Organizational Control in Australian National Fabrication Facility - Case Study Example

Abstract This essay is based on an interview carried out through email on an Australian National Fabrication Facility representative. More information was obtained through research in books and journals on the topic under study, as well as the official website of the organization. The strategic objectives of the organization include the provision of the best facilities to researchers. For effectiveness, it employs various controls such as people controls, result controls and action controls. Others include personnel controls comprising of selection and placement, training and job design and resource distribution. The organization has an elaborate governance structure with contributors as revenue centers, nodes as expense centers and universities as profit centers. The organization benefits from strategic planning in that through it ANFF is able to set priorities, channel all the energy and resources the right way, create stronger operations, bring employees and stakeholders to the point of working to attain common goals, create agreements towards desired results, and evaluate and adjust the direction of the organization to fit into the dynamic environment. Finally, budgeting helps the organization to control and manage its finances. The budgeting process makes it easy to set performance standards, motivate members of the board and staff and create a tool for measuring outcomes Introduction Managerial control involves the regulation of organizational activities so that the real performance can be in line with the standards and goals expected within an organization. Control ensures that in case of a problem, the appropriate corrective action is implemented (Merchant, & Van der Stede, 2012, P. 9). The governance structure of Australia National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) allows for managerial control. The facility was established in 2007 under the umbrella of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. ANFF links 7 nodes in the whole of Australia to give researchers the latest fabrication facilities available. The organization is committed to creating a world class user-facility that can serve the industry through the provision of the best facilities and services (ANFF, 2013). The organization uses action controls, people and results controls to maintain operations. It also uses Human Resource Management as the personnel controls through selection and placement, training and job design and resource provision. The governance structure of ANFF consists of various levels starting with the Australian government, then the company board then the executive. The nodes come under the executive (ANFF, 2013). This essay will discuss the strategic objectives of ANFF, the action controls, people controls and results controls used by the organization. It will also examine the personnel controls used by the organization under the headings of selection and placement, training, job design and the provision of the needed resources. In this paper, the structure of the organization and various elements such as revenue centers, expense centers and profit centers will also be discussed. Finally, the discussion will turn to the purpose of the strategic planning and budgeting processes in the organization. The information for use in this discussion will be obtained from an Email interview with an official from the Australian National Fabrication Facility and desktop research from materials written by authors on the topic. Strategic objectives of the organization The Australian National Fabrication facility (ANFF) was started under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The strategic objectives of this organization revolve around the provision of the best facilities to researchers in various disciplines. It seeks to make it possible for researchers and the entire industry to get high quality fabrication capabilities (ANFF, 2013). The organization does this by using a thorough network of 8 nodes comprising of 21 institutions in the whole of Australia. The ANFF nodes depend on available infrastructure and expertise that give them the necessary capabilities in their various specialisations. All the 8 nodes avail their facilities to researchers so that they can carry out their research across various disciplines. The nodes offer the facilities on the basis on open access to researchers in the fields of Micro and Nano electronics, Photonics, medical devices and sensors, advanced materials, microfluidics and MEMS and bio-nano applications. ANFF also seeks to be the leading provider of quality services to industry and academic researchers. The organization provides researchers with direct access to high quality facilities under the guidance of experts. It also contracts for the provision of specialized products as well undertaking contract research projects (ANFF, 2013). The objective of the organization is to provide the best linkage to seven complimentary nodes based in universities in the whole of Australia to give researchers the opportunity to use the best available fabrication facilities. ANFF provides capabilities that make it possible for users to process materials such as ceramics, metals, composites and semi conductors. Other materials include soft materials such as polymer-biological moieties and polymers. They turn these into structures that can be used in sensors, nano electronics, medical devices and nano-photonics. The Australian National Fabrication Facility is committed to creating a world class user facility that can serve the industry through the provision of the best facilities and services. It bases its strategy on the sharing of best practices in the provision of services across the various nodes (ANFF, 2013). Types of controls in ANFF In ANFF, action controls include post action control, screening control and preliminary control. Preliminary control is all about the resources brought in from the surroundings. It monitors the quantity and the quality of the resources being brought prior to their entry into the organization. Post action control has its focus on the organisation’s output after the process of transformation is over. Employees may be rewarded on the basis of post action control. Screening control is dependent on the feedback process. Its focus is always on meeting