Analysis of Performance Management at the University of Ghana - Assignment Example

Analysis of Performance Management Based on Case Study Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Assignment is due: Introductions Performance management describes various activities that ensure that the goals that an organization or a business has set are met in a consistent manner maintains the efficiency of the organization and sustains it production. The focus of performance management can be on the entire organization, on the employees, on a department within the organization or the different processes that are carried out within the organization at particular times (Martinez 2001, p. 3-9). The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate a case study on the performance management at the University of Ghana including identifying one component in the performance management process at the University Balme library that has not been implemented effectively and describing how the poor implementation of the component has a negative impact on the flow of performance management as a whole and finally discussing recommendations that will improve the implementation of the component. These discussions will be supported by material from scholarly articles with emphasis on peer reviewed journal articles, chapters from books that have been edited and books that are specific to the topic of human resource management. Performance management is most commonly applied in the organizations in areas where people interact. This means that performance management is mostly applicable in businesses and organizations whose employees interact with their customers in their daily activities. Thus performance management is meant to act as an integrated and strategic approach that will lead to an increase in the effectiveness of various organizations by improving the performance of their personnel. Any organization that wishes to perform appropriately and effectively is after reconciling organizational goals and those of its employees so that their productivity remains at a high level. Performance management can be implemented or applied within a single department in an organization (Hill 2007, pp. 113-125). An effective performance management system need to have clear goals set so that the people who are responsible for its direct implementation know what is expected of them and thus they will take action that is in response to the actual performances that precede the outcomes for users and the general public that are better than they would normally be expected to be. Depending on the level at which the performance management was implemented, the actions that are taken may be on the level of an individual, a department, the community or the entire organization. The level is also dependent on the specific goals that the performance management aims to achieve (Shelley 1999, pp. 439-454). The appearance of performance management is different in varying places and areas of the organization and the common characteristics for an effective performance management are that it has a real time, robust and regular body of data (Martinez & Martineau 1998, pp. 345-358). In addition, it has a set of sanctions and rewards that are transparent for everyone to see. Also, the culture within the performance management is one of positive reinforcement that is motivated by strong leadership. In addition, the performance management has a clear outline of the review that will be carried out and they should include support merged with challenges. In addition, it should have guidelines of individual accountability that have been agreed upon. Once all these characteristics are present, the end result is that the implementation will witness the best practice in resident performance management. The case study is about a performance management system that has been implemented within the University of Ghana in the Balme library. It is an example of a performance management that has been applied in an organization within a department that is majorly characterized with interactions with the public. Body Question one One of the components of performance management process at Balme library that has not been implemented effectively is that the goals that the management and employees have to accomplish in the library in that there is no evidence that the managers worked with the library employees to set goals that they agreed upon mutually (Martley 2002, pp. 403-416). Question two The poor implementation of the goals is due to the fact that management and the employees did not mutually agree upon the goals that were being set and as a result, it had a negative impact on the flow of performance management within the organization. One of the requirements of effective performance management is that the goals and what needs to be done is systematically decides and communicated to those concerned (Martinez 2001, pp. 3-9). The term systematically implies that the managerial personnel as well as the employees both need to be involved in this process and if this does not happen, then the process will be disrupted. All the aspects present or involved in management overlap. Some even overlap in more than one way. For instance, the leadership that is available is not performance management in itself but rather a very essential part of its effectiveness. Thus, it follows that for it to do well and function effectively; it must be coordinated and integrated with other systems, within the organization’s performance management. This is the same for decisions concerning the goals that need to be achieved. Employees are responsible for taking actions that will see that these goals are met and managers are responsible for ensuring that this happens while the productivity of their organizations remains high. As a result, the two groups need to work together in deciding, the goals are mutually agreed upon so that employees are motivated to take actions that will implement