Managing Human Resource - Case Study Example

Introduction Businesses competing with each other look towards tools and strategies where they can measure the performance of the organization so that comparison can be made and steps taken to improve upon those. While organizations look towards comparing the performances through performance they also look to evaluate the manner the employees have performed so that the future and steps in accordance with the employee with regard to promotion, incentives and future pay decided. Organizations thereby look towards using different mechanism which helps them to provide a direction based on which the organizations can compete and ensure that they are able to develop a framework where they are able to grow. This paper thereby looks into the manner performance management and performance appraisal differs. This helps to find out the key characteristics which determines success for the organization and also helps to understand the common errors which businesses commits and needs to be reduced so that the business is able to grow and flourish. Difference between performance appraisal & performance management Performance management holds an important aspect for all businesses. Organizations need to identify different methods which can be used to evaluate the performance of an organization. Performance evaluation is done as it helps to improve the efficiency of the organization. Since, performance management looks to identify the manner in which the whole organization has performed thereby it concentrates on the macro level and looks to identify the performance of the organization on the whole. Performance appraisal on the other hand looks towards monitoring the performance of the employee on an individual basis so that the organization can determine the manner the employee has contributed towards the organizations. This helps organization is framing strategies for employees requirement in the future and also directs the management to decide the incentives, promotions and other things associated with an individual employee. This has helped organizations to develop different tools which lead towards gauging the performance of the organization both on an individual basis i.e. micro level and at the organizational level i.e. macro level. An important aspect here is that the collective performance appraisal of the employees helps to determine the manner in which the organization has performed. Thus, performance appraisal helps in building the performance management of the organization and if the organization is able to ensure proper strategies which helps towards the growth and development of the employees the organization on the whole benefits. Since, performance management looks at the broader perspective and looks to evaluate the performance of the organization thereby increase the role of managing the organizational function and ensuring smooth flow of work. The organizing function of management sees that “the managers organizes for all the resources including human to see that the objective set by the business unit and planed accordingly are achievable”. (Heather, 2009) The manager has to ensure that the employees are as per the requirement of the job. Training should be imparted to the needy and the project manager must ensure that business don’t lack resources which will defy them from achieving their goals. For example, when an organisation focuses on customer satisfaction it does it through different ways. Like the project managers ensure that the query departments provide the customer with the correct answer, the goods are good in quality and timely response to win them. The project manager also has a role to review the performance continuously and any uncertainties should be brought up and care should be taken to reduce those. (Mind Tools, 2010) Thus, project management and project appraisal looks at different aspect of the business but looks towards providing the same benefits as the goals of both are inclined and look towards the overall growth of the organization. Thus, there are widespread differences between performance management and performance appraisal as both looks different things. Performance management is based on the manner the organization has performed whereas performance appraisal looks at the way the employees have performed. Though, both aspect looks at different things but the ultimate goal is to ensure efficiency and to ensure that the resources are used in a better way. Characteristics of a performance management The importance of performance management has grown over years which had made it imperative that the manner in which the performance is evaluated is satisfactorily and provides complete justification to the strategies used. Different literature presents different methods which can be used to evaluate the performance. One study presents the fact that using effective video surveillance helps to ensure that the performance of the employees and others are monitored (Karimaa, 2003). This method has its relevance as it helps to identify the error and the person making the error. This thereby helps to bring about a change in the way the organization will perform and helps to fix responsibility on the required person. The value of the above method increases if balance score card is used along. Balance Score Card helps to evaluate the performance based on certain criteria and helps to identify the deviations (Lupi, Verzola, Carandina, Salani, Antonioli & Gregorio, 2011). Having a balance score card ensures that the performance is evaluated based on different parameters. This helps the organization to ensure that the area which needs to be worked upon is brought forward. This provides the management with the required information that will help them to improve the performance and ensure that they are able to deliver better results. A finding in a similar direction brings forward the fact that organization using different methods of performance evaluation needs to ensure that that the method provides the organization transparency and accountability (Garcia, 2008). This is a core constituent of any performance evaluation method and if the organization is able to ensure that roles and accountability are fixed on individuals it ensures transparency. Accountability and transparency was realized to a large extent while using video surveillance as it ensured that the organization was able to identify individuals and that could help the organization in their future endeavors. Another finding in the direction of performance evaluation stresses on the fact that having regulatory inspections, public surveys, third party assessment and using indicators which helps to gauge the performance ensures better results (Shaw, 2003). This is because of the fact that having different tools ensure that the organization is able to work on different aspect of performance. This thereby helps to ensure that the performance is evaluated through a wide variety of tools which helps to improve the efficiency of the system and ensures best results for the organizations. Different literature presents different tools which can be used to evaluate the performance but the basic aim of all the tool is the same. All the different assessment tools