high quality requirements for the services and products (Ghosh 2005, p. 27). The first type of people control is beauracratic control which has mechanistic and formal structural arrangements. With this control, the organization has a rigid hierarchy and very strict rules. The other control type is clan control. Clan control is done with the use of structural organic and informal arrangements. Strategic control targets the structure of the organization, technology, leadership, operations, human resources and information. Strategic control has its focus on the way in which strategy implementation attains the strategic goals of the organization. Failure to achieve goals can make the firm to institute changes in suitable areas (Ghosh 2005, p. 45). Personnel controls employed by the organization and how they are implemented To ensure that there is effective performance, the organization makes use of the Human Resource Management controls on employees. The organization must ensure that it has the right people, with the right attitude, who can help the company to achieve its strategic objectives. This team must be acquired through strict controls and maintained using personnel controls (Sekhar 2005, p. 34). Selection and placement Selection and placement of employees is done on the basis of many factors such as the level of skills, the education experience of the person at work, results obtained from interviewing the candidate, references, and the agreement between hiring department and other concerned departments in the organization (Flamholtz 1996, p. 56; Ghosh 2005, p. 41). Selection and placement in ANFF follows the normal procedure. It is used as a way of controlling the type of employees that come into the company. The type of employees recruited is a major determinant of whether the organization can attain its strategic objectives or not. The supervisor in charge of the vacant position in liaison with other relevant departments picks a person from the interviewed groups the candidate for hire. The hiring supervisor then checks the references with the current or former supervisors. This job can also be done by the designee of the hiring supervisor (Anthony 2007, p. 78). The employment services department is responsible for verifying past employment, licenses and necessary degrees before the confirmation of employment. Where necessary, Employment services can organize for a pre-placement physical. Sometimes the organization may employ online recruitment which has become very important for garnering potential candidates for the vacant positions in the organization (ANFF, 2013). Systems of talent management include the analysis of personnel usage in the organization, identification of the would be applicants, recruitment through company facing listings, using online recruitment sites to recruit or making use of publications that can be accessed by both applicants and recruiters. Recruitment efforts, cross posting in the industry and across general job boards in the industry and those that are specific and the maintenance of competitive exposure has forced the organization to create a proper system of tracking applicants (Email Interview, 2013). Training Training is another way of exercising control over employees. Employees are trained on how to operate in line with the strategic objectives and production goals of the organisation and their specific units. The organization follows a training program or module that gives it the system for administering and tracking the efforts made in the training and development of employees (Email Interview, 2013). This system goes by the name of a learning management system which the Human Resources departments used to track the education history, skills and qualifications that employees may be having. It is also used as the basis on which the organization outlines the training courses, books and other materials that the company has for the development of various types of skills. The organization then offers courses in sessions that go with specific dates. Delegates and the resources necessary for training are mapped and managed in that system as well. Properly designed learning management systems make it possible for managers within the organization to approve training, company budgets and training calendars (ANFF, 2013). Job design and the provision of the necessary resources (90) On job design, the organization creates a work arrangement that overcomes job dissatisfaction and alienation of employees especially when the tasks as mechanistic. The organization increases productivity through job rotation, job enlargement and simplification of the job. Job deign considers the requirements of the employee and the organization. It considers ergonomics, health and safety. The organization organizes the tasks and positions with incorporation of the organisation’s values, objectives and goals. These must be properly comprehended so that the responsibilities of the job can be well prioritized and aligned (Macintosh & ‎Quattrone, 2010, p. 34). Governance structure of the organization The Australian National Fabrication Facility is shown in figure 1. At the top of the governance structure, there is the Australian Government. Below it there is the board of ANFF limited. The Executive of the organization comes under this board and reports to it. The ANFF Limited board works alongside two committees known as the Strategic Advisory Committee and the International Advisory Committee (ANFF, 2013). The Node Management Structure is under the Strategic Advisory Committee. This committee also reports to the ANFF Ltd executive. The access committee which is controlled by the Node director operates within the Node Management Structure (ANFF, 2013). Under the Node Management Structure there are Node operators. These are responsible for managing the nodes. In the ANFF structure, there are a total of 8 nodes. These include the Victorian node or the Melbourne Center for Nanofabrication. In this node there is the Monash University, Deakin University, CSIRO, RMIT University, La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne and Swinburne University. The contributor and participant in this node is the Victorian Government. The second node is the ACT node which has the Australian National University. In the WA node, there is the University of Western Australia (ANFF, 2013). The