Organizational Control: Two Functions

A distinction is drawn between two modes of organizational control, one based on personal surveillance, behavior control, and the other based on the measurement of outputs, output control. A study of employees over five levels of hierarchy shows that the two modes of control are not substitutes for each other, but are independent of each other. The evidence suggests that output control occurs in response to a manager's need to provide legitimate evidence of performance, while behavior control is exerted when means-ends relations are known and thus appropriate instruction possible.