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Jerry Sikes,
RRP / CHA, is President of Professional Resort Operators, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona. He has 35 years in the Hospitality
Industry / 25 years in Timesharing, and is the current Co-Chairman of ARDA Arizona as well as Chairman of the Arizona
Timeshare Management Association. Jerry is a frequent guest speaker regionally and nationally on all aspects of
Timeshare Management and a frequent contributor of articles for industry publications. Email: boyjerry@cox.net
Phone 480-947-3300 Fax 480-947-6853
--by Jerry Sikes, RRP - CHA
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist
expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."
- William Arthur Ward -
One of the seven basic management functions is controlling. Classical theorists have conceptualized that the management
process is a circle starting with planning (what is to be done), followed by organizing and coordinating (how it
is to be done). These are then followed by staffing and directing (let's do it), and the circle is completed by
evaluating and controlling (what has been accomplished). They indicate that control is management's review and
evaluation of itself, its plans and operations, and how well its staff is performing. Information gleaned from
the review is used to revise the plan, restructure the organization, or redirect the staff. That for management,
control closes the circle only to introduce the whole process once again, modified by the knowledge and experience
gained on the first go around.
It is my contention that these theorists have discarded the basic control factors and have overemphasized the
control adjustment factor which follows the review and evaluation process. The review and evaluation process is,
by its very nature, looking at data after the fact. Control and/or adjustments after the fact will have on effect
of something which has already occurred, they will only effect future occurrences.
Many years ago, as the General Manager of a hotel in Clayton Missouri, I had an owner who established a policy
that he must sign all checks to pay for operational expenses. Considering that this activity was a colossal waste
of his time, I asked why he had such a policy and he replied that it was the only way he would know what was going
on. I then asked what he would do when presented with a check for the payment of goods and/or services which he
disagreed with. To this he responded that he would not sign the check until he received a satisfactory explanation
as to why such an expense had occurred.
Being somewhat naive, I then asked why a vendor who had provided goods and/or services to the hotel in good faith,
was required to wait until he, the owner, had received the satisfactory explanation to get his money. To this he
replied that was too bad, this was the only way he had to insure that if something was wrong, he could keep it
from happening again. In my continued innocence, I then asked if it would not be better to know about the anticipated
expense before it had occurred thus, if additional information was necessary to satisfy himself that the anticipated
expense was appropriate, he could obtain the information before the expense occurred, not after. To this his response
was how? I then proceeded to explain the difference between a purchase request and a check request. Needless to
say, the owner modified his policy and stopped signing all the checks.
The purpose and intent of relating this little story was to establish the theory that the control function must
follow the planning function in the management process. This change would add a new category called "regulate
that it will be done" after the "what is to be done" and before the "how it is to be done".
As it is my contention that change is today's reality, it follows that the management function is not a circle,
as has been suggested by the theorists, but an unbroken chain. This chain is a series of actions linked with the
variations or modifications necessitated by the change which has occurred during the prior series of actions. Such
a chain would look something like this:
The seven separate management functions can thus be reduced to six categories as follows:
SIX CATEGORIES OF MANAGEMENT
- 1. What is to be done (Planning)
2. Regulate that it will be done (Controlling)
3. How it is to be done (Organizing - Coordinating)
4. Let's do it (Staffing - Directing)
5. What has been accomplished (Evaluating)
6. What has changed (Revise - Restructure - Redirect)
Final thought
With controlling now repositioned in a more effective place (following Planning) in the actions by management,
the changes which have occurred since the last plan are considered and controlling takes on a somewhat different
connotation. Controlling now becomes proactive rather than reactive.
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