Performance Management - Term Paper Example

Comparison Paper Every organization needs to carry out their management practices through supervisory control, focusing on developing productive workforce and to have the ability to manage tasks through effective leadership traits. In this regard, analysis of these key issues is carried out by comparing three books, “Oops! The 13 Management Practices that Waste Time and Money”, “Motivating Human Service Staff: Supervisory Strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment” and “The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-based strategies for promoting work quality and enjoyment among human service staff.” These books provided practical examples with respect to motivational schemes and training of employees and supervisors. After identifying their strengths and weaknesses, it is deduced that the authors provide an in-depth analysis of performance management through supervisory control. However, there were few important tools like performance indicators missing which could improve performance management systems. Hence, in order to guide supervisors, the discretionary techniques in the essay should be adopted to generate assertive and productive workforce. “Comparison of three books” Introduction In every organization, Human Resource Professionals and management have a responsibility to understand the core competencies of employees and make effective use of Performance Management systems through motivation and supervisory control to generate positive outcomes. In this regard, it can be said that to develop a productive workforce, management needs to identify and focus on effective intervention strategies that have the aim of motivating employees, encourage cordial relationship among the peers and use quality and performance indicators to promote good quality of work. An understanding of these key issues is carried out by comparing three books, highlighting their similarities and discrepancies and finding rationale and solutions to the underlying issues that are lacking in the study put forward by the authors. The first book is “Oops! The 13 Management Practices that Waste Time and Money” by Daniels, A. C. The second book is “Motivating Human Service Staff: Supervisory Strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment”. The third book is “The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-based strategies for promoting work quality and enjoyment among human service staff.” Both these books are by the same authors, Reid & Parsons. Brief over-view of the books Aubrey Daniels, in his book “Oops the 13 Management Practices that Waste Time and Money”, talks about management practices that may have a negative impact on the working of employees. The author seeks to find solutions of these problems because as per his view, in the long run, these misguided practices have resulted in poor work performances. Thus, the book provides practical implications of the business practices derived from real world examples that presents guidance to modify business behaviors, bring out reinforcement strategies based on ideas relating to motivation and compensation packages (Daniels, 2009). The second book “Motivating Human Service Staff: Supervisory Strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment” by Reid & Parsons was written in the year 2006. Authors in this book also provide strategies to keep the workforces motivated through employee engagement, making sure that organizational culture is conducive. The authors also feel that it is necessary to ensure that employees enjoy the tasks assigned to them. The strategies provided by the authors are practically driven meaning that they are tried and tested in order to make performances productive and adequate. The main feature in the book that stands out is that the author has provided examples of about 1,000 supervisory staff that played a monitoring role to their subordinates with respect to motivation, taking special care that the subordinates are aggravated to perform their jobs effectively. The authors support their practical examples by giving rationales that provide support to the studies carried out in the book (Reid & Parsons, 2006). The third book, “The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work” was also written by Reid & Parsons. This book was written in the year 2012, and the authors made changes in their content by adding significance of supervisory roles that are carried out on a daily basis. The authors provided practical guidelines focusing on how supervisors and team leaders can perform their tasks by taking into consideration the quality of their performances with respect to staff motivation, staff competencies, training and development, problem solving and ensuring that the staff meets job expectations (Reid & Parsons, 2012). Comparisons of the three books The basic similarity between all the three books is that all of them provide practical examples and implications of the studies carried out in the workplaces. However, discussing the differences, the book, “Motivating Human Service Staff” written by Reid and Parsons the focus is on increasing motivation through supervisory control where authors have the view that employees should be made to work hard, but at the same time, they should enjoy their work because they are either given good incentives or are acknowledged, recognized and praised for performing well. In this regard, Reid & Parsons provided an example stating that in service industries most of the employees are seen having low morale or reduced levels of motivation, reason being that the nature of such industries lacks clear incentives. Moreover, it is seen that even the workforce itself carries such de-motivating traits because either their organizational structure is autocratic, or they may not have a history to work in the same profession before. Thus, as per the authors, during these situations, motivation becomes the responsibility of the management, and it is necessary for them to identify ways to support diligent workforce. Such examples given in the book show that Reid and Parson feel that the changes in behavior, as well as, skills can be carried if the employees are given clear set of goals to accomplish along with key drivers that provide support to them to accomplish their goals. Moreover, one way is to show people the impact of their particular set of actions that can be positive or even negative. Though the other two books also talk about goal accomplishment and key drivers but this book is different from