Managerial Performance: A Brief Review

Managers are profitably viewed as living control systems (i.e., capable of bringing certain variables in their world to some specified value-and keeping them there).

In other words, they can-and they are charged with-achieving stable results under varying conditions. A view of managers as living control systems provides useful insights into what it takes to achieve and maintain control of a targeted variable.

In this article, the Target Model is used to examine managerial performance from a control systems perspective. The model is briefly reviewed and its implications examined.

Let’s face it: many managers have tough and often thankless jobs. They are expected to produce required results no matter what else is going on—no excuses accepted. A key supplier just went out of business? Tough; find another. Just lost a major account? Tough, again—go bag a new one. New safety regulations require major changes to the production line? OK; make ‘em and get on with it. Oh, and while you’re at it, find a way of recouping those retooling costs. HR has just announced that the performance appraisal system is about to be changed for the umpteenth time? So what? It’ll probably be changed umpteen more times. Senior management has launched several new initiatives, some of which conflict with one another? That’s old news. Pick which ones you’re really going to support, flag those you’ll give lip service, tag those you can safely ignore, and get back to your own work.