Absence of Performance and Development Plan in Organisation - Case Study Example

Absence of Performance and Development Plan in Organisation X By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Table of Contents Absence of Performance and Development Plan in Organisation X 1 Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Analysis of the Problem 4 2.1 Professional Development Issue 4 2.2 Annual Performance Review Issue 6 3.0 Impact of Organisational Change, Corporate Culture and Conflict on the HRM Problem 8 3.1 Organisational Change 8 3.2 Corporate Culture 10 3.3 Conflict 12 4.0 Recommendations 14 5.0 Conclusion 17 6.0 References 18 Absence of Performance and Development Plan in Organisation X 1.0 Introduction In all sectors, the success of any organisation depends tremendously on its employees, but it must also be competitive and financially dominant in the market. This can be achieved through employees’ retention and job satisfaction. Currently, all organisations are looking for employees that can adjust swiftly in the business environment that continuously fluctuating. For this reason, the majority of companies have started investing in employee development programs in order to ensure that the employees remain competitive and productive. According to Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013, p.243), employee development is growing rapidly and organisations are utilising it to improve their competitiveness in the market. In terms of yearly evaluation for employees, Daoanis (2012, p.55) posits that performance appraisal has become a compulsory part of the organisational. Scores of decisions in contemporary organisations rely on performance reviews and are utilised widely in the majority of the organisations. Basically, performance reviews enable organisations to enlighten their staffs concerning their growth rates, their potentials as well as their competencies. Furthermore, it allows workers to intentionally create their goals for individual developmental and improve their personal growth. Therefore, performance appraisal is a crucial tool for measuring the frameworks that the organisation has set to its employees. It can be utilised to track individual performance and contribution and to recognise individual opportunities as well as strengths for future developments. This paper focuses on the absence of professional development plan and annual performance reviews in organisation X, which has consequently affected the organisation’s effectiveness. 2.0 Analysis of the Problem 2.1 Professional Development Issue Akin to other organisations without employee development plans, Organisation X is facing employee retention problem. Besides that, replacing employees who have left the organisation for greener pastures has become increasingly challenging. The effect of employee turnover at Organisation X is demoralising and has severely affected the organisation’s overall efficiency. Regrettably, the organisation has no specific solution to address the employee retention issue. Various organisations have addressed this issue by implementing programs that facilitate employee development in the workplace. Such programs enable employees to understand how to focus on their goals while still remaining productive. Kulkarni (2013, p.138) posits that organistaions that have implemented such programs have managed to retain their talented employees successfully. Undoubtedly, professional development is no longer considered an isolated tool for employee growth, but instead, it has become a key asset for several organisations. Professional development is concerned with the basis relationship nature of employees to their organisations and work. Without an action plan for professional development, employees at Organisation X are not prepared for the future and the ability of the organisation to meet both future and existing needs is not preserved. In the modern-day workplace, employees demands in terms of personal satisfaction and fulfilment have increased tremendously. They are using words such as ‘self-development’ and ‘empowerment’ to express such demands. The marketplace has become more competitive; therefore, it is important that every organisation develop a work environment that proves growth as well as development. This cannot be achieved at Organisation X because they have not implemented a professional development program. As a result, there is poor organisational loyalty amongst the workers, leading to higher employee turnover, low job satisfaction, and increased complaints from employees. It is hard for Organisation X to survive in the competition, unless the management changes their regulations, rules and policies. Currently, the organisation is facing immense pressure on retaining the talented employees, bearing in mind that the success of all organisations relies heavily on the quality of employees. Inability to maintain a quality workforce has made Organisation X to face more obstacles such as being unable to attract a qualitative workforce, recruit enthusiastic, dynamic and intelligent people into the organisation, and motivate the present employees. According to Kulkarni (2013, p.138), professional development is an important tool that can enable an organisation to gain competitive advantage and become successful in the market. Through professional development, employee’s ability to achieve organisational objectives is enhanced. There is no sense of stability at Organisation X since employees do not know how to meet the company’s expectations there is no platform wherein they can improve their current knowledge. Lack of professional development programs has left employees unsure of what the organisation expects from them; therefore, they normally carry out their tasks inefficiently. Besides that, misapprehensions normally arise because employees lack understanding about the requirements. This misunderstanding can result in frustration, especially when employees are not sure about the role they play in the organisation. Improper employee development can result in conflict or defiance. Organisation X is losing a lot of employees to the competitors, and the cost of replacing them is exceedingly high. Besides that, when many employees leave the organisation, it normally depicts the company negatively and shows the inability of retaining employees. Furthermore, whenever an employee leaves, the company is always placed back at square one. The root of this problem is the lack of professional development plans; therefore, the cycle has been repeating itself. Management at Organisation X either intentionally or unintentionally disregards the fact that a firm business relationship is achieved through understanding and trust. Lack of employee development programs can lead to poor communications, which could negatively affect the relationships. In addition, the company can lose revenue if employees work poorly because of poor training and development. Organisation X’s employees are not trained properly; therefore they are demotivated because of insufficient knowledge, which normally result in inaccurate work and low productivity. 