them (Martinez & Martineau 1998, pp. 345-358). Failure to do so will result in instructions from the managerial staff being ignored or implemented inappropriately. In addition, the exclusion of employees from the process of making decisions about goals is an example, of managers excluding a crucial part of the production cycle in the organization, as well as, the performance management thus disrupting the cycle. The cycle of performance management involves planning, doing, reviewing and revising. If any of the components that are required for implementation delay either of these processes, the cycle will be impacted negatively and the process will not be completed effectively and productively (Fisher 1994, pp. 33-48). The different components responsible for implementing various stages of the cycle all work towards specific goals that have been set for them. The setting of these goals is in itself, a process of performance management that needs to integrate the various components meant to get involved in the processes (Hill, 2007, pp. 113-125). Other than that, solutions that these processes yield should those that have been agreed upon by all the parties involved, so that implementation will be easier and more effectively done. Integration of employees into the decision making process of setting goals is essential. However, including them in the processes is not enough as their input has to be made visible in goals themselves. Managers need to include employees’ opinions in the goals that they will set for them (Knight 2005, pp. 36-37). Consequently, the actions that employees will make towards implementing the goals that have been set will most likely be more effective, as they will consider them as part of their own opinion. The opposite of this is also true because employees will be more reluctant to take actions that implement goals that they did not agree upon. The different levels in an organization need to be integrated in the construction or development of a performance management system. If the processes of the performance management are not integrated across the various organizational levels, essential levels will be left out resulting in the entire performance management failing, as all these levels need to be involved in making decisions. Goals are the most critical part of developing a performance management system, because they guide all the other specifics of the performance management, including how the goals will be achieved and what needs to be done to achieve them. From this, it can be deduced that if the goals are set without appropriately considering everything that should be involved in the process, their implementation and the other processes in the performance management cycle will not go smoothly either. The result is that the cycle will be impacted negatively. Employees need to be involved in the discussions of goals with their managers because these two components of the organization are directly responsible for enforcing the performance management that has been laid out (Winstanley & Stuart-Smith 1996, pp. 66-84). The goals of individual employees must be linked to the overall goals of the organization, so that they view implementation as an obligation to them, as it is also a job (Martinez 2001, pp. 3-9). Many organizations already have performance management in various sectors within them. The forms that are used for gauging performance may have taken every possible aspect of employee performance into consideration and include them on the form, but in the end, it is the process that was used to come up with the form that matters (McAfee 1993, p. 5). The interaction that is between an employee and their manager, may solidify or break the success of a performance management cycle. If the relationships are taken into consideration well enough and are included in the process of performance management, the cycle gives managers and employees important opportunities to be of assistance to themselves and their organizations. However, in the case where the goals that have been set are not mutually decided upon by employees and managers, the performance management cycle will be impacted upon negatively as the opportunities that would result from the performance management will not be witnessed. The cycle of performance management is based on the framework that people have an understanding and knowledge of what they are supposed to do, and they have been able to partake in the processes of agreeing and accepting these expectations. If these things are present, then people can and will be able to perform in ways that will help them meet their expectations, and possibly even exceed these expectations (Hill, 2007, pp. 113-125). Thus, the milieu of performance management is one the goals that have been set for employees to achieve. If this process suffers a hitch, like when the goals are not mutually agreed upon by employees and managers, the performance of employees will not be optimized and their contributions will not be optimized. In addition, it will be harder to know which skills employees need to improve upon, as the results will be inaccurate. The intention of a performance management is that it is a two way communication between manager and the employee (Creamer & Winston 1999, pp. 248-263). Communication is a process too and when one of the variables, in this case the employee, is not considered, the process will be incomplete. Despite these problems that are caused by goals not being mutually agreed upon, there are improvements that can be made to this respect. Question three Improving on the goal developing process of performance management needs to be approached from a systematic point of view, as the employees and managers are part of a system that is implementing performance management. Technically, it is about managing a type of change or modification that is taking or about to take place in an organization. This change has to planned, implemented and kept