Performance Management Issues - Essay Example

Managers in any organization should be trained on how to motivate and encourage the employees. When employees perform their duties well, they should be appreciated and motivated. This will give them morale to work harder, bearing in their minds that there is an appreciation. Employees can lose morale and spirit to work hard if they are not motivated. This will make them develop negative behaviors which can affect their performance. This can result to low production and poor quality, leading to a general poor performance of the organization (Daniels 253). As the senior manager, my role of educating and training my juniors will be very critical, as it will influence employee performance directly. As explained by Daniels, motivation of the employees by their managers is important because it will optimize the attainment of business and individual goals (p 25). Daniels has explained this as creation of enforcers – these are the things that encourage employees to develop positive behaviors. In addition, it will make the employees more committed and engaged as they will better understand their contribution towards attainment of the organizational goals. I will focus on creating transparency towards achievement of these goals. I will bring to the attention of the managers, the importance of creating confidence in their employees, for example through rewarding them rather than yelling and demanding changes. I will be in the forefront in arranging professional development programs that will educate and train the managers on how to deal with the employees’ issues, more professionally to avoid rebellion and poor performance (Daniels 253). I will make efforts to improve the relationships of the employees and their managers – this will ensure a cordial working environment and encourage the workers to share their problems with the managers with no offence or fear. The managers should be trained on personal relationship skills. The managers should not be hard and should not be sincere when addressing the employees. For example, when employees make a mistake during their operations, the manager should not correct or shout at them in public. This can discourage them, and they might develop negative attitude that affect their performance. In such circumstances, the manager should attend the employees individually and (Pulakos 179). The manager should be well-informed regarding the conflicts in an organization. This will alleviate the minor conflicts that may ruin the whole company. Managers should be free to interact with the junior employees especially during mealtimes among other occasions. This will make the employees free after knowing the manager better and see the personal side. The title manager can scare and make the employees shy away. Spending more time with them will put them at ease so they can report work-related problems to the manager. The manager should give praise and positive feedback to the employees. This should be done on a daily basis to recognize things done in a right manner by employees (Daniels 253). I will also ensure that I improve on the communication process because it is only through effective communication that people are able to work together more productively. I will undertake a comprehensive training on verbal instructions and other ways of communication that can lead to better workplace behaviors – yelling on workers is a counterproductive way of communication that I will try to stamp out. The managers should have an open communication with employees. This will make the employees present their concerns to the managers freely without any fear. The manager will act on the concerns and get back to employees or the representatives with solutions (Daniels 120). This will create an atmosphere where the employees feel valued in the organization. The manager will be aware of small problems, hence, take immediate action before the problems become chronic or advanced. In addition, the employees will come up with suggestions and ideas on how to improve the workplace to the attention of the manager. Consequently, the managers will change their managerial philosophies to meet the demands of the employees in line with the realization of the company objectives. They might be having clear ideas and concerns, but they fear to present them directly to the manager. The manager needs to know how employees communicate with one another (Pulakos 56). I will also try to encourage my managers to become proactive, so they can solve problems before things get too bad. This will ensure that employee’ unbecoming behaviors are detected early enough and action taken. Furthermore, the managers will become more responsible, and try to deal with the employees’ behavior in a manner that they deem right, without waiting for my directions. I will also be keen to observe whether the managers are using any negative evaluation process that could lead to the bad behaviors and resentment. I will educate them on those evaluations that are productive and enhancing performance. I will educate them why most of the traditional performance appraisal processes are counterproductive – we will come up with new ways of dealing with employee issues. The managers who are engaged in yelling and forcing of change do not use discretionary efforts in their leadership. This may enhance negative behaviors, rather than encouraging positive behaviors. In this regard, I will come up with a program, whereby all the managers will be trained on issues of discretionary efforts. This will ensure that they evaluate and think about the consequences of the actions that they take. If managers deem an action as resulting to discontentment of the employees, they will desist from it, and look for a better alternative (Daniels 253). The managers should be trained to act as role models to the employees. Managers should perform their duties diligently, and they should set a good example for employees to follow. For example, regarding the reporting time, the managers should not expect the employees to report to duties early yet they are late. The managers should be well equipped with skills on how to set goals and targets before communicating and segregating to employees. This will make work easier, when supervising the employees as the manager will work hard to meet the targets (Cokins 56). Managers need consistent capacity building to develop positive attitudes towards the company. In many organizations, the managers fail to understand that the attitude the present to employees is the same attitude they need from them. Managers should identify employees who are ever complaining about everything and always not happy. Such employees are sources of conflicts, and they can drain the morale of other employees. Managers should learn to cooperate with the employees in contribution of ideas. Some managers within the organization treat their ideas as the best. The best ideas should be implemented, but if the managers do not listen to the employees’ ideas and suggestions, they do not use them well. They are experts in their employment, and the manager should listen to their ideas (Cokins 220). Employees should be given chances to think of how they can improve their work the business every day. The ideas and suggestions given from these chances are shared with the management team (Cardy and Brian 56). As from the outline, problems can be addressed earlier enough when they are still minimal. This will not cost the organization a lot of money. It will give the employees as well as the managers, an opportunity to interact freely by sharing both problems and achievements in the organization. The employees will benefit from the approach. This is because the organization will organize training seminars for them. Cooperation between the employees and the management team is important to the organization. This will cut down the cost of production because unnecessary mistakes and failures will be avoided (Bacal 45). The problem with this approach is that it will be expensive to some extent. The organization will have to incur costs when training their employees and managers to acquire new skills, especially upon the recruitment of new employees, or the acquisition of new systems. For the organization to monitor the work of its managers, frequent forums need to be organized. In these forums, employees deserve chances to present achievements and problems they find in the organization. To solve the problem, suggestion boxes should be put in strategic places. Employees and anyone else will present their views there. I will also undertake a performance evaluation, to assess and monitor if the managers have benefited from my training and educating. Those who have the best results will be rewarded, for example through promotions and financial rewards. Works Cited Bacal, Robert. Performance Management 2/E. 2nd ed. Ontario, Canada: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2011. Print. Cardy, Robert and Leonard, Brian. Performance Management: Concepts, Skills, and Exercises. 2nd ed. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2011. Print. Cokins, Gary. Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics. United States: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print. Daniels, Aubrey. Performance Management, Changing Behavior That Drives Organizational Effectiveness. New York: Performance Management Publications, 2004. Print. Pulakos, Elaine. Performance Management: A New Approach for Driving Business Results. North Carolina, US: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print. Read More