In management terms, control means setting standards, measuring actual performance, and taking corrective action. Control involves making observations about past and present control functions to make assessments of future outputs. These are called feedback, concurrent control, and feedforward, respectively.
Feedback
Feedback is a process in which information about the past or the present is used to influence the present or future. As part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop, actions are said to "feed back" into themselves.
Feedback
'Feedback' exists between two parts when each affects the other. (W.R. Ashby, "An introduction to cybernetics", 1956)
Feedback helps an organization seeking to improve its performance make the necessary adjustments. Feedback serves as motivation for many people in the workplace. When employees receive negative or positive feedback, they decide how to apply it in their daily work. Feedback for the system as a whole also provides common points of discussion for management and allows for a holistic appraisal of how processes can be improved.
Example of the information feedback process
This image shows how data, information, and feedback flow throughout a management strategy.
Concurrent Control
Concurrent control is active engagement in a current process where observations are made in real time. A set of processes are implemented to monitor project execution to discover and solve problems or potential problems in a timely manner. Picture a floor manager actively measuring each component of the operation with a checklist to identify issues as they occur.
Feedforward
Feedforward is a management and communication term that refers to giving a control impact to an employee or an organization from which you are expecting an output. Feedforward is not just pre-feedback, because feedback is always based on measuring an output and sending feedback on that output. Pre-feedback given without measuring output may be understood as a confirmation or just an acknowledgment of control command. Feedforward is predictive in nature. Picture an analyst statistically measuring the quality and quantity of a given output based on information gathering.