Excellent Performance Management and Appraisal Order Instructions: Title: Becoming an employer of choice – How can excellent performance management and appraisal system help?
I. Introduction: For this assignment, you will: 1) Propose a performance appraisal (PA) system for your position. 2) Explain how and why the system you propose will contribute positively to your organization’s ability to recruit, retain, and develop its employees (i.e., to effective performance management (PM) system and to being an “employer of choice”).
II. Scenario:
Imagine you have just been promoted to your supervisor’s position! *smile* Now you will be supervising those who hold your current position. One of the first things you have been asked to do is to take a “really careful look” at how the position is being evaluated and to make recommendations for any needed changes. You not only have a good understanding of what is required for this position and of how it has been evaluated but the fact that you will now be supervising the position means you have a stake in identifying needed improvements in the PA system.
Your new boss for this scenario explains that s/he wants a report that does the following:
• Describes the current performance appraisal system for the position.
• Evaluates the extent to which the current performance appraisal system aligns with and contributes to the organization’s performance management system.
• Explains and evaluates the process and methods used to conduct performance appraisals for this position.
• Identifies and analyzes specific strengths and weaknesses in the performance appraisal system and the implications for the organization’s performance management system.
• Describes and analyzes potential options for improvement.
• Proposes and defends one to three specific changes that should help the organization ensure it is an employer of choice.
Your boss explains further,
Your studies should help you understand what causes employees to be satisfied with their jobs, to be motivated to excel, and to be committed to making their organization the best it can be. And, of course, it is important to explain the difference these are likely to make in employee productivity and performance. I assume you will also have some insights about differences among individuals that might be important to consider when evaluating job performance.
As a graduate student you have the research skills to find and critically analyze the ideas experts have proposed and to explain how and why these ideas can help us make our performance appraisal system the best in our industry.
Your boss adds,
And remember, I’m not looking for your opinions, feelings, or personal experiences. I’m also not looking for the ideas you read about in popular business magazines, newspapers, or books. We need this to be based on the best thinking of experts who have studied performance appraisals and their implications. We need ideas that are based on good evidence and sound reasoning. This is too important to trust to the business ‘fad of the day’! Also, before you suggest something like a 360-degree assessment system, be sure to take a careful look at both the advantages and the problems associated with this idea. It sounds great in theory to have employees evaluating their bosses, peers evaluating each other, and customers adding their input but we need to be really sure this is something that will work in our organization. I’ve heard some horror stories from my colleagues and don’t want to be responsible for the same here.
Note: While this assignment asks you to apply what you learn from your assigned reading and additional research to the organization where you work, you are not expected to actually give the briefing document to your boss. Instead, you will submit this to your professor for evaluation and feedback. Below are steps to follow in completing this assignment and below that is a table with deliverables and some resources that will give you a good start.
III. Steps to Completion
Step #1: Review the format you will use for this report (see below).
Step #2: Before doing any reading or research write brief responses to the following four questions. The purpose of this section is to help you identify ideas/biases you may have that it will be helpful to recognize before completing your analysis. Include your responses, as Appendix A, with your final report.
1) How well does the appraisal system used for your position work? (2 to 5 sentences).
2) What things are evaluated and are there important responsibilities/expectations that are not considered as part of the performance appraisal? (3 to 5 sentences)
3) What process is currently used to collect information about performance and to provide feedback and how well do these parts of the system work? (3 to 5 sentences)
4) What three things would you change about the way your position is evaluated and why? (3 – 5 sentences)
Step #3: Context: Use this step to examine your position, noting what its responsibilities are supposed to be as well as what those in the position actually do. If there is a written job description review it, again comparing what it says with what happens in practice. Recall when conducting the job analysis that you want to look at it from the perspective of someone who is supervising the position. This helps you distance yourself from personal experiences that may be unique to you and that may influence your ability to be objective. In the Context section, describe briefly (and in full sentences) what the job is about, as you would if you were explaining your job to someone external to the organization, perhaps to a friend or a potential employer. While you do NOT want to gather data from others in your position or conduct any interviews, this SHRM site offers a good explanation of what a job analysis is and some of the reasons for doing one. Also for the context section, you will want to briefly describe the organization’s approach to PM.
Step #4: Theoretical framework: In addition to what you have read in Robbins and Judge (2016), broaden your understanding of performance appraisals and their optimal role in performance management by reading the following and conducting additional journal research. Note that these articles serve as a starting point. You will need to supplement these with other articles. You will find these articles and others that may prove helpful in Content >Course Resources>eReserves>Week four in our LEO classroom. For additional research, we recommend the use of the “Journals to Use and Cite Leading Business, Management & Technology Journals” list (found under the Content tab in our classroom).
