# data[].attributes.body
Top Middle and Lower Management

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Management in Organizations: Top, Middle & Low Level Managers

# data[].attributes.body
Founder of the modern Management theory. I found it fascinating that one man basically change the way that we viewed management and how it should work.

# data[].attributes.body
Here's an article on Ethics in the corporate world that i found to be very interesting

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Business Ethics: Definition, Principles, Why They’re Important

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Business ethics is the implementation of policies and procedures regarding topics such as fraud, bribery, discrimination, and corporate governance.

# data[].attributes.body
Motivational speakers are my thing and the way he broke down this term from module 2 gave me chills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Philanthropy from a poor person's perspective | Destin Bundu | TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet

# data[].attributes.body
the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

# data[].attributes.headline
Module 3: Cultural Differences and Global Business

# data[].attributes.subject
Module 3: Cultural Differences and Global Business

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Unusual Business Etiquettes Around the World that Might Surprise You

# data[].attributes.headline
Module 4: Planning Long term and Short Term

# data[].attributes.subject
Module 4: Planning Long term and Short Term

# data[].attributes.body
A long-term plan is crucial to the ultimate success of the organization

Short-term plans generally allocate resources for a year or less. They may also be referred to as operational plans because they are concerned with daily activities and standard business operations.

# data[].attributes.headline
Module 4: Decision Making- Devil's Advocacy

# data[].attributes.subject
Module 4: Decision Making- Devil's Advocacy

# data[].attributes.body
This article i found on linked in really opened my eyes for this module.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Musings of a Veteran by Vikram Karve
I am sure you have heard the term "Devil's Advocate".

The term "Devil's Advocate" refers to a person who puts forth an unpopular opinion - expresses a contrarian view - or disputes an idea - just for the sake of argument.

I heard the term "Devil's Advocate" around 43 years ago in the 1970's during my first sea appointment.

During the customary monthly meeting with officers in the wardroom - while discussing a point - the Captain looked at me and said: "Well - what does my "Devil's Advocate" have to say...?"

This was the first time I had heard the term "Devil's Advocate".

Those days I was an argumentative officer - a maverick - and I did not hesitate to speak my mind - irrespective of who was standing in front of me.

Sometimes - on professional and ethical issues - I would have heated arguments with my Captain too - and this made my Head of Department jittery - since he feared this would affect his ACR as I was in his department.

My Head of Department had warned me to keep my mouth shut during the monthly meeting - since he knew my strong views on the contentious issue that was on the agenda and was going to be discussed during the meeting.

Normally - I would be quite vociferous at such meetings - so - maybe - the Captain was curious as to why I was strangely silent.

I candidly told the Captain that my Boss had warned me to keep my mouth shut.

The Captain smiled and said: "Come on - speak up - don't worry about your boss - you just frankly tell me what you feel..."

"Sir - I don't agree with what you have said - I have a contrarian opinion..." I said.

"That's good..." the Captain said, "you are supposed to disagree with me - after all - you are my "Devil's Advocate"..."
(Dear Reader - I don't want to digress from the topic - so - I will tell you the story of what happened in a subsequent "humor in uniform" blog post)
The Captain had called me "Devil's Advocate" - and - having heard the term for the first time - I wanted to know what "Devil's Advocate" meant - was it a compliment - or something adverse.

Those days - there was no internet - so you couldn't "google" the term - so - I went to the ship's library and pulled out the encyclopedia.

The term "Devil's advocate" was brought into English in the 18th century from the Medieval Latin expression "advocatus diaboli" - an old position in the Catholic Church.

There was a theologian known as the "Promotor Fidei" - or "promoter of the faith" - he had a tough job.

Whenever someone was nominated for canonization (sainthood) - the "Promotor Fidei" had to argue for all the reasons the person didn't pass muster.

You could think of him as the official church sceptic - the doubter - the cynic.

The "Promotor Fedei" was expected to draw up a list of arguments against the nominee becoming canonized.

His job was to look critically at the candidate's life and work - and put forth every possible disqualifying shortcoming - no matter how slight.

Because the role of the "Promotor Fidei" was to argue against others in the church - he became known as the " advocatus diabolic" - the "Devil's Advocate".

The Devil's Advocate opposed God's Advocate ( advocatus Dei) - also known as the Promoter of the Cause) - whose task was to make the argument in favour of canonization.

