Employee Performance Appraisal and the Motivation - Term Paper Example

Human Resource Management Table of Contents Overview 3 Importance of Employee Motivation and Appraisal 4 Motivation 7 Scientific and ical SchoolOf Thoughts Views on Motivation and Performance Appraisal 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Bibliography 13 Overview The term ‘human resource management’ is primarily associated with the designing up of the management systems so that the human talents are used in a successful and efficient manner in order to accomplish the goals of the organisation. The HR manager in the organisation plays three roles namely the administrative role, the operational and employee advocate as well as the strategic roles. It can be remarked that the administrative role of the manager is the major role in the organisation (Jones & George, 2009). Since the transformation is taking place increasingly in most of the organisations, the role of the HR managers also tends to change. The HR managers need to be more competent in order to deal with such kind of changes. When such kind of changes tend to trigger, it becomes increasingly important to motivate the staffs and appraise the performance on a standard basis. Employee motivation and appraisal are the most significant roles of the HR managers (Jones & George, 2009). Importance of Employee Motivation and Appraisal It is a well known fact that the recruitment and selection as well as training and development components of the human resources management system explain that the employees need to have all the necessary knowledge as well as the skills in order to perform the task of the organisation. Performance appraisal tends to complement the above mentioned components of the human resource management. The term performance appraisal seeks to gauge the job performance of the employees along with their input towards the organisation. It is increasingly essential to provide the feedback as well to the employees which can be comprehended as a process whereby the information related to the performance appraisal is shared by the managers with their subordinates. The process also permits the subordinates to reflect upon their performance and thus managers can work with these subordinates to plan for the future. However, the main point to keep into mind is that the performance appraisal needs to take place prior to the performance feedback. It can be mentioned that the performance appraisal can be exercised without providing any feedback to the employees, but there are certain managers who provide their valuable feedback since it assists in motivating the staffs and thus contribute to improve their performances. The performance appraisal lets the managers to effectively manage the human resources in the organisation. It assists them in comprehending the training and development requirement of the staffs in the organisation. In addition to this, the most useful decisions relating to the bonuses pay and perks, promotion depends upon the accurate and correct appraisal of the employees. Feedback lets the good performers understand that their efforts are being valued at the organisation while on the other side it also lets the poor performers comprehend the truth that they need to progress on the determined areas so that the overall efficiency can be increased. It has been noted that most of the managers dislike providing their valuable feedback to the employees especially at times when the feedback tends to be negative. However, the managers need to remember that providing feedback can benefit the organisation to a great degree. The performance feedback needs to be provided following certain guidelines which can contribute to the employee’s motivation and the enhancement of the employee’s performance in the organisation. It would be prudent for the managers to be specific on what they like to comment and then focus on the behaviour of the employees that can be easily corrected and is within the workers ability to improve. For instance, if the managers tell the salesperson that he is being too shy when dealing with the customers, it would do no benefit instead of lowering the morale and confidence of the employee. The best approach would be to suggest the effective methods to the workers such as greeting the customer when they are entering the department, asking the customers if they need any help can assist the workers to improve their performances. The performance appraisal needs to be taken as the method to solve the problem rather than criticising the workers. For example, instead of criticising the salesperson on not achieving the targets the managers may in its place provide the reason because of which the sales personnel could not achieve the target and thus identify various ways through which the targets can be achieved. The managers need to express the workers that he possesses the ability to improve. Instead of being skeptical, the managers need to express the first level managers that they are confident that the subordinate can increase the quality levels. In addition to this the performance feedback needs to be provided both formally as well as informally. The managers must not always focus on the negative aspects of the subordinates but also demonstrate evidences when the subordinates outperform. This will assist the subordinate to understand his potential and thus will motivate him to identify the areas of improvement. The managers need to agree to a timetable for the improvement of the performances. Both the subordinates and the first level mangers need to meet frequently so that they can understand if the performances have improved to a certain extent (Jackson & Mathis, 2007). The managers need to comprehend the reason for providing the feedback which is encouragement of high level for the motivation and the performances. Motivation Most of the human resource professionals believe that the employees exaggerate the importance of pay in the employee’s survey where the opposite tends to be