• Aguinis, H., Gottfredson, R.K., & Joo, H. (2012). Delivering effective performance feedback: The strengths-based approach. Business Horizons, 55, 105-11. doi: 10.1013/j.bushor.2011.10.004
• Aguinis, H., Joo, H., and Gottfredson, R.K. (2011, November – December). Why we hate performance management—And why we should love it. Business Horizons, 54(6), 503-507.
• Cascio, W.F. (1982). Scientific, legal, and operational imperatives of workable performance appraisal systems. Public Personnel Management, 11(4), 367 -346. This resource provides important information about five absolute imperatives/requirements for an effective performance appraisal. This is a required resource for this assignment and must be cited in the report. (There is a link to this in eReserves. While not a current source this qualifies as a classic article by one of the top U.S. management scholars and presents ideas that remain relevant and important.)
• Kondrasuk, J.N. (2012). The ideal performance appraisal system is a format, not a form. Academy of Strategic Management Journal,11(1),115-130.
Include these and all the journal articles and any other resources cited in your report to the list of references at the end of your report. Be sure these are in alphabetical order and are formatted in compliance with APA standards.
Use the major ideas and theories you discovered from your research to create the framework you will use to analyze the current performance appraisal system for your position and its implications for your organization’s approach to performance management. Your framework should introduce and define key concepts (e.g., performance appraisal, performance management, employer of choice). It should summarize theories about what scholarly experts agree should be found in any performance appraisal system (see, for example, Cascio’s requirements). You may also want to include in your framework ideas that have been proposed as important but may not yet be supported by research of practice. (In other words, the arguments made by the scholars may seem sound and appealing in theory but they may not have benefited from examination in practice.)
Step #5: Application and Analysis: Now that you have completed your research and clarified the responsibilities for your position, it is time to apply the ideas of scholarly experts to the PA system for your organization and analyze the extent to which they fit your case example (i.e., your position). You will certainly want to address whether your PA system meets the tests of relevance, reliability, sensitivity, practicality, acceptability, and legality. You will, as well, want to discuss the extent to which your PA fits with other ideas you found that you believe are and will be important going forward. End this section with a brief summary of your findings from this application and analysis of theory to your position and organization.
Step #6: Conclusions, Recommendations, and Reflections: In this section briefly summarize your main conclusions and then include some recommendations that are directly related to what you found in your application and analysis section. Share reflections on what you have learned that you think will be useful for you in the future.
Submit your draft complete report (in the template) to turnitin.com and make any needed improvements before submitting the final version by the end of week 4. Post your final report as an attachment in your Assignment Folder using the following naming protocol: “YourName_amba620-week4.”
IV. Deliverables:
Week 4 Completed briefing report using the template provided for this assignment. ( Approximately 2500 words not including the references).
V. Report Format
Your Report’s Title
(Your Name)
I. Introduction: Explain 1) the purpose (to present a critical analysis of the system used to evaluate performance in a specific position and organization), 2) The rationale (to see whether the PA system in use meets standards established by experts and whether improvements might be needed to help the organization qualify as an employer of choice), 3) the approach you used (to research the expert scholarly literature on PA and PM and apply it to your position and organization), 4) your key findings and conclusions, and 5) how the balance of this report is organized. (Approximately 150 words)
II. Case Context:
A. Your position: Prepare a brief summary (3 to 5 sentences) that describes the job and any gaps between what is evaluated and the actual responsibilities required of the position.
B. Current performance appraisal (PA) and performance management (PM) systems: Referencing work from scholarly literature, describe the performance appraisal (PA) system used to evaluate your position and how it fits within your organization’s performance management system be sure to explain the following: 1) What the PA system emphasizes and evaluates for your position (i.e., behaviors, attitudes, traits, goals, or some combination thereof). 2) What the organization’s approach to PM is. 3) What the relationship is between PA and PM in your organization. 4) The method used to collect information about performance for those in your position. 5) The method used to determine different levels of performance and the final resources of the appraisal. 6) The The approach and method used to provide feedback. (Approx. 250 words)
III. Theoretical Framework – Use the information in Step #4 above to guide development of your theoretical framework. (Approx. 800 words)
IV. Application and Analysis: See Step #5 above. (Approx. 800 words)
V. Conclusions, Recommendations, and Reflections. See Step #6 above. (Approx. 550 words)
References
(In alphabetical order and formatted in compliance with APA standards. All works cited in your report must be included in this list.)
