Control By What?

So, are you in charge? Is everything under control?

If you are in a position where you are leading a team, it is highly possible that you would be asked, or you would be asking yourself, frequently different forms of these questions?

I find the word “control” interesting. What does it mean in the context of a team? How does one “control” the behaviour of others?

Or is “control” the wrong word to use? Can you really control the behaviour of others? Or is it about inviting them to co-opt in finding and treading a common path?

What are the options a team manager/leader has?

Control can be exercised on the:

• Output an individual is expected to deliver and the time by which the output would be delivered – “This is what I want by End of Day/Week/Month.”
• Process s/he would follow in reaching at the output. – “These are the steps you would follow in reaching the outcome.”
• Input s/he would be given.

What control we apply would depend on the nature of the task and to an extent, the person we are working with. E.g. – controlling by process might not be effective for Knowledge Workers.

At the same time we also see, albeit not in some industries, “minimum time one devotes at work everyday” being exercised as a means of control? Leave rules (and not just yearly leave limits) are another manifestation of this behaviour.

Why this focus on time based control?

Time studies work in cases of manual work – where there are a set of activities which need to be completed in a particular way and order. You figure out the steps and focus on crashing the time for each step so that the total time for the entire process comes down. This would lead to productivity improvements.

Time based control mechanism would have led to the focus on “minimum time a workman needs to spend at work to get his job done”. I have a feeling that the practice of production shifts and overtime on manufacturing shop floors might have emerged through negotiations between workmen and employers on time at work- “If what you want from me is x minimum time on the job, I would want to negotiate to make that the standard and it would cost you a premium to make me work beyond that.”

But does this time based control focus works in case of knowledge workers? The mental process knowledge workers use to come out with their solutions are non-linear and are not time based. Hence time based studies are of limited use, if not useless, in case of knowledge workers.

What would the existence of time based presence rules imply for knowledge workers? Do such rules support or impede their work?

I am not sure whether there are studies on the impact of time based controls on the effectiveness/productivity of knowledge workers but I would be interested in knowing the results of any such study.

There are a few possible responses:

• I don’t enjoy this time based limitation but I work inspite of it because probably the work gives me satisfaction/the work I am doing helps my career.
• “If you use time as a limitation, you would get time as a limitation in response.” Office timings would be followed. Divisions between office and non-office hours would be maintained. Weekends would be sacrosanct and would be meant solely for the family.

In an atmosphere like this, discretion may show up but I wonder whether it would show up because one feels engaged to the organization or inspite of it?

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Sourav