Step 1: Read the Mini-Case Below
Control is one of the most controversial aspects of management.Exercising too much control can foster employee resentment andbureaucratic delays. Exercising too little control can raiseemployee stress and breed organizational chaos. And not only mustmanagers work to achieve a healthy level of control butthey must also strive to set controls around the righttargets. The control process is about more than charts andfeedback loops—it is about focusing personal and organizationalefforts toward desired outcomes. This exercise will allow you anopportunity to try your hand at developing a control system that istailored to a particular company and type of work.
Scenario: Razor’s Edge (RE) is a young andgrowing company that serves the needs of those who engage inextreme sports, adventure/exploration, and guiding services. Someexamples of RE’s core market include expert/professional mountainclimbers, white-water rafting guides, and polar explorers. Thefounders of RE are the husband and wife team of Dan and AliceConnors, world-famous mountain climbers and explorers. Dan andAlice have both reached the summit of Mount Everest and each iswell respected in the rather small and close-knit community ofadventurers and explorers. RE is an eclectic company of employeeswho, like Dan and Alice, share a passion for adventure and extremesports. The company not only designs and sells its own lines ofspecialized products such as mountain-climbing shoes and ropes butalso develops software designed to support expedition planning,communication and navigation, and simulation and scenario response(i.e., training tools for guides and newer expedition members).
For the first five years of its development, RE did not worrytoo much about organizational policies or controls. Employees wereencouraged to climb, trek, and guide, and attendance issues wereaddressed on a case-by-case basis. Although officially allemployees were given two weeks of paid vacation, many employeeswere allowed to take up to two months off at half-pay so that theycould complete an expedition. Sick days were jokingly referred toas “mountain flu†days, and it was not unusual for the smallcompany to be thinly staffed on Mondays and Fridays. But in thepast three years, RE has grown from 25 employees to 85. The companyis too big, and the jobs too diverse, for Dan and Alice to dealwith each employee request for “expedition time†away from work.And the “mountain flu†has occasionally weakened the company’sresponse to customers.
Dan and Alice have also become victims of their own success asthey attracted other climbers to join their company—most climberswant time off in the peak climbing seasons. But this also happensto be a peak time for RE orders and service requests. The companyhas organized all employees into teams and announced a contest.Each team should come up with an approach for controlling staffinglevels to meet or exceed customer expectations for responsiveness,while at the same time preserving RE’s tradition as a company ofactive adventurers and explorers. The company has announced thateach member of the employee team that develops the winning solutionwill receive $2,500 worth of RE gear of their choice.
Step 2: Determine staffing levels. You are a team of workers atRE. Design an approach to controlling daily staffing levels so thatRE is able to meet or exceed customer expectations forresponsiveness without sacrificing its own identity as a company ofadventurers and explorers. Keep in mind that RE is somewhat unusualin that even its accounting staff members (five full-timeemployees) are experienced adventurers and explorers and areexpected to answer customer questions and handle their serviceneeds.
You should consider the following elements:
- Paid vacation
- Expedition time
- Sick days and “mountain flu†(Monday/Friday absences)
- Dealing with peak times, and/or most desirable times forvacation or expedition
- Knowing whether customers are pleased with RE’s responsivenessto their needs
Step 3: Initial Post. 250+ Words: Submit a proposal tomanagement that highlights key controls to the the companyleadership team.  Your proposal should include examplesof all three types of controls (feedforward, concurrent, feedback)that could be applied to RE.  When you propose a controlmake sure in your post to identify it as a feedforward, concurrent,or feedback control.  You should review these three typesof control in Chapter 16 prior to completing this discussion.