In order to get a good grade, make sure the paper reflect the following:
Finds and correctly incorporates and cites relevant and authoritative scholarly articles. Information and sources are current, reliable, credible, and unbiased. Effectively uses information gleaned from research to support and/or illustrate key points.
Excellent Performance Management and Appraisal Sample Answer
Introduction
Employees are the most vital asset in an organization. This is because employees are the ones who do all the duties such as production, distribution, selling off the company products among other important activities that help an organization to attain its long-term goals. Therefore, performance management practice where managers, supervisors, and employees work as a team to plan, monitor and review employee’s work performance with organization objective and overall contribution to the organization is very valuable (Kondrasuk, 2012). Performance Appraisal deals with the way companies evaluate and measures its employee’s behaviors and achievements. That is an employee review by his or her supervisor where the employee’s work is evaluated to identify his strengths and weaknesses. The company used the behavioral checklist approach for performance appraisal of customer care executives in our organization. This is where supervisors study and analyze the employee’s best and worst incidents of behavior in the past year (Mone & London, 2014). I used secondary sources to research and get insights about Performance Appraisal and performance management. After a careful analysis of my findings, I saw that it is appropriate to integrate management by objectives (MBO) in our performance appraisal and management system.
Case Context
As a customer care executive supervisor I am given the responsibility to supervise the organization customer care staff as they communicate with clients to assist in providing direction, and address inquiries about the organization products and services. Some of the key responsibilities of a customer care executive include handling problems, assisting in sales, doing clerical tasks, among other tasks. Therefore, my duty as a supervisor is to assist customer care executives in doing their jobs and ensure that clients are satisfied with customer service.
Current Performance Appraisal and Performance Management systems
Appraisal system helps organizations to make decisions concerning pay, promotions, and careers. The system also helps the management to identify the development needs of the individual employee.
The management currently uses behavioral checklist for performance appraisal. This is where supervisors study and analyze the employee’s best and worst incidents of behavior in the past year (. This technique is effective when managing customer executive because customer care communicates with employees and are bound to exhibit different behavior in handling clients. Behavioral checklist system uses a combination of behaviors, attitudes and traits when performing day to day operations. The company uses total performance management approach where role profiles, individual objectives, targets, personal development plan and appraisal is considered by balancing “Whats” and the “hows” of enactment. The management focuses on how the commercial result is prerequisite and the ideal way to achieve that outcome. Total performance management has a strong alignment with long-term goals.
Theoretical Framework
Performance management and performance appraisal
Employee engagement can be defined as the level of commitment to the employees made by their employers, exhibited in their inclination to remain at the company, making the firm an employer of choice or go beyond what is required of them. Companies often desire employees who are highly motivated and feel that they are part of the firm’s accomplishment. Such workers are keen to complete tasks in their own time and perceive a strong connection concerning the company success and their career visions. In short, employees who are motivated and empowered make the company an employer of choice and work together with the organization in a setting of mutual trust. Employee engagement through strategic human resource management involves performance management, performance appraisal and use of a system of rewards to motivate and empower employees to yield even greater results at the organization.
Performance management refers to a goal-oriented practice which aims at guaranteeing that managerial processes are put in place to take full advantage of the productivity of employees, groups, teams and in the long-run, the company. Performance management is an important role in accomplishing organization strategy in in such a way that it encompasses evaluating and refining the value of the workforce. It is important to note that there is a positive association linking motivations and performance. Therefore, Performance management encompasses of incentive goals and the matching incentive value so as to establish a clear relationship between the two and communicate them to the employees.
The process of performance management involves performance appraisal and human resource development. Therefore, performance appraisal is part of performance management. And can be defined as, a systematic process done periodically to assess an individual employee performance and productivity at work about definite pre-set criteria and organization goals. When doing performance appraisal other facets such as accomplishment, structural citizenship behavior, strong point and flaws, and the prospective for future enhancement among others are also well thought-out.
While performance is done periodically, performance management is a continuous, dynamic, ongoing process. Each facet of the human resource systems such as employee training, performance appraisal, and administering of rewards is integrated and linked for the aim of improving organizational performance. Therefore, performance management helps to concentrate the employee’s skills towards achieving the organization strategic goals. Training is required to improve workers skills. Therefore, performance management system helps to align organization training with organization goals.
