Harbor City Children’s Center

                Management control refers to the process through which managers of the organization influences the performance and behavior of the employees (their subordinates) to implement the strategies developed by the top level management of the organization. In the Harbor City Children Center management can influence the performance and behavior of the employees in different ways as through bringing changes in the strategies, goals of the organizations, working styles, and human resources. Basically, the management control process has five major tasks in the Harbor City Children Center that are planning, staffing, organizing, controlling, and leading.

        In the case study of Harbor City Children Center, management control activities include developing plans for the employees as for how they will work in the organization or complete specific tasks to help out the organization achieve their goals and strategies developed by the top level management of the organization. As the business of the Harbor City Children Center is related to the service business rather than the manufacturing, therefore, the management control process is also based on the planning, leading and control of the service related activities. Management plans how the organization will increase the number of clients, and how the employees will make the clients satisfied and lead the employees to work according to these plans. According to the management control system, it is also the duty of the managers to maintain resources allocated by the organization. In Human resources, there are 6-10 volunteer staff and 22 paid employees working in the organization that represents the staffing process of management control.

        In accordance with the case study, Harbor City Children Center is used to manage the performance of the employees or department by measuring the average cost incurred in the department. In this method, the organization was used to first determine the direct cost incurred by the whole department and then add the indirect cost (overhead costs) including the cost of utilities, administration and building rent to get an estimation about the total cost incurred by a department. Thus further calculating the costs of each department and summing up all, an organization can get total cost incurred by the whole organization. Managing the cost and financial resources according to the new or previously formulated cost allocating strategy of the organization also includes in the management control process. In the management control process, management develops planning, led the employees and monitor their performance to calculate the cost in accordance to this cost allocation strategy.

Strategy Formulation of Harbor City Children’s Center

        Strategy formulation is an important job of the management in the organization because all the operations of the organizations revolve around the strategies of the organization. Therefore, management is required to formulate the best strategies for the company to make the organization enable to ensure success. Basically, strategy formulation refers to the process of deciding the organizational goals and strategies developed to attain goals. In the case of Harbor City Children, the goal of the organization was to run the operations in a successful manner. To accomplish this goal organization requires enough financial resources. Center management formulated strategies related to get that financial resources. According to the case study, Harbor City Children Center was getting financial aids and funds from the Federal Government that represents the previous resources funding strategy formulated by the organization, as it is the responsibility of the corporate level management of the organization to  develop a strategy regarding the financial resources of the organization as from where the organization will get financial resources; whether through selling shares, getting funds from society or government or through utilizing the owner’s capital. While now Harbor City Children Center is going to make changes in its funding strategy as Ms, Conaway is going to make the Harbor City Children Center self-sufficient.

Task Control of Harbor City Children’s Center

        Task control in the organizations refers to the process of assuring that whether all or the specific tasks are carried out efficiently and effectively. The methods used in the Harbor City Children’s Center to control the cost issues include the efforts to classify utility usage through measuring the usage with the help of meters and values. Task control process basically helps out the organization in getting the idea that whether their all activities are done in effectively regarding the use of financial resources. As activities should be done according to the financial budget made for that task or activity (Anthony 2007). We call the task efficient and effective if the activity or task is done according to the pre-determined budget or incurred cost of operations less than the pre-determined cost by the management. How many clients have left the organization because of dissatisfaction and cost measures presents the effectiveness of the tasks and operations. In measuring the financial efficiency organization can use its financial statements and book records.

            Harbor City Children’s Center is basically using different task control method for record keeping. Management allocates the records on the basis of records generated by each department. Through getting the idea about the cost incurred in each task and each department of the Harbor City Children’s Center management can get the better idea about the areas that are causing to increase cost and need improvement. According to the case study each department has different uses of electricity, telephones, spaces, and supplies, therefore, dividing the costs and expenses equally in all the department of the organization is not a fair deal. Such limitations present the inefficiency of the operations and tasks of cost allocation carried out by the accounts management of the organization. Task controls help out the managers to identify the areas of limitations that causes the task to be done in an in-effective manner to overcome these limitations. If task control presents that all the activities and tasks are done efficiently and effectively it means that organization is adopting appropriate management control systems and the strategies of the organization are formulated in the effective manner (Anthony 2007). In the case study, task control process presents that activities and tasks of the organization are not going to be done in an effective manner, therefore, Ms. Conaway have to formulate new strategy and management have to carry out new management control process to bring changes in the outcomes and performance.