track of then revised in the appropriate areas. In order to improve the situation of performance management at the library, goal setting discussions or conversations between employees and managers must be made a formal and integral part of performance management (Hill, 2007, pp. 113-125). These conversations should be emphasized even if the standards of performance standards have already been set. Making this process official will improve managerial commitment ensuring that the processes takes place; and in the overall picture, improve the component as well as the process of performance management. Another way of improving the situation would be by confirming that both parties agree that t he goals that have been set are SMART which is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-phased. The goals should be specific so that the employees know exactly what they are meant to do (Ingram & McDonnell 1996, pp. 38-42). Ambiguity should be avoided as completely, so that employees are not in risk of taking inappropriate or wrong action in the process of achieving their goals. Also, the goals should be measurable so that the manager and employees are able to gauge whether, they are making any progress in attaining their goals and thus know when there is need to make a change. In addition, the goals should be achievable in that employees should agree that they are able to get the goal done on the time required (Simmons 2002, pp. 86-100). Other than that, the goals that are identified and set should be relevant to what the organization needs to achieve, as well as, what employees feel needs to be improved. The last part of the goal requirements is that they should be time-phased in that there should be a duration or deadline set for achieving the goal. In addition, the manager should strive to understand their employee fully including understanding what they are going through at work and at home. In addition, they should have specifics about the performance of each of their employees and which areas each of them excel in. their previous successes and failures and the reasons for them happening will provide information and evidence that will support the various goals that are set. Thus, another way for improving the process of developing goals is by managers learning as much as they can about their employees (Martinez 2001, pp. 3-9). A regular feedback mechanism should be constructed so that employees become gradually comfortable and honest about their opinions (Lawler III & McDermott 2003, pp. 49-60). Once this type of atmosphere between the manager and employees has been established, it will be much easier for employees to voice their opinions, regarding what may be going on within the organization and what they feel should be done to improve the overall situation. Managers should also encourage and allow employees to have a spokesperson, who is assertive and reasonable and who will be a key person in setting goals for performance management (Ingram & McDonnell 1996, pp. 38-42). Having a spokesperson other will also help employees in asking for help and voicing their true opinions without being afraid to do so. Other than that, the setting for the discussions or meetings should be places that are free of interruptions and are conducive for openly speaking (McAfee 1993, p. 5). In addition, they should be given enough time to ponder and chose whether they agree or disagree with a goal that has been set. To ensure that meetings always have a provision for employees voicing their opinion about goals, the structure of meetings meant to develop these goals should be formalized and a specific time allocated for employees and managers mutually agreeing on goals for performance management. This will ensure that other performance management processes have no problem with managers and employees mutually agreeing on goals. The frame work of mutually agreeing on goals should be given strong root in the organization’s operations. An upfront performance expectation and a system of accountability should be established by the management through mutual understanding. This is to say that the goals developing processes should not be the only ones that have mutual understanding between the management and staff embedded in them. In addition, sometimes even if these provisions are available in the processes involved in performance management, employees may still feel reluctant about giving feedbacks and opinions the can be improved by managers having a supportive and accepting the comments that come from the employees (Management advisory committee 2001, pp. 13-48). Thus, employees will feel more encouraged to make contributions to the discussions involving setting goals for them to achieve. In addition, the managers should openly and honestly share information about what they expect from the employees then give the employees an opportunity to do the same (Sweeney 2001, pp. 64-65). Performance management has always been viewed as a function of human resource managers who are seen as having the primary role of under taking matters that pertain to performance management. For the organization to benefit as a whole system, human resource managers need to be supported by other departments within the organization, which will in turn give them the support they need to effectively include employees in the process of setting goals that they mutually agreed upon (McAfee 1993, p. 5). This can be improved by organization adopting a performance oriented approach that will ensure that the strategic management levels within an organization have a devolved approach to responsibilities. However, the critical issues should be left for performance managers to handle since they are closest to the situation. The support from other departments will see to it that the human resource managers and employees are considered in decision making processes that involve goal setting agendas. 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