2.2 Annual Performance Review Issue Performance reviews are crucial for effective costing and supervision of employees. Without an appraisal program, Organisation X has found it challenging to enliven its secretarial routine and improve employee productivity. Importantly, performance reviews are very important for succession and career development. It offers a renowned, customary, recorded assessment of the employee’s routine, and an outline of possible enlargement. Performance Appraisal according to Jabeen (2011, p.197), offers the organisation an opportunity to improve employees performance. Many believe that performance review is the best tool for recovering the magnitude and worth of the employees’ performance. Organisation X does not consider performance assessment as an important feature in the administration human capital or a control process element in management. For this reason, the organisation cannot review whether the performance of the employees is acceptable; therefore, it has become harder for employees to achieve their concentration. Performance appraisal in many organisations is implemented with the objective of improving both organisational and employee performance. Lack of performance appraisal plans makes it hard for Organisation X to develop its employees effectively and also to determine pay increases. In Akinbowale and Lourens (2014, p.22) study, they established that performance appraisal policy that is properly designed can help improve employee performance and realise organisational objectives. Evaluating employees’ performance is very important because it offers the organisation quantitative measurements crucial for the work setting. Organisation X cannot appropriately determine whether the employee's skill set is matched with their respective job. Besides that, without a performance review policy, the organisation cannot assess the strengths and weaknesses of its employees. Therefore, matching the qualification of the employee to job assignments has become more and more challenging. The organisation cannot determine the strengths and weaknesses of its employees and their collective talents because there are no plans for evaluating employees. Inability to assess skills of its employees, connotes that Organisation X cannot effectively plan workplace processes for its employees. Performance standards are contained in employees; therefore, a company such as Organisation X with no performance appraisal policy cannot determine the level of which employees have to carry out their duties at the workplace so as to meet the expectations of the employer. Communicating performance standards is not possible without evaluations; Organisation X has been neglectful in offering its workforces the needed to tool to attain their job responsibilities. In many organisations, compensation structures are through employee evaluations; therefore. The rating employees get after their performance evaluation can directly influence their wage and salary. Without employee evaluations, managers and supervisors cannot recognise the commitment, dedication and hard work of the employees. As a result, it becomes hard to identify employees who are highly proficient to assign more responsibilities as well as duties, or give promotion. 3.0 Impact of Organisational Change, Corporate Culture and Conflict on the HRM Problem 3.1 Organisational Change The reactions of the employee to change can be influenced by numerous factors. Therefore, when Organisation X introduces new Professional Development Program and Performance Appraisal System they should expect some negative reactions from employees since the process will involve shifting from known to the unknown. According to Khosa et al. (2015, p.55) the reaction of employees to change is influenced by three factors: communication, employees’ cognitions and emotions as well as the participation of employees in the decision making processes. Even though the aforesaid factors are associated closely associated, they all contribute different individual information. As mentioned earlier, the success of all organisations depends on employee performance; therefore, companies are looking for employees that can go beyond their job scope. Organisation’s restructuring and innovations normally result in reduced employee performance, and this has forced companies to focus on improving employees' performance. Organisation X is not connected to the valuable performance, because employees are not allowed to have more power to design their roles and job. Therefore, employees’ values, needs, and skills at Organisation X do not fit their respective jobs. However, these deficiencies can be addressed through employee development, effective communication, motivation, leadership, and organisational culture. Heedless of the type of organisational change, the change efforts success lies on the employees; however, management and leadership practices are the main antecedents of the change outcomes and employee reactions. Scores of organisations understand that an on-going change is important for the survival of the organisation; therefore, they put much effort to break the resistance and barriers associated with change. Resistance and barriers to change include strong organisational culture, time limitations, high costs, financial problems, employee commitment, insecurity, and technical challenges, lack