Implementing Control and Its Benefits
Implementing Control: Service Organisations
Control systems are more difficult to implement and maintain in service organisations than in manufacturing.
- Outputs are more difficult to measure.
- Quality ratings are less clear.
- Important to train and motivate employees properly.
Implementing Control: Government and Non-Profit
Government and non-profit organisations face further problems:
- Goals and objectives are less clear.
- Professionals are less receptive to control systems.
- Lack of profit measure makes measurement more difficult.
- Less pressure to improve from “owners”.
- Budgeting is more of a bargaining game than a planning tool.
- Different motivations and incentives.
Six Benefits of Organisational Control
- Controls make plans effective.
- Controls ensure steady organisational activities.
- Control makes organisations effective.
- Controls make organisations efficient.
- Controls provide feedback on project status.
- Controls aid in decision making.
Schools sit awkwardly in the world of control. They are service organisations with intangible outputs, often non-profit in spirit if not in legal form. The standard control tools were developed for manufacturing, where products are physical and quality is countable. Adapting control to schools requires acknowledging the difficulty and adjusting the approach.
Why control is hard in service organisations
Control systems are harder to implement and maintain in service organisations. Outputs are harder to measure, quality ratings are less clear, and the system depends heavily on the training and motivation of staff.
A factory makes cars. The output is countable: number of cars, defect rates, time per car. Quality has measurable definitions. Control is straightforward in principle.
A school produces learning, character development, and life preparation. The outputs are not as countable. A child who learns to think critically is a different kind of “output” from a car coming off the line.
Three specific challenges in school control:
Outputs are hard to measure
Test scores are one measurable output, but they capture a small part of what schools produce. A child’s growth in confidence, curiosity, and judgement is real but hard to quantify.
A school that controls only on test scores misses much of what it is supposed to produce. A school that admits the difficulty and uses multiple measures (test scores, project work, behaviour, alumni outcomes, parent satisfaction) gets closer to a real picture.
Quality ratings are less clear
What is a “good” teacher? Multiple opinions, multiple frameworks, no single answer. A school head trying to control teaching quality faces this ambiguity daily.
The mitigation is to make quality definitions explicit, even if imperfect. A school that defines what good teaching looks like, however roughly, can move staff toward that definition. A school with no shared definition cannot.
Staff must be trained and motivated
In manufacturing, control can rely partly on the equipment. The machine produces consistent output. In schools, control depends entirely on the people. A poorly trained teacher cannot be controlled into good teaching; she must be developed.
The implication: in schools, control and development are linked. Control reveals what needs developing; development changes what is being controlled. The two cannot be separated.
Why control is harder still in non-profit and government
Non-profit and government organisations face additional challenges that apply to many schools, especially government schools and trust schools.
Goals and objectives are less clear
A business has a clear goal: profit. A school has many: academic outcomes, character development, social mobility, community service, financial sustainability, regulatory compliance. Conflicts among these are common.
A school head should explicitly name the priority among competing goals when conflicts arise. Without explicit prioritisation, decisions become arbitrary and control becomes inconsistent.
Professionals are less receptive to control
Teachers, like doctors and lawyers, see themselves as professionals. They resist control systems that feel like factory inspection.
The fix is not to abandon control. It is to frame control as support rather than inspection. A lesson observation can be a quality check or a coaching conversation. The same activity, framed differently, gets very different reception.
Lack of profit measure
Profit is a simple aggregate measure. Without it, organisations have to track many indicators. School heads dealing with multiple measures have a harder job than business managers tracking a single bottom line.
Less pressure to improve from owners
A business that does not improve loses money and loses its owners’ patience. A school, especially a government school, may not face the same pressure. The board may be content with adequate performance. The lack of pressure can lead to drift.
A school head who is internally driven to improve does not need external pressure. A school head who needs external pressure to act will be slow.
Budgeting as bargaining
In non-profits, budgeting tends to become a bargaining game for additional funding rather than a planning tool. Each department fights for its share. The connection to actual results is weak.
The fix is to insist on linking budget to outcomes. Each budget line should connect to a planned outcome. Without the link, budgeting becomes a power game.
Different motivations
Staff in schools are often motivated by mission rather than money. This is a strength: mission-driven staff produce work that money cannot buy. It is also a complication for control: standard incentives may not move them, and standard penalties may push them away.
A school head should design her control system with mission in mind. Recognition of mission-aligned work matters more than financial reward for many teachers.
The six benefits
Despite the difficulties, control is essential. Six specific benefits make the work worthwhile.
1. Controls make plans effective
A plan without control is wishful. The control system is what makes the plan real over time, letting managers measure progress, offer feedback, and direct their teams to succeed.
2. Controls ensure steady organisational activities
Control keeps the work coordinated through policies and procedures. Without it, the parts of the school drift apart.
3. Control makes organisations effective
Without control, the school may be busy without being effective. The activities happen; the outcomes do not.
4. Controls make organisations efficient
Control eliminates waste. The school doing the right work in the right amount uses its resources well. Control is one of the most direct ways a school cuts wasted effort and steers resources toward the right work.
5. Controls provide feedback on project status
Control gives people information. Feedback influences behaviour: staff who know how they are doing adjust their work; staff who do not know cannot.
6. Controls aid in decision making
Decisions made without information are guesses. The ultimate purpose of control is to help managers make better decisions.
A scenario quiz tests how a school head should respond to that resistance.
A practical control system for a school
Bringing it together, a working school control system has:
- Clear standards for the small number of things that really matter (academic outcomes, teaching quality, financial health, parent engagement, ethical climate).
- Multiple measures for each standard, since no single measure captures the whole picture.
- Feed-forward checks before terms and major initiatives.
- Concurrent monitoring during the work: lesson observations, mid-term assessments, regular parent feedback.
- Feedback review at term and year ends.
- Corrective action with three options: continue, correct, or revise the standard.
- Linking to development. Control reveals gaps; development fills them.
A school head who has built such a system runs a learning school. A school head without one runs a school that hopes for the best.
Schools are service organisations with intangible outputs.
- Learning and character are hard to measure.
- Quality definitions are contested.
- Control depends on people, not equipment.
- Mission-driven staff resist inspection-style control.
These two cards pair the challenge of school control with the payoff. A useful pair to review before an exam.
Plans effective, school efficient, aids decision making.
It keeps the school’s work integrated, gives staff feedback they can act on, and turns guesses into informed choices.
How was this article?