"Promoter of the Cause" - God's Advocate ( advocatus Dei) - he made arguments in favour of the candidate for canonization.

"Promoter of the Faith" - Devil's Advocate ( advocatus diaboli) - he made arguments against the canonization of the candidate.

The term shifted into popular usage - and soon - anyone who was arguing an unpopular point - or just being contrarian - he was said to be "playing the devil's advocate."

Figuratively -a "devil's advocate" is a person who takes a contrary position for the sake of testing an argument.

Good Leaders surround themselves with men of integrity who will tell them the hard truth (even if it unpalatable) - not with a coterie of sycophants who isolate the leader from reality and say sweet things that the leader wants to hear.

In the Military - some senior officers do use this strategy of having a "Devil's Advocate" in order to ensure that they aren't led up the garden path by sycophants.
(Like the Story of the Captain I mentioned in the beginning of this article)
Some confident leaders avoid the pitfalls and temptations of absolute power by surrounding themselves with other confident, independent people, and encourage dissension and debate on every decision.

In his autobiography "A Soldier's Story" - General ON Bradley has exemplified this aspect in the decision-making style of General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army in World War II, a dominant leader who was instrumental in the Allied Victory owing to his resolute management of the entire war effort.

After one week in office - General Marshall called all his staff officers to his office and admonished them:
"Gentlemen - I am disappointed in you. You haven't yet disagreed with a single decision I have made. When you carry a paper in here - I want you to give me every reason you can think of as to why I should not approve it. If - in spite of your objections - my decision is still to go ahead - then I'll know I am right."
General Marshall wanted to hear differing and contrarian views before taking a decision - so he encouraged "devil's advocacy" among his staff officers.

Like General Marshall - who did not encourage cronyism and "groupthink" - and - rather than search for views that might reinforce his own - a good leader seeks contrary opinions by encouraging "devil's advocacy" to avoid Groupthink.

It is best to adopt the Devil's Advocate methodology for all major decisions - by assigning some individuals in all groups and teams - to argue against the dominant view.

In Politics too - a leader must have a "Devil's Advocate" in his decision-making circle - as this will help the leader in taking balanced decisions after considering contrarian opinions.

By observing the interactions of subordinates, staff and "advisors" with the leader - you can easily make out whether they are "Devil's Advocates" or "Sycophants".

During my Navy Days - I observed that Confident Officers fostered "Devil's Advocacy" - whereas Insecure Officers encouraged sycophancy.
EPILOGUE
I wonder if Military Promotion Boards have a "Devil's Advocate" who argues against the opinion of the rest of the board - bringing out reasons why each "selected" candidate should be rejected - and why each "rejected" candidate should be selected....?

Also - in Politics - do Cabinets/Committees/Ministries have "Devil's Advocates" who argue against the dominant view - so that well-thought-out decisions are taken after considering all aspects and pros and cons....?
VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve

1. If you share this post, please give due credit to the author Vikram Karve

2. Please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Please DO NOT Cut/Copy/Paste this post
© vikram karve., all rights reserved. Disclaimer:

1. This story is a fictional spoof, satire, pure fiction, just for fun and humor, no offence is meant to anyone, so take it with a pinch of salt and have a laugh.

2. All Stories in this Blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright Notice:
No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Vikram Karve who holds the copyright.
Copyright © Vikram Karve (all rights reserved)
Link to my original post in my Blog Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve: http://karvediat.blogspot.com/2020/06/devils-advocate.html

This article is also posted in my writing blog at url: https://karve.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/the-devils-advocate/
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The "Devil's Advocate" in Decision-Making

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
DEVIL'S ADVOCATE Musings of a Veteran by Vikram Karve I am sure you have heard the term "Devil's Advocate". The term "Devil's Advocate" refers to a person who puts forth an unpopular opinion - expresses a contrarian view - or disputes an idea - just for the sake of argument.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the main jobs of HR is recruitment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
01 Job Opening - Recruitment | HR Module | ERPNext

# data[].attributes.body
Leadership is defined as the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Leadership is needed to keep order in an organization as well as in personal situations.

# data[].attributes.body
Reading this module got me thinking about my motivation and how i am a leader. My daughter is my biggest motivation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learning Objectives

1. Know the difference between strategic and operational controls.

2. Understand the different types of controls.

3. Be able to differentiate between financial and nonfinancial controls.

Figure 15.4

Controls allow you to align the pieces with the big picture.