of resources and skills, and internal politics. Organisational change is normally related to a crisis; thus, this demonstrates why it is difficult to manage change. Issues associated with change can be addressed by communicating effectively and ensuring the level of commitment from the staffs is high. Organisation X cannot make any changes without first ensuring that employees feel safe and involving them in decision making. As cited by Ioana (2013, p.317), communication plays a crucial role in ensuring that the employees understand their significance of the change process. Without a doubt, employee development process plays a crucial role in improving employees’ performance. The main objective of the employee development is to improve the employees’ potential to facilitate the realisation of organisational objectives and improve work procedure. Employee development according to Ahmed et al. (2013, p.5) is important for all organisation seeking to improve their employees’ performance. Currently, most organisations have invested a lot of their resources in employee development programs, which gives employees opportunity to learn and become satisfied with their job. Eventually, this results in increase organisational productivity and employee performance. Without such programs, it becomes hard for employees to improve their skills and leads to poor career growth. 3.2 Corporate Culture Corporate Culture involves shared values and beliefs developed by the leaders of the organisation and later reinforced and communicated through different techniques with the purpose of shaping employees’ understanding, behaviours and perceptions. Regrettably, Organisation X has not developed a clear corporate culture, and as a result, there is poor cooperation and mutual trust, ineffective communication, and poor decision making. Ahmad (2012, p.51) believes that a strong culture is a key to improves organisational performance is. Importantly, a strong and positive culture can result in improved individual performance, but a weak and negative culture can make employees perform poorly. For that reason, corporate culture plays an active and direct role in the management of performance. Organisational practices and organisational culture are interdependent; therefore, when one is changed the other is definitely impacted. Corporate culture is important because it facilitates the effective management of the organisation processes. The organisation’s culture, as well as productivity, can help improve both employee performance and organisational performance. Organisational performance and culture have a positive association, which facilitates in improving the overall results and productivity. With regard to organisation sustainability, the commitment of employees can help improve performance. Still, sustainability is influenced by the power and nature of corporate culture. In Denison’s model as cited by Ehtesham et al. (2011, p.80), a successful organisation can be defined by four organisational culture traits: consistency, involvement, adaptability as well as mission. With regard to involvement, organisations can become effective by empowering employees, team building, and promoting human capability at every organisational level. In terms of Mission, an organisation cannot become successful without a clear sense of direction and purpose, which expresses the strategic objectives and organisational goals. According to Consistency trait, the effectiveness of an organisation is determined by how the culture is strong, well-integrated, well-coordinated, and consistent. The Organisation X lacks consistency, which is a crucial tool for internal integration and stability. In view of the Adaptability trait, it is difficult to change an organisation that is well integrated because external adaptation and internal integration are normally in conflict. Organisation X cannot be considered as an adaptable organisation because it lacks experience and capability to create change. The performance of employees believed to be the pillar of the organisation because it results in development and growth of the organisation. Therefore, employee’s loyalty depends on the awareness and knowledge of the corporate culture. Quality awareness can help improve employee and organisational development. This can only be achieved through strategies that are rooted in organisational performance. Therefore, performance evaluation plan is crucial because it helps the organisation to achieve goals and objectives effectively. According to Kissack and Callahan (2010, p.375), employees development programs and corporate culture are inextricably connected. Culture analysis should be integrated into professional development programs since understanding the organisational culture can help the trainers in administering their program in various ways; specifically, carrying out the programs in a way that the organisational culture is accommodated. Organistaional culture has been described by Kissack and Callahan (2010, p.375) as an evasive concept whose influence is hardly fathomed by people who act within it. Therefore, being aware of the corporate culture process and its influence offer employees extra knowledge while undertaking the employee development program. Such awareness is reinforced with actions related to the organisation system such as communication. Therefore, making sure that the organisational structure and strategy supports the mechanisms of professional development programs can result in innovation and creativity. In this regard, management at Organisation X should understand that the system of performance management generates career paths for the staffs for a duration sufficient enough to form the corporate culture. That is to say, Organisation X should implement employee development system and performance evaluations systems so as to be able to promote internal career development, improve job security, and reduce turnover. 