Abstract
The basis of any business, including non-public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), is financial security, which is ensured by achieving sufficiently high profits and financial liquidity. Especially in these times, a rapidly changing market, the competition, and the upcoming birth rate forces HEIs to optimize operational and strategic decisions. On one hand, it creates new opportunities for non-public HEIs, but on the other, it is a source of danger for the future of their operations. Therefore, they must not only overcome the difficulties encountered in everyday life but also try to respond to the challenges posed by their environment, demonstrating the special care to ensure the efficiency of their operations. They must not only try to increase the quality of offered services or manage their funds rationally but with equal attention should “invest” in modern management methods and concepts. Through the use of controlling, contemporary non-public HEIs are able to choose an optimum variant of decision facilitating the achievement of their goals. In view of the above, this chapter discusses the special considerations relating to controlling HEIs from the point of view of increasing their effectiveness.
TopConcept Of Controlling Within An Organisation
Controlling is regarded as a relatively new concept. Etymologically, the term 'controlling' derives from the Latin contra and rotulus, on the basis of which in the 12th century the French term contre-role (control) was coined, and in English the term countreroullour was created (designating a person making a control roll to verify the correctness of the entries in the original roll). (For more about the etymology of the term controlling, see Tyrała, Stęplewski, 2003, p. 45-47.) In Middle English, the words “to keep a copy of a roll of accounts” meant keeping a copy of a roll of postings (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1990, p. 250). Then, as a result of wrong interpretation of meaning, the term comptrolling was created, and in the 15th century, as a result of another mistake, official writers changed it into countrolling (The Oxford English Dictionary – vol. II, p. 928). The following centuries brought further changes until the current form controlling was coined.