The Function of Performance Management - Assignment Example

The Function of Performance Management The present era related with the business world needs to have a lot of improvement within its ranks if it adopts the policy of working towards the establishment of a performance management system. This would guarantee them a lot of success as their employees and workers would dedicate their whole hearted efforts towards the well being of the company as well as towards their own individual capacities. Once these performance management systems are installed and in place, we can have a proper check and balance mechanism as concerns to the people who are working in the company. Performance management systems make use of the fact that performance is increased on the part of all concerned and there is no shortfall as concerns to commitment, dedication and devotion when at work. Performance management decides the basis for the future business activities and the processes that have to be given the proper budgets as well as the resources on the part of the organization. The business process reengineering (BPR) aspects are in line with how these divisions are made in the quarter of the performance management functions and boundaries. For the human resources tenet, the role of performance management is all the more vital since it has to devise ways and means through which different activities are sequenced in terms of importance, vitality, etc. Thus it is important to state here that the role of performance management does not end here, though its basis might just lessen a little bit in the financial and different departments that we consider our attention upon. However within the realms of the human resources division, the importance is made more and more essential since employees need to be appraised time and again about their performances and functioning. What this performance management system does is to ensure that the right people get the bonuses, incentives and so on as well as point out the ones who have fallen short on the company's expectations over a period of time. This would help in giving them rewards and incentives which will eventually make one and all happy at the end. Also this will continue their desire to achieve more and more within a specified period of time and thus come into the good books of the company. In return, they can be given all these rewards so that they could be encouraged in line with their work attitudes. Moreover, the people who lag behind with regards to their work schedules and dedication levels will stand up and take notice and thus would want to be counted as the effective and efficient ones within the company as well. The role of organizations in the maintenance of these systems is also very paramount. The difference from the annual appraisals and so on lies in the fact that the traditional manner of doing things relies more on the basis of paper work where a lot of time, effort and money is rather wasted to state the least. The role played by the organizations in advancing their performance management systems is immense since a lot of the population depends on them for their needs and wants. This is met in a fair manner courtesy the E-government initiative adopted by several different companies and organizations. All such innovations which help and facilitate the related process must indeed be given thumbs up since these try to solve the miseries of the people and it is because of these people that the performance management systems are put into place originally. This further pinpoints the fact that the deployment of an efficient performance management system policy within the organization would indeed help it to essentially tackle its internal issues in a better and more effective manner possible. There is a lot of growth potential for the sales force to be automated in the business to business environments since performance management systems are in place, more so because the business to business scenarios boost a trend of interaction in between the channel members no matter which marketplace they hail from. This could either be the vertical marketplace or the horizontal one as discussed before above. A lot of attention thus needs to be focused on the marketplace and the channel line to be in proper communication and touch with the next chain of command. This will trigger as well as boost sales related activities and speed up the whole chain as a result. Adding to that, the adequate steps taken in this process can eventually result in more and more positive relationship amongst the sales force of the business enterprises or companies that are in constant touch with other or even the industry which benefits from the multiplication rule as found evident in the Sales force automation (SFA). Thus the incorporation of the performance management systems goes in line with the aims and objectives under which Sales Force Automation came into being in the first place. In this discussion, one needs to understand the fact that the entire period related with the SFA is pretty closely in line with Performance management systems and therefore it is quite of interest for one and all to discern and find out that the usage of the two and indeed the same thing is very much evident in the business to business environments, not only of today but also in the recent decades. The performance management systems are set on the footings of the close association that is found with its basis in particular and it is for this reason that there is a lot of interaction between the related quarters. SFA has thus made its mark in the industry literature as well as published materials whereby one can now see the role played by SFA in nearly all companies and their marketing materials/published pieces. The era has thus changed for the better and performance management systems has ensured the very same. With the passage of time, contact management came into being and then this thus started the most enduring and long lasting process of incorporating some semblance of performance management systems within the related ranks. This started a journey which was to conquer a lot of grounds in the future time and the results are clear and apparent in front of one and all. Contact management was at times known famously as the 'electonic Rolodex' as this one became a much talked about field of performance management systems. Thinking of performance management initiatives in the light of the governmental regimes where policies and programs are administered upon, we find that there has been a lot of debate owing to the