Principles of Management CLEP Practice Exam 2025 - Free Management Practice Questions and Study Guide

Feedforward control is a proactive approach used in management to anticipate potential problems before they occur. This type of control emphasizes the importance of forecasting and planning, allowing organizations to prepare for challenges in advance rather than reacting to issues postfactum. By identifying issues ahead of time, managers can implement strategies to prevent or mitigate problems, ensuring smoother processes and more effective outcomes.

This anticipatory nature of feedforward control distinguishes it from other types of control mechanisms. Monitoring ongoing processes during implementation relates more to concurrent control, while assessing outcomes after completion corresponds to feedback control. Continuous evaluation of employee performance, although valuable, is more focused on the appraisal of past actions rather than anticipating and addressing future risks. Each of these methods plays a role in management, but feedforward control specifically centers on foresight and prevention.