Reid and Parson’s second book “Supervisor’s Guidebook” because most of the chapters in this particular book talk about “motivation through supervisory control” where the authors specify job responsibilities of the supervisors, exercise control over employees by serving as a model for their teams, having the ability to solve disagreements and problems. There are many other examples given in the book that show how motivations can work wonders in improving performances of the workforce through effective supervisory control. However, there are some similarities between the two books like the content regarding job performances and appraisals role, which focus on performance checklist/ scheduling activities with deadlines and targets through goal setting. Coming to Reid and Parson’s second book, “Supervisor’s Guidebook,” the major difference with the other two books is that the authors are talking about “trainings” to improve performances. The authors have the view that staff needs to be trained first before assigning them tasks, focusing on developing knowledge, expertise and verbal skills in order to coordinate and interact within the organization as well as with clients if the need arises. These trainings promise better working processes and performances if the main focus is on knowledge enhancement that are evidence-based using performance and competency-based strategies. However, problems arise when trainers do not have the means to provide written description of any skill development, aligning targets while training is being carried out. Though, here training is carried out about improvement in knowledge and verbal skills, but the main protocol here is performance development, enriching them through different mediums of instructions. In this book, Reid believes that during training of staff, rehearsal, a step that every trainee is supposed to undergo, is omitted as they are mostly provided with written guidelines and demonstrations. However, Reid & Parson also have the view that after the trainings are completed there are mostly insufficient steps taken to see practical implication make their performances better. In order to make these trainings effective, the authors feel that it is better that these trainings are scheduled into short segments or sessions so that there is no disruption of the working, and there is a practical application of the trainings carried out. Besides these, active participation of staff will be seen if there are practical role-plays that make it easier for the staff to accept these trainings. This book is still similar with, “Motivating Human Service Staff” as the authors maintain the same argument about performance management systems, but there are few major differences. Firstly, the authors provide step-by-step guidance as they had a diverse experience of over 60 years in supervisory roles. These steps provided by the authors provide solutions to problematic performances. The second major difference is that the book provides 92 major points derived from actions of the supervisors with 300 references that make the book stand out. Evidences are research based, and authenticity of sources make the book makes approachable, not just by scholars but by critics as well. If comparisons are made between “Supervisor’s Guidebook” and Aubrey Daniels “Oops 13 Management Practices” it is seen that Aubrey Daniels has provided more examples of the mistakes that are generally made by the management and the staff relating to mergers & acquisitions, performance management and appraisals. Though, all the three books talk about behaviors of supervisors but Aubrey talks about the common blunders carried out at the managerial level. According to him, these supervisors should not promote people who are generally disliked in the organization, and they should stop favoring smart people and using a reward program like “employee of the month” that may de-motivate or upset other people in the organization. Though, the major similarities with Reid’s “Supervisors guidebook” is that he provides application of training programs, ranking, and recognition of the people but the dissimilarities are that he identifies real-life scenarios that fail in forming effective performance management systems as there is a lack of a good reward system because of underlying budget issues. Hence, in this regard, it can be said that the author has the aim to develop and build a performance matrix that makes it easier for every employee to measure his or her performances. During downsizing, mergers and acquisitions, the author Daniels have the view that supervisors and managers need to manage effective working of the subordinates by making decisions relating to their goals and accomplishments and to stop having conventional beliefs or using behavioral sciences to accomplish targets. However, as per the author, even if behaviors analysis are being conducted to judge performances then it would be essential to set a measuring scale that interprets how effective behaviors are having a certain impact on the performances. Plus, these behaviors and outcomes should be known, listed and measuring scale should comprise of a score card, having the lists of all the key activities/ behavior patterns in order to make a judgment. These should relate each behavior with the activity of an employee in order to generate an understanding on how they are performing to attain organizational goal. Hence, it can be said that, even though, the main themes in the three books is the same but the authors have identified different approaches to study performance management through supervisory control in the organization. After reading the three books, one can find out few weaknesses and discrepancies that are being discussed below. Discrepancies First of all, the author, Daniels in his book, “Oops 13 Management Practices” has only focuses on behavioral traits of the manager or the supervisors, failing to provide rationale and significance of personalized goal setting. Though, the author has talked about stretching goals and its negative implications but it is also necessary to state how goals should be drafted that could link with performances and behaviors of the employees, using individualized goal plan as a guideline. Moreover, the authors have not mention the importance of performance indicators. KPI’s or key performance indicators are missing that are now widely used in the organizations with respect to ongoing competitive forces in the market. As far as the book, “Motivating Human Service Staff” is concerned; comparatively it