she also realized that the handbook was not updated and that many of the duties they expected al the employees to do were not addressed in the handbook. To solve the problem in hand, Lei needs to implement the four steps of the control system.

The first step of the control system is setting performance standards, this means that Lei needs to update the employees handbook with what she expects all employees to perform. The reason why the employee and supervisor felt freely to commit an infraction was because there were no standards on the handbook that prohibited this sort of actions. However, I do believe that it is common sense that if your report hours that you have not worked you are stealing, although some people need the extra reinforcement, so it is better to have everything in writing.

The second step of the control system is measuring performance. To measure the performance of their employees Dalman and Lei need to review all reports submitted by the managers and check if anyone else stole hours. It is important for them to constantly check written or oral reports so that it doesn’t happen again. If I were Dalman or Lei I would require every local manager to hand over a written report and time sheets of their employees weekly to keep them on their toes.

The third step of the control system is comparing performance against standards and determining deviations. This means Dalman and Lei need to compare the performance they are currently receiving from their employees with past performance to see if there are any deviations that needs to be corrected. If there are deviations then they need to fix them now when they are small so that they wont become harder to fix in the future. Dalman and Lei must also see what they expect of their employees on the future once the handbook is updated, so that they can compare the current performance they have with a future one. In doing this, Dalman and Lei will keep track of the employees performance and avoid any deviation from appearing.

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