incorporation of the management hierarchy related with the performance appraisals. The debate is an interaction between the members of the Parliament, different journalists, individuals hailing from the field of academics as well as public servants who consistently advise and reform the government on several different aspects and issues from time to time that include within it matters pertaining to accountability, performance measurement tenets, information handling and so on. These are presented in a manner that is more and more accessible for the different stakeholder groups who have invested so much in the business itself. The goal of performance reporting is indeed to measure as well as improve the accountability aspects related with the government and not only that but also build the trust which is apparently lacking in the whole context. Then they have to respond to public expectations and concerns which are raised in the wake of different legislations, undertakings, etc. Performance management is thus an important indicator of the measurements where improvements have been made and serves to be a significant yardstick of the work that has been done in the relevant quarters. Within an organization, different mechanisms are now being employed which measure the performance and significantly check for the points where alterations need to be made. This gives the exact basis for the work that is being done and what is missing in the whole context coming under the organizational tenets for that matter. Separate roles and responsibilities must be jotted down and that too in a proper and adequate manner to address the discrepancies which might arise at some point in time in the wake of these performance management systems. Different expectations also are addressed so that there are no apprehensions in the working methodology of the performance management systems and the whole phenomenon related with the very same. Trust needs to be the buzzword which has to be built over a passage of time within the activity related with performance management and thus all efforts are required to be in line with what has been said and done in the peculiar regards. Thus performance reports are the best judge to discern this aspect and effective utilization of the resources comes under the very feature. Thus performance reporting is an imperative process of the whole exercise of the performance management. Robert Kaplan and David Norton devised the concept of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) which had the basic premise of measuring sales related activities of a company in terms of its vision and short term tactics and long term strategies. Thus it would not be wrong here to state that BSC gives the sales managers something to understand with regards to the sales performance measurement ideology and a concise sketch of the performance related with a particular business concern. Thus the significant sales performance metrics are touched upon in the BSC. BSC is basically a strategic management system which helps and facilitates the managers to highlight the imperative features of the sales performance activities in order to achieve success at all possible stages of the sales channels. Thus the fundamental role is to balance the financial perspective with the customers, the on going internal processes within the company and its sales functions and last but not the least the learning and growth viewpoints attached with the very same. The system of BSC consists of four separate processes involving the translation of the vision into goals which are of operational nature; the communication of the vision and its eventual linkage with the individual performance at the sales levels, business planning in general and lastly, getting feedback and learning from it as well as adjusting the long term strategy in accordance with the same. The BSC aims to measures sales performance on the financial, customer, business process and learning and growth perspectives and it is in line with all of them at the same time. The financial performance of BSC follows the reflection which is measured with regards to the economical and fiscal position at the time which takes into accounts the different amounts of debtors, the cash inflows as well as the return on investment. Thus it would not be wrong here to state that the financial performance side looks to adjust the organization's success in the long term and ensures that it happens. The customer perspective measures having a direct impact with the customers, on a one to one basis or through phone calls, following up promptly and chalking out the perspective in line with the different complaints thus received or competitive rankings at some instances as well. In the end, it is pretty much to suffice and correct to state that performance management systems will definitely ensure that the performance levels of all employees would exceed the expectations since it will guarantee them instant rewards and incentives. Their changeover from the traditional viewpoint is one which would ensure stability, a proper maintenance level and more than anything else complete understanding and track record documentation at all levels within the organization. Their interaction with each other would develop in an informal manner and thus a competitive environment would sustain within the organizations. Performance management systems ideology could literally backfire if there is a complete lack of commitment on the part of the people who are at the helm of affairs in the said organizations and were just interested with bringing the system to their respective organizations but not with their actual working methodologies. The companies which will benefit from the results of these 'performance management systems' would indeed be the leaders in their business geographical zones and thus stand out amongst the very best. BIBLIOGRAPHY BASSETT, Glenn. (1993). 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National Culture and Performance Management in MNC Subsidiaries. International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 29 MILLETT, John D. (1954). Management in the Public Service: The Quest for Effective Performance. McGraw-Hill SMITH, Darlene Brannigan. (2004) Managing for Value: Developing a Performance Measurement System Integrating Economic Value Added and the Balanced Scorecard in Strategic Planning Journal of Business Strategies Vol. 21 STANKARD, Martin F. (2002). Management Systems and Organizational Performance: The Quest for Excellence beyond ISO9000. Quorum Books Word Count: 2,042 Read More