Corrective action

Option A is correct because controlling is a systematic process of comparing actual performance with planned standards, analysing deviations, identifying their causes, and taking suitable corrective action. A sudden market change is an external cause, so the manager should not automatically blame employees. The response may involve changing the strategy, revising assumptions, adjusting targets, reallocating resources, or modifying the plan while maintaining realistic standards. Closing the organisation is an extreme and unsupported conclusion, and permanently removing standards would destroy the basis for future comparison and control. Expert control is therefore diagnostic and flexible: it corrects internal weaknesses when they exist and revises the plan when the environment has changed.

Controlling is more than detecting a difference between actual performance and a standard. After a deviation is identified, the manager must determine whether it arose from unrealistic standards, inadequate resources, poor methods, insufficient training, weak coordination or some other cause. Corrective action can succeed only when it addresses the real source of the problem. For example, blaming an employee for a delay caused by a machine breakdown would not improve performance. Thus option A is correct. Recruitment is part of staffing, motivation is an element of directing, and standards are essential for meaningful control, so options B, C and D are incorrect.