3.3 Conflict Conflict according to Hotepo et al. (2010, p.1) has become part of life in many organisations and can happen between groups, between individuals and even between the group and an individual. Although conflict is widely considered as dysfunctional, it has some benefits since it makes an issue to be presented from the different point of views. Therefore, the impact of conflict on the HRP problem that Organisation X faces could be either negative or positive. The negative effect of conflict happens when it brings about resistance to change, creates mayhem in interpersonal or organisation relations, promotes cynicism, creates a sense of defeat, or expands the misunderstanding chasm. On the other hand, its positive effects occur when it encourages human capabilities development, creativity and participation in decision making process. Organisations are considered to be interpersonal relationships intended to achieve certain goals and objectives. A person or group cannot become part of the organisation without being in conflict. Therefore, conflict is considered to be part of the organisational life. Certainly, managing conflict is very challenging, but should be viewed positively, rather than negatively. Conflict can be defined as clashing or differing of viewpoints. When conflict is managed effectively, it breathes energy and life into individuals relationships; thus, making them more industrious and productive. Moreover, conflict is crucial for employee empowerment, involvement as well as democracy. It enables people to express their opinions and concerns and generate responsive solutions to numerous standpoints. As a result, it makes employee more committed. Still, conflicts can be damaging, particularly when the members in conflict start focusing on the conflict rather than on the organisation’s productive activities. Conflict sometimes makes the employees become reluctant at the workplace; thus, resulting in the lack of cooperation, poor performance and wastage of resources. Moreover, when the conflicts are unresolved they are inclined to become worse resulting in more severe problems; therefore, it is imperative for organisation to learn how to manage conflict in the current competitive market. At organisation X, conflict may arise when the management decides to introduce performance evaluations. The best way to deal with any form of conflict that could arise is by taking a positive approach, whereby opposition to opinion or ideas is openly encouraged. Rather than avoiding conflicts, the organisation should try to reduce or manage them in a way that could benefit the organisation. There are numerous strategies that could be utilised to manage conflict; the first strategy is controlling the context. The management has to develop sound procedural strategies that can channel and institutionalise the conflict. Other strategies that can help reduce conflict include altering the individuals in conflict, controlling the disputed issue, developing a common set of goals and controlling the relationship directly. 4.0 Recommendations Organisation X should develop employee development programs in a way that it will achieve the organisational goals and result in positive consequences on the organisation and employees. To get positive results, Organisation X should implement Career Development Program, which will result in individual and organisational benefits. Implementation of Career Development Program would improve employees’ career competencies since employees could benefit a lot from the program. The employees would be able to learn technical and soft skills as needed by their jobs. The majority of employees value professional development programs because it results in increased salary or even promotion. As mentioned earlier, Organisation X is losing a lot of its employees to the competitors; therefore, replacing them with fresh graduate is not suitable since they are not equipped appropriately for the business environment that is continually changing. The majority of young professionals understand that they have inadequate experience; therefore, they prefer joining companies that offer career development programs in order to be prepared for the future. Introducing Career Development Program would enable employees at Organisation X to develop their abilities to handle novel technologies and also to survive in the future. In the modern-day work environment, most employees believe that professional development program can enable employees get higher remuneration and superior duties. Besides that, employees’ development could improve the employees’ knowledge and skills to handle the future requirements; thus resulting in job satisfaction. Organisation X should design an automated career development system so as to improve employee satisfaction since the work force will feel cared for. Evidently, companies that have designed employee development programs normally experience low employee turnover and high employee satisfaction. Furthermore, the system would increase Organisation X’s reliability since the employees would recognise the fact that the company is investing in their future career. As a result, the employees will become comfortable and opt to remain in the organisation since their skills and efforts are placed on the organisation’s bottom line. Although benefits and salary play a crucial role in employees’ recruitment and retention, Organisation X should understand that employees often look for opportunities to gain novel skills through professional and personal development. For that reason, maintaining such requirements would enable Organisation X to improve job satisfaction, self-esteem and confidence amongst its employees. Importantly, implementing the career development system could enable Organisation X to improve performance since employee development positively influences the employees’ behaviours as well as their working skills. Career development program is associated with employees’ technical skills. Introducing training programs will certainly improve Organisation X performance and enable employees to work in a proper and a systematic way. Besides the improved performance, introducing career/professional development program could result in market growth. In order for Organisation X to remain competitive and solvent in the market, it must introduce training and development program. Investing in employee development program would enable Organisation X to maintain its place in the market and also gain competitive advantage. Employee development programs are important