Performance Management
Performance Management
Order Instructions:
•Reflect on your prior knowledge of and experience with performance management in organisations, as an employee, a line manager or an HR professional.
•Write a critically reflective paper (550 words) on the following:
oYour prior knowledge of and experience with the module’s concepts and themes, including those you have identified as particular areas of personal or professional interest
oYour personal biases and assumptions about key module topics
oYour current practice related to key module topics
oPotential areas for your personal development and strategies to continue this growth (this could include your work or future studies)
SAMPLE ANSWER
Performance Management
Performance management has become a buzz word for most managers. However, as Marr and Gray (2012) say, this is one of the management principles that are most misunderstood. Most people do appreciate that performance management is about increasing the performance of either an individual employee or a team of employees with the aim of increasing organisational performance. They focus on the technical aspect of it and consider it to means that the output is the most important thing. In this kind of thinking, when considering an employee’s performance, what seems to matter the most is the output of the employees work. However, according to Khajji (2013), performance management is not only about the productivity of the employee, it is also about the process. The management of performance should not only focus on increasing productivity, hut should also focus on the soft aspects, such as whether the right processes are being applied and whether ethics have been adhered to.
In this regard, performance management should be aligned with organization’s objectives and strategies. Employees should not just be pushed towards increasing their output, but must be sensitized on the need to make sure that their process of works is acceptable. To achieve this, HR policies should be supportive of the Performance management in the organisation.
There are a number of issues that come up with regard to why many organizations fail to have a successful Performance management policy. As Marr and Gray (2012) point out, performance management fails if the organization use a one-way and top-down structure in its implementation. In such a situation, the employees end up being on the receiving end and they do not have a way to give their own feedback. This asymmetric relationship between the employees and the supervisors only leads to resentments by the employees. It also leads to the supervisors not being able to properly help the employees to become better. At the same time, performance management fails because those involved are not aware of the objectives of the performance management or the objectives for which their performance is supposed to achieve. They therefore perceive the process as threatening and unnecessary. Many employees therefore end up perceiving the performance management as an intimidation method that the firm uses to intimidate them.
This is even more when the performance management is directly associated with appraisal and pay. In such a case, associating the performance management to appraisal can affect its effectiveness. Poorly implemented performance management can lead not only in the PM being ineffective, but also lead to other problems such as high employee turnover rates and poor work relationships in the organization. At the same time, it can lead to low motivation to perform and low innovativeness among the employees. If the employees felt like they are being over scrutinized in everything they are doing and being judged on it, they may prefer to play safe and focus on their technical job description as opposed to taking a little risk to come up with better ideas (Weiss, 1997).
As (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2011)says, the other mistake that most organisations make is to focus their attention on the formal requirements of performance management systems. However, the most effective performance management is one that focuses on people and their abilities as opposed to focusing on the processes and bureaucracies. In this regard, organisations that succeed in implementing performance management are the ones that focus on helping the employees to improve their skills in line wit what the organisation wants to achieve.
Reference list
Jackson, S., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing Human Resources. London, UK: Cengage Learning.
Khajji, P. (2013). Performance Management Systems and Strategies. Mumbai, IN: Pearson Education India.
Marr, B., & Gray, D. (2012). Strategic Performance Management. London, UK: Routledge.
Weiss, T. (1997). Reengineering Performance Management Breakthroughs in Achieving Strategy Through People. New York City, NY: CRC Press.
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