Recognizing that organizational controls can be categorized in many ways, it is helpful at this point to distinguish between two sets of controls: (1) strategic controls and (2) management controls, sometimes called operating controls (Harrison & St. John, 2002).

Two Levels of Control: Strategic and Operational

Imagine that you are the captain of a ship. The strategic controls make sure that your ship is going in the right direction; management and operating controls make sure that the ship is in good condition before, during, and after the voyage. With that analogy in mind, strategic control is concerned with tracking the strategy as it is being implemented, detecting any problem areas or potential problem areas suggesting that the strategy is incorrect, and making any necessary adjustments (Venkataraman & Saravathy, 2001). Strategic controls allow you to step back and look at the big picture and make sure all the pieces of the picture are correctly aligned.

Ordinarily, a significant time span occurs between initial implementation of a strategy and achievement of its intended results. For instance, if you wanted to captain your ship from San Diego to Seattle you might need a crew, supplies, fuel, and so on. You might also need to wait until the weather lets you make the trip safely! Similarly, in larger organizations, during the time you are putting the strategy into place, numerous projects are undertaken, investments are made, and actions are undertaken to implement the new strategy. Meanwhile, the environmental situation and the firm's internal situation are developing and evolving. The economy could be booming or perhaps falling into recession. Strategic controls are necessary to steer the firm through these events. They must provide some means of correcting direction on the basis of intermediate performance and new information.

Operational control , in contrast to strategic control, is concerned with executing the strategy. Where operational controls are imposed, they function within the framework established by the strategy. Normally these goals, objectives, and standards are established for major subsystems within the organization, such as business units, projects, products, functions, and responsibility centers (Mattews, 1999). Typical operational control measures include return on investment, net profit, cost, and product quality. These control measures are essentially summations of finer-grained control measures. Corrective action based on operating controls may have implications for strategic controls when they involve changes in the strategy.

Types of Control

It is also valuable to understand that, within the strategic and operational levels of control, there are several types of control. The first two types can be mapped across two dimensions: level of proactivity and outcome versus behavioral. The following table summarizes these along with examples of what such controls might look like.

Proactivity

Proactivity can be defined as the monitoring of problems in a way that provides their timely prevention, rather than after the fact reaction. In management, this is known as feedforward control ; it addresses what can we do ahead of time to help our plan succeed. The essence of feedforward control is to see the problems coming in time to do something about them. For instance, feedforward controls include preventive maintenance on machinery and equipment and due diligence on investments.

Table 15.1 Types and Examples of Control

Control Proactivity

Behavioral control

Outcome control

Feedforward control

Organizational culture

Market demand or economic forecasts

Concurrent control

Hands-on management supervision during a project

The real-time speed of a production line

Feedback control

Qualitative measures of customer satisfaction

Financial measures such as profitability, sales growth

Concurrent Controls

The process of monitoring and adjusting ongoing activities and processes is known as concurrent control . Such controls are not necessarily proactive, but they can prevent problems from becoming worse. For this reason, we often describe concurrent control as real-time control because it deals with the present. An example of concurrent control might be adjusting the water temperature of the water while taking a shower.

Feedback Controls

Finally, feedback controls involve gathering information about a completed activity, evaluating that information, and taking steps to improve the similar activities in the future. This is the least proactive of controls and is generally a basis for reactions. Feedback controls permit managers to use information on past performance to bring future performance in line with planned objectives.

Control as a Feedback Loop

In this latter sense, all these types of control function as a feedback mechanism to help leaders and managers make adjustments in the strategy, as perhaps is reflected by changes in the planning, organizing, and leading components. This feedback loop is characterized in the following figure.

Figure 15.5 Controls as Part of a Feedback Loop

Why might it be helpful for you to think of controls as part of a feedback loop in the P-O-L-C process? Well, if you are the entrepreneur who is writing the business plan for a completely new business, then you would likely start with the planning component and work your way to controlling-that is, spell out how you are going to tell whether the new venture is on track. However, more often, you will be stepping into an organization that is already operating, and this means that a plan is already in place. With the plan in place, it may be then up to you to figure out the organizing, leading, or control challenges facing the organization.

Outcome and Behavioral Controls

Controls also differ depending on what is monitored, outcomes or behaviors. Outcome controls are generally preferable when just one or two performance measures (say, return on investment or return on assets) are good gauges of a business's health. Outcome controls are effective when there's little external interference between managerial decision making on the one hand and business performance on the other. It also helps if little or no coordination with other business units exists.

