Performance Management System - Essay Example

Business xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Performance Management System xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Institution xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date The University of Ghana in legon was established in 1948, affiliated with University of London called University College of the Gold Coast. In 1961, it was recognized by an act of parliament to be a University by itself (Martey, 2002). This university has Balme Library system in main Legon campus which facilitates other universities, institutions and many others. Just like another university libraries, this university faced resources challenges and the urge to serve an ever increasing customer base made it implement numerous initiatives. One of the applied initiatives is a performance management system unfortunately several components of the performance management process at the Balme library need to be improved (Martey, 2002). The reason for looking again at the components in the system is due to the fact that there was no evidence of conduction of systemic job analysis for the jobs in the library. Secondly the forms used to rate the employees contain vague items such as general behaviour, has no clear definition of the general behavior which explain to employees on what would lead to high or low rating in this category. Thirdly, there is no evidence that managers worked with the employees in coming up with the goals (Martey, 2002). Fourthly, there is no formal or informal discussion after the forms are completed both by managers and subordinates. 60% of the employees have never discussed their performance with their managers according to a survey. Finally, rating is done by different people like the head of the library rating people who he is has not had direct contact with the employee (Martey, 2002). This is a big blow on Balme library for performance management is a vital tool for it improves the organization performance by closely linking and aligning individuals, team and organizational objectives and results. It is also a concept that is used to recognize and reward good performance and mange under performance. They interrelates strategies and activities to improve the performance of individual, teams and organizations (Bacal 1999). Effective performance is characterized by clarity of tasks, outcomes, behaviors and values based system and all these linked to the organizations business plan. Unfortunately this is lacking in Balme library performance management system. Secondly, there should be periodic performance appraisal of individuals or teams against the achievement of these objectives, feedback from the appraisal, recognition or reward for performance team and individual development. Again this is not present in Balme library system (Duncan 1983). Poor performance management system is evident in Balme library. This is a fact for their system lacked the key elements of good practice in the design and implementation of effective performance management system. These elements include alignment, credibility and integration (Boice & Kleiner 1997). Alignment:- When designing the performance management should be based on understanding the outcome sought by the stakeholders, the nature of business, its goals, clients, culture, history performance measures and where its management want to take the whole organization as a whole. In this case, Balme Library ought to have specified on customer care and accountability as the core values of employees. Credibility There should be transparency, simplicity and this is done by engaging and winning the support of the staff. This will reduce the gap between rhetoric and reality and by addressing poor performance. In regard to Balme Library, the managers did not involve the employees when implementing the existing goals. This therefore means that they don’t own up the whole process making it difficult for effective performance management implementation. Integration This is done to ensure that performance management is part and parcel of the overall corporate management structure of the organization. These enhance a clear cut between staff responsibilities and the objectives of the organization and ensure that implementation is planned carefully and with enough training component. This is not evident as for the case of Balme Library. It is critical to note that, employees are not involved in coming up with the goals that’s appertains the performance management system. This being the case, workers in this firm doesn’t feel involved in decision making and therefore there are high chances that they will not feel so much involved or committed to the whole system. It’s natural that when workers are not involved in the work place, they tend to not owe up to the occurrences or the progresses of whatever issues it is. Therefore, workers need to be involved so that the implementation of the entire system can be successful and that they may feel part and parcel of whatever goal they want to achieve. Involvement in the work place increases commitment (Longenecker 1997). In addition to that, when coming up and implementing performance management system, there should be clearly developed behavioral factors that should be used to late employees. These factors are also referred to as performance factors. They should be designed in a way that they will touch all the area of employee’s performance like teamwork, problem solving, leadership, time management and customer service orientation ( Becker et al 2001). While rating the employees, one should have a clear understanding of the rating criteria as well as have worked closely with the employee rated. When coming up with the behavior, it is important that the employees be given a chance to participate maybe through interviews and meetings or group discussions. Then the supervisors should explain the same behaviors to the workers on matter related to how the behaviors and accountability will be balanced in reaching an all round