focuses on an entirely different subject than “Oops 13 Management Practices” and it lacks tools and techniques that are currently used in the organization. It is also necessary to state that due to the advancement of technology, organizations are using performance and quality indicators more frequently that judge the activities of the supervisors. Hence, even if there are practical examples of more than 1000 working men and women but most of work diligence and strategies of modern times are modifying and changing. The third book, “Supervisory Control” provides a thorough examination of supervisory control. However, the only discrepancy in the book is that the authors have talked about Training and development of the supervisors and employees and neglected the corporate behaviors with respect to workforce dynamics, corporate culture and presence of multi-cultural workforce. Rationale & Solutions In order to provide solutions to the above-mentioned discrepancies in the three books, the following rationales are being put forward. I feel that the authors have failed to talk about individual goals so my rationale for goal setting is that it is necessary to set individual goals and tasks in the organization that establishes a benchmark for the employees to carry out their assignments in a pre-determined time frame. In my opinion, individual goals provide motivation for employees that encourage them to behave in productive ways to accomplish their tasks on time. The solutions, I draw from this aspect is making sure that every individual is assigned one major goal. I feel that an individual’s roles and responsibilities should be carried out to achieve that single goal so that he can prioritize his tasks to accomplish it. I feel that all companies to determine the behaviors of employees should use the performance indicators. I feel that it would help the companies to draft a performance appraisal. Key Performance indicators or KPI’s are the quantifiable measurable tools that are now used in various companies worldwide. My rationale for using KPI’s is that I feel every organization requires using these indicators to determine a criterion for judging performances of employees. It will also help supervisors evaluate their subordinates and make Job Appraisals based on these performances. Moreover, the strategic goals chosen by the supervisors help reflect the level of productivity with respect to KPIs. As a solution, I would recommend companies to stop using incentives for fixed target. Instead of this, I would prefer that companies should award employees as per the result they generate in order to maximize productivity as well profit potential. As mentioned before, the studies in the book lack current tools and techniques that are used in the companies. I base my rationale on the fact that even though motivation, performance and quality indicators are essential elements in every organization, but it is still necessary to identify the changing trends and adapt to changing work environment with agility and devotion. For me, benchmarking is a solution, which is currently used in the organizations. I think it would be necessary for the companies make comparisons of their businesses with the best practices of other competitive businesses with dimensions such as quality, time and costs. Practically, I would recommend the companies to benchmark these dimensions, measure performances on these bases in order to make strategic and performance management about employees behavior easier. I always feel it is necessary to talk about the impact of organizational culture on performances because they create different behavioral traits. A conducive work environment promises better opportunities but if there the organizational culture is authoritative and biased then employees get demotivated and it may affect their performances and behaviors as well. My rationale for this is that I feel that organizational culture needs to be continuously improved through employee engagement. Though motivation is an important purpose of employee engagement but it requires intellectual, affective (feeling optimistic) and be social engagement in order to have dedicated employees. Moreover, it is seen that supervisors monitor the workplace ethics but comfortable workspaces are necessary. These include proper lighting, a well-kept stock of appliances or equipment and inviting room that can boost the comfortable working of the team. I feel these aspects were missing in the three books. As a solution, I would recommend that the focus be on communication and employee engagement as they would give rise to a better work environment which can be achieved by individualizing engagement and feedback mechanisms with tracking devices in order to make their implementation effective. I feel that in this global world, multi-cultural teams have more chances to give productive outcomes as they have a better understanding of the global market and cater to the issues of a multi- cultural society. Hence, the focus should be on creating and hiring multi-cultural teams to increase workplace performances. I feel that it is necessary to introduce multi-cultural teams in organizations because the impact of a diverse workforce is imperative as they can communicate better with the global clients and in this competitive market supervisors need to hire a diverse workforce to succeed, improve performances and achieve competitive advantage over companies. Conclusion In the end, it can be concluded that the comprehensive examination of the three books provides an in-depth analysis of performance management through supervisory control. The books provided practical examples with respect to motivational schemes and training of employees and supervisors. However, I felt that there were few important tools like performance indicators missing which could improve performance management systems. Hence, in order to guide supervisors, the given discretionary techniques should be adopted to generate assertive and productive workforce. Reference List Daniels, A. C. (2009). Oops!: Thirteen Management Practices that Waste Time and Money (and what to Do Instead). New York: Performance Management Publications. Reid, D., & Parsons, M. (2006). Motivating human service staff: Supervisory strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment. New York: Habilitative Management Consultants. Reid, D., & Parsons, M. (2012). The Supervisors Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment among Human Service Staff . New York: Habilitative Management Consultants. Read More