To highlight the etymological difference between the terms "to control" and "to manage": when one manages, one acts as a subject, handling the situation and by acting proving that one can actually do it.

In contrast, when one controls, one performs as an anonymous agent, determined by the task, and supposed to report the outcome of the situation. This binds to the issue of authority and power, and is thus utterly political. Control refers to an external rule, typically enforced in the name of the organization, and requiring no further justification, whereas management takes its source in self-empowerment, and implies a commitment to answer any queries which might come from others, or at least to provide the test cases which embody your own concerns, objectively, towards others.

One may also compare the Anglo-Norman etymology of the word control, (goes back to Latin contra_- ("against") + _rotulus (dim. of rota "wheel")), to the French one (e.g. from the TLFi —unfortunately not directly linkable: look for 'contrôle'(2)): the meanings are similar.

-- TatyanaShpichko^? - 03 Jan 2007