Why do we need performance appraisal in our organization?
Performance appraisal system aims at improving individual and organization performance. Therefore, a good performance appraisal system helps the organization t achieve its long-term goals, objectives and enhance employee performance. Some of the key uses of performance Appraisal include;
Human resource planning: information collected through performance appraisal assist the management in human resource planning. The collected data help to identify employees who have the potential for promotion among, internal employee relation and also form a basis for determining the human resource strong points and flaws to capitalize on improvement.
Recruitment and selection of employee: information such as performance appraisal ratings is important in forecasting the performance of job candidates. The data collected in performance appraisal also provide data requisite for evaluating applicant responses during interviews.
Training and development: Performance appraisal helps the human resource to determine employee’s specific areas that require training and development.
Compensation programs: performance appraisal provides valuable data that management uses in making decisions concerning pay adjustment. Most managers believe in rewarding outstanding job performance by increasing employee’s pay. This help to motivate employees to work towards achieving the organization objectives (Aguinis et al., 2011).
Performance Appraisal Process
The process of performance appraisal involves five distinct stages. Those are, pointing out specific performance goals, introducing performance criteria and communicate them to staffs, scrutinize work performed, appraise individual employee performance, and debating appraisal with the employee (Rolstadas, 2012).
Therefore, in the first step, management identifies the specific performance goals, the company believes this to be the most essential and realistically achievable. In our case, the management should stress on customer care development to improve customer services. The next step in the continuing cycle of performance appraisal carries on with instituting performance principles or standards that the employees are supposed to achieve and communicating these performance expectations to them (Wanjiku & Sakwa, 2013). After that, the employees do their work based on the set standards, and the supervisor assesses the performance. Finally, the supervisor and the employee come together to appraise and evaluate each employee work performance based on the established performance standards (Story, 2014). The review process is important as it helps in establishing how well the employee has met these standards, find out the reason for short-comings, and come up with a strategy to correct the problem. At these meeting, a set of new goals are fixed for the next assessment period, and the performance appraisal phase repeats.
Application and analysis
The basis of the theory is to provide a framework for application in the real life situation. Therefore, it is important to understand how performance management and performance appraisal can be used in our organization to make the company an employer of choice and achieve organizational success. Performance management is important in the customer care department to help in the development of customer care executive, improvement of customer services and thus build customer loyalty.
After careful analysis of the different approaches to performance appraisal, I noted that behavioral checklist approach is not the best for performance appraisal of customer care executives. This is because behavioral checklist approach focuses on traits of customer executive when doing their day to day tasks and neglects the extent to which customer care executive help in the overall attainment of organization goals. Be as it may, performance management aims at improving overall performance and aligning employee performance with organizational goals.
The supervisor is expected to set customer service standards and goals. This is the first component of operative performance administration. Individual customer care executive and group customer service goals should be allied with the organizational long term goals. This is important so as to enable the organization to set specific goals aimed at improving customer service and achieving the organizational goals.
Secondly, the supervisory team is required to develop a measurement system. A customer-focused performance management programs require measuring or quantifying of customer needs. Therefore, the supervisor is required to determine the where to set standards and goals. On the same note, provide a means of feedback to the employees and teams of their effort to achieve their goals.
Result or outcome measures should be measured as it informs the management where agencies, teams, and individuals working in the customer care department stand in their effort to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, the supervisors should measure the number of customer complaints, compliments, and the recommendation made by customers to other to point out customer satisfaction.
Feedback is also a very important component of an effective and successful performance management program. Therefore, the supervisor should seek feedback that is specific, timely, and appropriate (Aguinis et al., 2012). Customer care supervisors can obtain feedback on customer service goals from the organization customers, work measurement system, subordinates, and team leaders among other sources. Feedback is important for frontline managers and supervisors to make a decision concerning where needs improvement through training and for rewarding performance.
A good performance management system should have a reward system to provide incentives and reward good performance. By rewarding and recognizing customer services, the employees will know that the management cares about customer service and promote accomplishment of goals. Therefore, the organization should reward and recognize programs for both teams and individual so as to support and promote the established goals. Therefore, management should develop goal sharing, and gain sharing group incentives to promote goal achievements. The management should also provide career and personal development form of incentives such as additional training, high involvement in decision making among other incentives.