Queensland node has the University of Queensland and Griffith University whose contributor and participant is the Queensland Government. The NSW node has the University of New South Wales which gets contributions and enjoys the participation of the New South Wales Government. The South Australian Node has the Flinders University and the University of South Australia. The other node is the OptoFob node under which there is Macquarie University, the University of Sydney, Bandwidth Foundry International and the University of Adelaide. The node enjoys contributions and participation from the New South Wales Government. Finally, there is the Materials node that has the University of Wollongong and the University of New Castle. The participant and contributor to this node is the New South Wales Government (ANFF, 2013). Financial responsibility centres employed by the organization Just like other organisations, ANFF has financial responsibility centers. These are units within the organization that control the revenues, costs and funds for investment (Kimmel, Weygandt & Kieso, 2003, p. 23). These are categorized as revenue centers, cost or expense centers and profit centers. A responsibility accounting system that is well defined should make clear definitions on responsibility centers so as to gather and report on revenue and information about costs based on the responsibility areas (ANFF, 2013). Revenue Centers In the ANFF governance structure, the revenue centers are those that remit their contributions to the various nodes and offer their support and participation in the activities of the organization. (Verano-Tacoronte & Melián-González, 2008, p. 170) Basically, the activities of the organization are run with the revenue that comes from these centers (Anthony & Govindarajan, 2007, p. 131). The Victorian node has the Victorian government as its revenue center. The Queensland Government is the revenue center for the Queensland node (Email interview, 2013). The New South Wales Government is the revenue center for the NSW node. The South Australian node depends on the South Australian Government as its revenue center. The Optofab node and the Materials node have the New South Wales government as their revenue center. From the governance structure shown in figure1, the revenue centers for the rest of the node are not specified. Expense and cost centers Each of the nodes has either one or several universities under it. These are the expense centers. The Victorian node has the Monash University as its main expense center. Other expense centers under this node include Deakin University, CSIRO, RMIT University, La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne and Swinburne University. The expense center in the ACT node is the Australian National University (ANFF, 2013). In the WA node, there is the University of Western Australia. The Queensland node has the University of Queensland and Griffith University as the expense centers. The NSW node has the University of New South Wales as the expense center. The South Australian Node has the Flinders University and the University of South Australia. The other node is the OptoFab node under which there is Macquarie University, the University of Sydney, Bandwidth Foundry International and the University of Adelaide. The Materials node has the University of Wollongong and the University of New Castle as its cost centers (ANFF, 2013). Profit Centers In a profit making company, a profit center is a company unit from which revenue is generated that surpasses the expenses of the unit (Liao 2011, p. 495). It is the norm that when goods and services are sold, some profit may come in. ANFF may not be much into profit making but its profits, if any, should come from the various nodes. There are universities in these nodes that could bring in some profit through the provision of services and facilities to various groups and individual researchers (Email interview, 2013; ANFF, 2013). Figure 1; ANFF organisational governance structure, Source: ANFF, 2013 Purpose of the strategic planning and budgeting processes within the organization The purpose of strategic planning in ANFF to help the organization to set priorities, channel all the energy and resources the right way, create stronger operations, bring employees and stakeholders to the point of working to attain common goals, create agreements towards desired results, and evaluate and adjust the direction of the organization to fit into the dynamic environment (Shukla 2008, p. 33). Strategic planning is important because it produces critical decisions and actions intended to shape and provide guidance to the nature of the organization, the people it serves, its main activity and the reason it is involved in that activity with a particular emphasis on its future. Strategic planning, when done effectively outlines the direction the organization is taking and the actions it requires for it to register any progress, as well as the method of determining its success. The organization needs strategic planning because of the significance it carries. For ANFF, strategic planning ends with the objectives of the organization and how they can be achieved. Strategic planning mechanisms help to enhance specificity in the operations of the organization. This is always the case when the organization is having high stake and long term activities (Bryson, 2011, p. 55). Strategic planning has the purpose of helping the organization to perform better. This is done by focusing organizational energy, making sure that all efforts are focused to the achievement of the same goals and the assessment and adjustment of the direction being taken by the organization to respond well to the changes in its environment. The effectiveness of a strategic planning process relies on how well it is conducted. The process becomes strategic because it is all about the preparation of the best channel of response to circumstances existent in the environment of the organization. Some times the organizational environment tends to be hostile because of certain factors. The strategic part of it stands for the clarity about the objectives of the organization, awareness of the resources of the organization and integrating these two into the conscious response to the changes in the environment of the organization (Shukla 2008, p. 44). The planning process involves the