Which of the following actions is NOT part of the establishing control standards?

The process of establishing control standards essentially involves creating benchmarks and expectations that guide performance within an organization. This includes setting up various elements to ensure that the organization can effectively measure and manage its performance towards achieving its goals.

Setting measurable goals is a foundational part of establishing control standards because it provides specific targets for performance that can be tracked. Defining clear performance criteria is also crucial, as it lays out the specific metrics or indicators that will be used to evaluate performance. Communicating expectations to team members is equally important, as it ensures that everyone understands what is required of them and how their performance will be assessed.

However, comparing performance to established metrics, while an essential part of the overall control process, is not directly about establishing control standards. Instead, it falls under the stage of monitoring and evaluating performance against those standards once they have been established. Therefore, it is not an action that contributes to the creation of control standards themselves, but rather to the application of those standards following their establishment. This distinction clarifies why that option is the one not included in the process of establishing control standards.