look towards ensuring that the final performance of the organization gets enhanced and helps to find different methods which will ensure transparency and accountability. An organization looking towards evaluating the performance needs to ensure that it uses different tools so that the performance is evaluated form different angles as highlighted in a study (Shaw, 2003). This makes it important to ensure that the performance of the employee is monitored in a more effective way. An employee working for an organization expects the managers and supervisor to be ethical and transparent while evaluating the performance. Managers using their own criteria for evaluating the performance go against the practices employees warrant. Evaluating an employee performance on what manager thinks might be unfair because decision taken by the manager based on perception and his outlook for the job can be biased and based on favouritism. It might involve a situation where the performance is evaluated based on personality. For example, introvert people feel that extroverts are loud and if the manager is an extrovert then he might prefer extrovert and despite all the efforts by the introvert will not be paid for. (Performance Management, 2005) The performance of an employee is thus evaluated on subjective judgements and the problem gets mitigated when the manager evaluates his friends leading towards favouritism. I am also of the view that personal judgements should not be use while evaluating an employee and it should be done on pure performance. Managers need to use measures and tools to evaluate the performance of the employees so that a formal and routine evaluation process is sounder and the evaluation is correct. This will help to build equity in the organization and will ensure that motivation is high. (Performance Management, 2005) Using a formal method will ensure that job requirements, efforts, and culture is considered which will help the organization to create a conducive environment where growth permits. Organization need to use every possible measure to ensure that performance is correctly evaluated. This will help to ensure a mechanism through which the performance is correctly evaluated and will help to remove the differences between the employees as they will be certain that the process used is fair and correct. Errors in performance management & ways to reduce it Organizations while looking to evaluate the performance of the organization and the employee incur certain error due to the nature of the job and the human psychology which makes the person commit those errors. Some of the common errors witnessed are the halo effect. While monitoring the performance the manager creates a halo effect around an employee based on his past performances and results. The manager is thereby guided by the past experiences and he finds it difficult to actually gauge the manner in which the employee has actually performed. This creates an error where the performance is not gauged correctly and results in errors. Another error which the manager encounters is the recency effect. This error is done due to human psychology which results in the person remembering the latest contribution of the employees. Thus, the performance evaluation gets biased as the latest perception and behaviour of the managers shapes which pattern of evaluating things. These are common problems which the managers encounter while evaluating the performance of the organization or the employee and needs to be reduced for effective performances. Since, the errors are common and take place due to human psychology and the order in which the things have occurred so looking towards developing a strategy which helps to combat those will help to ensure fair practices and ensure that the performance is gauged correctly. Intangibles such as personality, attitude and behaviour play an important role while evaluating the performance of an organization because it guides the employees for the future and ensures that the task is accomplished easily. The performance evaluation system should use a mix of intangible and tangible objectives to ensure best results as it will help to reduce the chances of committing errors. Organization needs to create a structure where the organization objectives are evaluated and the employees’ value matches with those. The performance should me matched continuously using different scorecard and meetings so that the intangible aspect is evaluated. (International dimension, 2005) This will help to create a situation where intangibles are laid stress upon. This also helps the organization as it helps to present the company in better outlook. Since, individuals come in contact with outsiders so demonstrating correct values like personality, attitude and behaviour will improve the organization image. Thus, intangibles should be laid stress upon while evaluating an employee performance. This will help to reduce the errors that the business commits as the evaluation techniques will improve. Thus, there are different ways that can be used to evaluate the performance of the organization and it is imperative that while using any method accountability and transparency is looked into. This will help equity to prevail in the organization and ensure that they are able to perform better. Conclusion Performance management and performance evaluation is thereby vital for all organization and organization while looking to evaluate the performances looks towards ensuring transparency and reducing the chances of errors so that the efficiency can be maximized. Further, organization need to realize the importance of conducting the daily affairs in such a manner that there is proper monitoring which will help during the evaluation process and will help the organization. Thus, organizations that are able to monitor and gauge the performances of the organizations effectively are able to ensure better efficiency and growth for the organization. References Garcia, R. 2008. Evaluating the organizational performance and social impact of third sector organizations: a new functional realm for nonprofit marketing. Conference Working Paper, Volume III Heather, R. 2009. Four Function of Management. suite101.com, retrieved April 3, 2012 from http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/four_functions_of_management International dimension. 2005. Managing Human Resource: Productivity, Quality of Work Life & Profits. 7th edition, The McGraw Hill Companies Karimaa, A. 2003. Efficient Video Surveillance: Performance Evaluation in Distributed Video Survillence Systems. Turku University, Finland Lupi, S., Verzola, A., Carandina, G., Salani, M., Antonioli, P. & Gregorio, P. 2011. Multidimensional evaluation of performance with experimental application of balanced scorecard: A Two Year Experience. Cost Effective & Resource Allocation. 9 (7), 12-32 Mind Tools. 2010. Project Schedule Development. Retrieved on April 3, 2012 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_71.htm Performance Management. 2005. Managing Human Resource: Productivity, Quality of Work Life & Profits. 7th edition, The McGraw Hill Companies Shaw, C. 2003. How can performance measured & monitored? Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe Read More