‘An effort to control everything may end up in controlling nothing.’ Explain.

● An attempt to control everything results in the control of nothing. This is with regard to the principle-Management by exception.

● According to this principle, everything cannot be controlled effectively. It is not possible to control all the activities in an organisation at the same time.

● Controlling focuses only on the key result areas. It means only those areas are controlled which are the the the critical points are dependent on the organisation.

● Instead of controlling each and every deviation in the performance, a permissible limit must be set.

● Only those deviations which go beyond this limit must be brought to the notice of the management.

● For example, A management has planned to earn a 5% profit on its annual sales.

● At the end of the year, the actual performance is compared with the planned performance.

● The profit is estimated to be a total of 4.5%. This is only a small deviation and should not be brought to the consideration of the management.

● However, if the deviation is of two percent, the management must resort to taking corrective actions, as this is a huge deviation from the planned performance.