RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Due date: 29th January
Topic: Control
(5,000 words) it should not exceed 5500 words
General Framework
The study of control theory is an academic discipline in itself and is known as cybernetics. Control mechanisms are ubiquitous. Some examples are: the engineering control of the trajectory of a space rocket to the control of the speed of a train. Outline the well-known control mechanisms and explain why control in the management sense may be more difficult than engineering control.
Individual Components…You get a choice of which individual components you will investigate.
1. Describe the role that each of the ‘elements of control’ must play and how the effectiveness of control mechanism is dependent on each.
2. Give an example of how feed-back (reactive) control is used in business and identify the situations where it would be effective and those where it would not be effective
3. Explain how the standard (the goal) should be set in a managerial control context
4. Explain why feed-forward (proactive) control is more difficult to apply than feedback (reactive control)
5. Explain the concept of Requisite Variety in the Activating Unit
Suggested limits are as follows (instructions- assignment should be made according to following structure):
• Management Summary: ideally one page but no more than two.
• Sections 1: Introduction 400-600 words,
• Section 2: Main body of the essay consisting of each of the individual components limit each component to approximately 1,000 words each,
• Sections 3: Conclusions 100-300 words,
• Summary and Complete List of References (5-15 references).
Organisation of the research report:
A key ingredient to writing a successful report involves the planning or organising stage. Organising can help you to sort out your ideas and to present your report in the order that communicates best to your readers. Organisation is the procedure of constructing an outline that acts as a plan for your writing task. An outline forces you to think before you write.
Your essay is to be structured and written as a business report. It, therefore, must begin with a Management (or Executive) Summary within which you state in stark form (i.e. unsupported by argument) what you are asserting in this report and you must do that in less than two pages.
As already stated above, you begin the main body of the report with some general background on the broad research topic. This introduction should end with a brief paragraph outlining the plan of the rest of the essay. What follows is the specific issues of each individual component which were considered. As for any good business report these components should be structured into sections and sub-sections and the heading for these should be in the Table of Contents. In these individual components the in-depth discussion of the relevant issues is elaborated based on the existing literature and/or data. You must provide in-text references to your sources.
The last section of the report contains a brief summary followed by a complete list of references that are cited in the text of the essay. Follow a standard referencing method consistently.