Monetary incentives; monetary incentives help improve performance. Therefore, the management should set achievable goals and use monetary incentives to promote goal achievement. Monetary incentives often have a tendency of improving performance, increase goal acceptance and commitment and on the same note, induce employees to set goals and finally lead to the setting of higher goals (Aguinis et al., 2013).
Non-monetary recognition: employees also value non-monetary recognition of outstanding performance aimed at achieving customer service goals and thus results in improvement of performance. Examples of non-monetary incentives include giving certificates of excellence, receiving congratulatory notes from superiors, and throwing a party to celebrate exceptional performance.
This type of performance appraisal is relevant as it is able to provide feedback to enable the supervisor identify if the goals of the organization are met or not. The performance appraisal system is also correlated with the performance goals of the organization thus making the system relevant. On the same note, the performance appraisal system is reliable and practically as it is able to identify what is required to be improved and is easily applicable. Different people can also get the same results when utilizing similar system to rate the same team or employees. The appraisal system used is sensitive also as it is able to distinguish between effective and ineffective employees or between failure and success.
Conclusions, Recommendations, and Reflections
Excellent Performance Management and Appraisal Recommendations
First of all, I recommend the adoption of management by objective (MBO) method of performance appraisal. In this approach the managers, supervisors and employees jointly set objectives for the employees, after that, performance is evaluated periodically, and rewards are accorded based on results. Management by Objectives focuses more on attainment of organization goals because work is done based on the set objectives and rewards are accorded when organization objectives are met. This method is among the best when it comes to employee development. Information concerning critical incidence should be collected using the behavioral checklist. However, employees should be given feedback continuously on how they’re doing and their effort towards achieving organizational goals.
Secondly, I propose that employees should be rewarded for achieving the set goals and consistent working towards organization goals. This can be identified by collecting feedback from customers, subordinates, team leaders concerning the employee performance. An employee who receives a lot of positive feedback and is always able to meet organization goals should be rewarded so as to motivate him/her to continue performing betters. Poor performance should be punished, and employees who are unable to meet their expectation should be informed that they are free to look for a job elsewhere.
Reflections
Before being promoted to be a supervisor, I learned a lot working as a customer care executive. One of the important skills required is good communication and interpersonal skills. A customer care executive communicates with countless clients in a day. In some days, you may find irrational or moody customers who may be upset with the company services. In such situations, it is important for a customer care executive to keep calm and communicate effectively in the right code of conduct. When it comes to achieving organization goals, the duty of a customer care executive is demanding and requires dedication and good time management. Now that I am the supervisor, I am in a better position to understand the job requirements and the demands of those working under me as customer care executives.
Excellent Performance Management and Appraisal Conclusion
Employee development through performance management, performance appraisal, and training is important for an organization to achieve organizational success. Performance appraisal is part of the performance management process where employee performance is periodically assessed to identify areas that need improvement and to make decision concerning pay rise and promotion. A good performance system is timely, reliable and accurate.
Therefore, the management should adopt the appropriate performance management system with proper performance appraisal and good reward system that will be able to build and motivate employees into being better people. In so doing the management will be an employer of choice and the employer and employee will work together in mutual trust to achieve organizational goals and thus organization success. The organization should adopt management by objective approach system where performance is linked to organization objectives. Employees can meet their goals should be rewarded. On the other hand, those who do not perform should be trained, motivated and encouraged to perform better. This way the management will be able to develop skilled employees who work towards achieving organizational goals.
Excellent Performance Management and Appraisal References
Kondrasuk, J.N. (2012). The ideal performance appraisal system is a format, not a form. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 11(1),115-130.
Aguinis, H., Gottfredson, R.K., & Joo, H. (2012). Delivering effective performance feedback: The strengths-based approach. Business Horizons, 55, 105-11. doi: 10.1013/j.bushor.2011.10.004
Aguinis, H., Joo, H., and Gottfredson, R.K. (2011, November – December). Why we hate performance management—And why we should love it. Business Horizons, 54(6), 503-507.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2014). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
De Waal, A. (2013). Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
Rolstadas, A. (Ed.). (2012). Performance management: A business process benchmarking approach. Springer Science & Business Media.
Wanjiku, P. N., & Sakwa, M. (2013). The Link between Performance Appraisal and Firm Performance. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(9), 46.
Storey, J. (2014). New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.
Delahaye, B. (2015). Human resource development. Tilde Publishing.
Aguinis, H., Joo, H., & Gottfredson, R. K. (2013). What monetary rewards can and cannot do: How to show employees the money. Business Horizons,56(2), 241-249.