setting of goals or adopting the way to a desired future and laying down the right approach to the attainment of the set goals. Strategic planning is a disciplined process because for it to remain focused and productive, it requires a particular pattern and order. Through the process, planners get some questions that help them to study experience, carry out tests on their assumptions, collect and include information concerning the existing condition and anticipate the future environment of the organization. Simerson (2011) notes that strategic planning also helps in the making of important decisions and actions, because the organization must make choices that are used to get answers to the sequence of questions alluded to earlier. At the end of the process, the plan is all about the decisions on what should be done, why it should be done and how it should be done. Since the organization cannot do all things that should be done, strategic planning proves that there are certain decisions and actions within the organization that carry more significance than others. It also shows that the bigger part of the strategy is in the making of decisions on what is of more significance to the achievement of the success of the organization (Bryson 2011, p. 10). The Budgeting process Lyne & Dugdale (2010, p. 18) explain that budgeting is a process that holds a lot of significance to an organization. Effective budgeting is necessary for proper planning of the organization. The budgeting process makes it easy to set performance standards, motivate members of the board and staff and create a tool for measuring outcomes (Haerifar 2012, p. 14). The purpose of budgeting is to help fulfill the mission of the organization. Just like any other organization, ANFF has limited resources with which it has to attain its laid down goals and objectives. For example, the organization has limited resources and funding to achieve the objective of providing the state of art facilities required by researchers. The management of the organization is obligated to do the planning, organization, controlling and directing the utilization of scarce resources in a way that is efficient. This is the essence of budgeting. Budgeting is a very important tool in planning, controlling and managing money which is a very important and sensitive resource in the organization. The management of cash is very important to the organization and whenever good attention is not available, the organization can become unhealthy even if it was doing well. Money is the most sensitive thing in an organization and its management is the lifeblood of the organization (Haerifar 2012, p. 38). For example, if the bills of the organization are not settled then other organisations can’t deal with it meaning that it can collapse. Budgeting is making estimates or views into a future that is not known and showing the pattern of flow of cash. In the organization, a budget can be used to gauge the present or past performance of the organization. The budget helps to show the point in time when the organization needs to get money from unusual sources. The budget could also be important for alerting the organization when it needs to bring in changes to respond to a failing plan. The budget shows where money is coming from and the channels of consumption of the cash. It also shows the availability of cash for purchasing assets. The budget must be done properly and when this happens it becomes a very crucial management tool (Lyne & Dugdale, 2010, p. 27). Conclusion In conclusion, this essay has discussed organizational control in Australian National Fabrication Facility. The strategic objectives of the organization are among others the provision of the best facilities to researchers and other groups in need of them. Another major objective of the organization is to be the leading provider of quality services to academic researchers and the industry as a whole. The organization is committed to creating a world class user facility that can serve the industry through the provision of the best facilities and services. The organization exercises control over its employees by way of people controls, action controls and results controls. All these are meant to ensure that the activities and actions of employees are monitored, the behavior and movements of people are checked and their results are tuned to improve the productivity of the organization. All these contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s strategic objectives. Personnel control is achieved through Human Resource Management controls. These are implemented though selection and placement, training, job design and the provision of the required resources. The system ensures that the right employees and recruited, proper and approved training is given to employees in the right way and that every employee is assigned the jobs designed for them with the required resources available. The structure of the organization has various levels with the Australian Government at the top with the company board and the executive under it. The board works with two other committees. Under them, there are various nodes with universities in each node. Every node has a director and an access committee. The node contributors are the centers of revenue; universities are the expense centers as well as the profit centers. Strategic planning and budgeting are important because they help the organization to set priorities, channel all the energy and resources the right way, create stronger operations, bring employees and stakeholders to the point of working to attain common goals, create agreements towards desired results, and evaluate and adjust the direction of the organization to fit into the changing environment. Organisational control for ANFF is achieved because the governance structure permits this to happen. Bibliography ANFF 2013. About the Australian National Fabrication Facility. Viewed 12 Sept. 2013 from http://www.anff.org.au/about-australian-national-fabrication-facility.html ANFF 2013. Australian National Fabrication Facility: Providing Micro and Nano- fabrication facilities to Australia’s Researchers. Viewed 12 September 2013 from http://www.anff.org.au/ Anthony 2007. Management Control Systems. McGraw-Hill Education (India) Pvt Limited. Anthony, R., & Govindarajan, V. 2007. 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