for employee retention. Although are no specific techniques for retaining employees, a number of organisations have realised that employees can be retained of they are offered opportunity to improve their learning. Organisation X should understand that there is a strong relationship between employee retention and employee development; therefore, the company should provide development programs to retain experienced employees. Aside from employee development programs, Organisation X should learn that employee performance appraisal is important and relevant. Through evaluations, the organisation could be able to determine the career path of the employees and also be able to decide whether the give the employee an incentive. Employees get motivated when they get feedback concerning their accomplishments, capabilities and abilities. Performance appraisals will enable employees at Organisation X understand their strengths and be able to improve their weaknesses. Therefore, putting the performance review program into practice would get Organisation X off to a good start, and this can be achieved in five steps. Step One The management at Organisation X should determine the best type of performance reviews that should be adopted. Some of the performance reviews that could be adopted include employee self-evaluation techniques, 360-degree reviews and pay-for-performance. The company should experiment each type of performance review to find one that could work best in the organisation. Step Two The management should discuss with the employees to get their opinions on the preferred program. Before implementing the preferred program, they should first compare the advantages and disadvantages for every performance review program. After the ideal performance review program is selected, the management should work alongside the employees to make sure the company values, mission and philosophy are integrated into the performance standards. In this case, the performance standards will be what the management expects from the employees with regard to their motivations, interpersonal skills, job duties, as well as productivity. Step Three The third step would involve creating a training program for supervisors and managers and to enable them to learn how to use the new performance review program. After the training, the management should organise an all-employee meeting to create awareness about the new performance review program and explain why it is important. Step Four This step involves selecting the date that performance review would start and end, and determine how to hold the evaluations meetings and rewarding best performing employees through bonuses or salary increase. Clearly, appraisals will offer Organisation X an important opportunity to concentrate on organisational goals and work activities, to find and solve the existing problems, as well as to promote better performance in the future. The performance evaluations will provide the organisation an excellent opportunity to recognise individual employees’ development needs. 5.0 Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has focussed on the absence of professional development plan and annual performance reviews in organisation X, which has consequently affected the organisation’s effectiveness. As mentioned in the paper, effective employee development can result in improved organisation and employee productivity. Implementing career development program and introducing performance evaluations can result in effectiveness, accuracy, safety practices, and improved customer service. Having a well-trained and intelligent workforce is crucial for the organisation success and productivity. The espousal of employee development programs will enable Organisation X to retain its valuable employees and reduce costs for recruiting new employees the program will offer the organisation’s employees with skills that could improve their individual performance and that of the organisation. 6.0 References Ahmad, S., 2012. Impact Of Organisational Culture On Performance Management Practices In Pakistan. Business Intelligence Journal, vol. 5, no. 1, pp.50-55. Ahmed, Z. et al., 2013. The impact of organisational change on the employee’s performance in banking sector of Pakistan. Ethiopian International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.1-12. Akinbowale, M.A. & Lourens, M.E., 2014. Role Of Performance Appraisal Policy And Its Effects On Employee Performance. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, vol. 2, no. 7, pp.19-26. Daoanis, L.E., 2012. Performance Appraisal System: It’s Implication To Employee Performance. International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences, vol. 2, no. 5, pp.55-62. Ehtesham, U.M., Muhammad, T.M. & Muhammad, S.A., 2011. Relationship between Organisational Culture and Performance Management Practices: A Case of University in Pakistan. Journal of Competitiveness, vol. 3, no. 4, pp.78-86. Hotepo, M., Asokere, Abdul-Azeez & Ajemunigbohun, S.S.A., 2010. Empirical Study of the Effect of Conflict on Organisational Performance in Nigeria. Business and Economics Journal, pp.1-9. Ioana, V.R., 2013. Organisational Change And Employees’ Reactions – A Theoretical And Practical Framework. Economy Series, vol. 2, pp.314-18. Jabeen, M., 2011. Impact of Performance Appraisal on Employees Motivation. European Journal of Business and Management, vol. 3, no. 4, pp.197-204. Jehanzeb, K. & Bashir, D.N.A., 2013. Training and Development Program and its Benefits to Employee and Organisation: A Conceptual Study. European Journal of Business and Management, vol. 5, no. 2, pp.243-52. Khosa, Z.A. et al., 2015. The Impact of Organisational Change on the Employee’s Performance in the Banking Sector of Pakistan. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, vol. 17, no. 3, pp.54-61. Kissack, H.C. & Callahan, J.L., 2010. The reciprocal influence of organisational culture and training and development programs. Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 34, no. 4, pp.365-80. Kulkarni, P.P., 2013. A LITERATURE REVIEW ON TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT AND QUALITY OF WORK LIFE. Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, vol. 4, no. 3, pp.136-43. . Read More