The control system is not an all-cure device and has a number of shortcomings.
1. Lack of Satisfactory Standards:
There are many activities involving intangible performance for which no satisfactory standards can be established.
Hence, quantification of output and identification of the level of achievement are not always possible.
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2. Imperfections in Measurement:
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Intangible performance creates difficulties in measuring results for evaluation. Behavioural activities are evaluated by executive thinking. Moreover, measurement of everything of everybody’s work is not feasible on economic ground.
3. Limitations of Corrective Action:
There are several limitations in taking corrective actions and avoiding mistakes. Operating conditions of a business sometime change by external forces, over which management has no control. To take an example, managerial mistakes in studying the market demand are only known subsequently when products are put in the market.
Within the organization, minor deviations are bypassed on the ground of practical expediency all reasons for deviations are not ascertained because of the cost and time involved in investigation, and persons accountable for bad results cannot be singled out in many situations. Moreover, the lack of authority and absence of timely information may make the corrective actions irrelevant in character.
4. Human Reactions to Control:
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Control invites greater opposition from subordinates because of its interference with their individual actions and thinking. The pressure of work put through controlling results in the reduction of quality of work, ignoring of long-range goals in the favour of short-range ones evading censure through falsifying reports and covering up of inefficiencies in other ways. If the control system is of close and detailed type, it is likely to create more adverse effects among the lower-level managers.