true according to the research. There are a range of evidences that demonstrate the discrepancies among what people say and do with respect to the pay. Pay can be considered as an important motivator for the workers in certain situation while it has also been evident that the managers in the organisation tend to underestimate the importance of the pay for the organisation. However, it can be stated that pay might not be uniformly important motivator for all the situations or for all the individuals. There might be other factors as well that may assist in motivating the staffs of the organisation. It is increasingly important for the managers to evaluate the pay system in the organisation (Rynes & Et. Al., 2004). A survey conducted in three different cultural regions within one global organisation examined the inter-connection between the managers’ insights related to the employees’ performance appraisal and employees’ motivation. It was found from the survey that the managers of the North America viewed their employees to be extrinsically motivated whilst the views related to the intrinsic motivation were found to be a decisive factor for the performance appraisal. The managers of Asia demonstrated their subordinates to be motivated uniformly by both the intrinsic as well as the extrinsic factors. It was further noted that the perception in relation to both the motivations were similar predictors of the performance appraisal. The survey on the managers of Latin America recommended that they viewed their employees as intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically and as a result it was their perception of the intrinsic motivation that proved to be interlinked with the performance appraisal. While as opposed to the cultural variation demonstrated in the mangers perception it was noted that employees demonstrated themselves as being motivated to a greater degree by the incentives that tends to be intrinsic in nature rather than the incentives that is extrinsic (DeVoe & Iyengar, 2003). Scientific and Classical School Of Thoughts Views on Motivation and Performance Appraisal The scientific school of thought as developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor focused upon the performance of the employees in the organisation. He believed that money was the only motivational factors in the workplace. He focused upon the introduction of the rest breaks and implementation of piece rate system (Reilly, 2003). The classical school of thought that had been proposed by Henri Fayol, Max Weber and Lyndall Urwick is concerned with structuring of the organisation effectively. It was proposed to use the bureaucratic form of structure for all the organisations. It was further noted that in case of the bureaucracy the standards need be updated for the evaluation of the job performance since the required task never changes (Delta Publishing Company, 2006). Classical school of thoughts focus upon two appraisals such as internal as well as external that can be successfully applied in the organisations (Jelenc, 2007). It was noted that the scientific school of thoughts suggested that if systematic investigation takes place in the organisation then it might indicate standards and timings, proper methods for each of the operation in the organisation. It stated that the basic role of the management was to plan as well as control the work and the responsibility of the worker was to accept the new methods and perform as per the set methods to achieve the goals of the organisation (Management consulting courses, n.d.). Conclusion Employee performance appraisal as well as the motivation are quite significant factors for any organisation be it a new firm or an old existing firm. Both the terms are related to each other. If the managers conduct performance appraisal on a continuous basis and provide feedback to their workers on areas to improve and if the worker tends to be weak and appreciate the good performers then the worker tends to be motivated to work well and thus contribute to the productivity of the organisation. The views of two schools of thoughts have been demonstrated and it is found that both the views of the schools of thoughts aim at improving the working conditions and motivating the employees via various means. References Delta Publishing Company, 2006. Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior. Motivation. [Online] Available at: http://www.apexcpe.com/publications/471001.pdf [Accessed May 20, 2011]. Devoe, S. E. & Iyengar, S. S., 2003. “Managers’ Theories Of Subordinates: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Manager Perceptions of Motivation and Appraisal of Performance”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume: 93, Issue: 1, pp: 47-61. Jackson, J. H. & Mathis, R. L., 2007. Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning. Jones, G. & George, J. M., 2009. Contemporary Management 5E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Jelenc, L., 2007. Testing Validity and Reliability of Classical and Contemporary School of Strategic Management”, International Journal of Education and Information Techniques, Vol: 1, Iss: 3, pp: 172-176. Management Consulting Courses, No Date. Lesson 12. The Different Approaches and Systems of Management. [Online] Available at: http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson12TheDifferentApproaches&SystemsOfManagement.pdf [Accessed May 20, 2011]. Rynes, S. L. & Et. Al., 2004. “The Importance of Pay in Employee Motivation: Discrepancies Between What People Say And What They Do”, Human Resource Management. Vol: 43, Iss: 4, pp: 381-394. Reilly, P., 2003. The Link Between Pay and Performance. The Institute for Employment Studies. [Online] Available at: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/mp18.pdf [Accessed May 20, 2011]. Bibliography Payne, S. C. & Et. Al., 2008. “Comparison of Online and Traditional Performance Appraisal Systems”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol: 24, Iss: 6, pp: 526-544. Read More