Page 369 - Operations Strategy

344 The proCess oF operaTIons sTraTegy – monITorIng and ConTrol

Figure 10.3 monitoring and control types

Yes Are objectives No Negotiated Needs ‘political’
unambiguous? control skills

Yes Is process No Is activity No Intuitive Needs decision
knowledge repetitive? control skills
complete?

Yes

Trial-and-error Needs knowledge-
control building skills

No
Is activity Expert Needs networking
repetitive? control skills

Yes
Routine Needs
control systematisation skills
Source: Based on Hofstede, G. (1981) ‘Management control of public and not-for-profit activities’, Accounting,
Organisations and Society, 6 (3), pp. 193–211.

experts exist and can be ‘acquired’ by the firm. It also requires that the expert takes
advantage of the control knowledge already present in the firm and integrates his or
her ‘expert’ knowledge with the support that potentially exists internally. Both of these
place a stress on the need to ‘network’, both in terms of acquiring expertise and then
integrating that expertise into the organisation.

Trial-and-error control
If strategic objectives are relatively unambiguous but effects of interventions not
known, while, however, the activity is repetitive, the organisation can gain knowledge
of how to control successfully through its own failures. In other words, although sim-
ple prescriptions may not be available in the early stages of making control interven-
tions, the organisation can learn how to do it through experience. It is the cause–effect
‘knowledge gap’ that defines this type of control that must become the target of the

M10 Operations Strategy 62492.indd 344 02/03/2017 13:28