Behavioral controls involve the direct evaluation of managerial and employee decision making, not of the results of managerial decisions. Behavioral controls tie rewards to a broader range of criteria, such as those identified in the Balanced Scorecard. Behavioral controls and commensurate rewards are typically more appropriate when there are many external and internal factors that can affect the relationship between a manager's decisions and organizational performance. They're also appropriate when managers must coordinate resources and capabilities across different business units.

Financial and Nonfinancial Controls

Finally, across the different types of controls in terms of level of proactivity and outcome versus behavioral, it is important to recognize that controls can take on one of two predominant forms: financial and nonfinancial controls. Financial control involves the management of a firm's costs and expenses to control them in relation to budgeted amounts. Thus, management determines which aspects of its financial condition, such as assets, sales, or profitability, are most important, tries to forecast them through budgets, and then compares actual performance to budgeted performance. At a strategic level, total sales and indicators of profitability would be relevant strategic controls.

Without effective financial controls, the firm's performance can deteriorate. PSINet, for example, grew rapidly into a global network providing Internet services to 100,000 business accounts in 27 countries. However, expensive debt instruments such as junk bonds were used to fuel the firm's rapid expansion. According to a member of the firm's board of directors, PSINet spent most of its borrowed money "without the financial controls that should have been in place (Woolley, 2001)." With a capital structure unable to support its rapidly growing and financially uncontrolled operations, PSINet and 24 of its U.S. subsidiaries eventually filed for bankruptcy (PSINet, 2001). While we often think of financial controls as a form of outcome control, they can also be used as a behavioral control. For instance, if managers must request approval for expenditures over a budgeted amount, then the financial control also provides a behavioral control mechanism as well.

Increasing numbers of organizations have been measuring customer loyalty, referrals, employee satisfaction, and other such performance areas that are not financial. In contrast to financial controls, nonfinancial controls track aspects of the organization that aren't immediately financial in nature but are expected to lead to positive performance outcomes. The theory behind such nonfinancial controls is that they should provide managers with a glimpse of the organization's progress well before financial outcomes can be measured (Ittner & Larcker, 2003). And this theory does have some practical support. For instance, GE has found that highly satisfied customers are the best predictor of future sales in many of its businesses, so it regularly tracks customer satisfaction.

Key Takeaway

Organizational controls can take many forms. Strategic controls help managers know whether a chosen strategy is working, while operating controls contribute to successful execution of the current strategy. Within these types of strategy, controls can vary in terms of proactivity, where feedback controls were the least proactive. Outcome controls are judged by the result of the organization's activities, while behavioral controls involve monitoring how the organization's members behave on a daily basis. Financial controls are executed by monitoring costs and expenditure in relation to the organization's budget, and nonfinancial controls complement financial controls by monitoring intangibles like customer satisfaction and employee morale.

Exercises

1. What is the difference between strategic and operating controls? What level of management would be most concerned with operating controls?

2. If feedforward controls are the most proactive, then why do organizations need or use feedback controls?

3. What is the difference between behavioral and outcome controls?

4. What is the difference between nonfinancial and financial controls? Is a financial control a behavioral or an outcome control?

References

Harrison, J. S., & St. John, C. H. (2002). Foundations in Strategic Management (2nd ed., 118-129). Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College.

Ittner, C., & Larcker, D. F. (2003, November). Coming up short on nonfinancial performance measurement. Harvard Business Review, 2-8.

Matthews, J. (1999). Strategic moves. Supply Management, 4(4), 36-37.

PSINet, retrieved January 30, 2009, from PSINet announces NASDAQ delisting. (2001, June 1). http://www.psinet.com.

Venkataraman, S., & Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Strategy and entrepreneurship: Outlines of an untold story. In M. A. Hitt, R. E. Freeman, & J. S. Harrison (Eds.), Handbook of strategic management (650-668). Oxford: Blackwell.

Woolley, S. (2001, May). Digital hubris. Forbes, 66-70.

This is a derivative of Principles of Management by a publisher who has requested that they and the original authors not receive attribution, originally released and is used under CC BY-NC-SA. This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Know the difference between strategic and operational controls. Understand the different types of controls. Be able to differentiate between financial and nonfinancial controls. Figure 15.4 Controls allow you to align the pieces with the big picture.