performance rating. Employees should be made to understand their responsibilities, accountability and performance standards so that they can be aware of the rating they are attracting in every things that they are doing in the organization Performance management system enables an organization understand trends in order to improve operations. With this in mind, it is difficult to analyze the performance of Balme Library for the kind of a system they operate with is not at purr with what is required. So it will be justifiable to state that, the performance of this organization is questionable. This is due to the fact that, there are no systematic records of how workers perform; there is no definition of how they should carry themselves in the work place. i.e., definition of behaviors that can call for recognition or that are punishable is they are present in the work place. And most importantly, the incorporation of staff ideas in coming up with the goals. Performance management system when implemented perfectly in an organization has impacts on the several outcomes starting with the financial performance, productivity, service quality, customer satisfaction and employee’s job satisfaction. This states that in Balme library, the five elements are negatively impacted due to poor performance management system implementation. The success of performance management system and how it affects on business and cultural strategies is solely dependent on senior level support. Unfortunately this is not reflected in this case. For there is no evidence of any one time there was a meeting between the senior staff and the junior staff to discuss the outcome or the feedback of the performance management system. This increases the gap between them and makes it hard for the expected performance to be reached when these gaps exist. Moreover even if some systems quality like employee involvement and flexibility are vital, they are not the determinants of its success. Poor performance management system is to Blame of any shortfall of the performance in any organization. This need to be addressed in order to deliver the organization for deteriorating performances and I would recommend actions is taken to address poor performance. This is due to the fact that not dealing with underperformance may send a message to other employees in that poor performance is encouraged in the organization (Bernthal et al 1997). It is worth noting that poor performance only gets worse and there is not time it will correct itself without action being taken by the management. The process of designing, implementing and monitoring performance management needs to be in relation with the best practices. This are, alignment with the other parts of the organization, simplicity, flexibility, decentralized control, a measurement process and employee development. As for alignment with business objectives, is important to note that alignment is central to performance management. Customer needs, company mission and value, business improvement and human resources are reinforced when linked with performance management (Lingle & Schiemann 1996). If Balme library applies this, then the performance of the entire organization will be at purr with the mission statement they operate under. Furthermore, the organizations should foster feedback from multiple sources. By this I mean that just as businesses are building multi-active feedback into their systems, Balme library should do the same to enhance excellent performance. This may include self assessment and assessment from peers and subordinates and finally incorporating customers into assessment process. Furthermore, simplicity also needs to be a prerequisite. This is due to that the system should be easier to use especially for the employees to understand and ones they understand they will accept it completely (Ittner & Larcker, 1998). The senior management needs to be involved. When they are part of the whole process, they will ensure that the system work. For decentralized control, it important to highlight that performance management works best when the process is not highly centralized. An individual unit to handle their system makes them have a greater sense of employee ownership. The measure of results needs to be clearly defined. Organization’s value statements are key behavior or competencies that managers go for. Clearly communicated business strategies drive the results measures (Rogers et al 1993). After, all is said and done, there should be a chance for coaching the employees so that they are conversant with the system. The whole idea of the system is to improve their performance. Coaching is therefore essential in ensuring that the goals behind the system are met and this can be achieved only if coaching is conducted (Wiese & Buckley 1998). It can be conducted in brief discussions with the employee or it may also be extended interactions that will help employees meet the standards of performance expected by the organization. Training should continue for a considerable timeline. But as it continues, there should be sessions where employees and supervisors exchange regular feedback (Bourne & Neely 2002). Feedback allows the coach to be aware of where the employees need emphases and more so give him/her a chance to collect information that will help him complete the form at the end of the session. Information collected is of great important for it is even vital in making certain decisions. Information can be collected through observing the employees while they perform their day to day activities, written material by employees such as reports or reviews, notes from customers, notes from employees and supervisors own notes (Smith 1990). Not always will the employees perform up to expectations. When there are performance deficiencies or there are gaps between performance standards and actual results, there is a need to put some plans in place to help that employee get back to excellence. If this is the matter, the coach need to define whatever is causing this deficiency by indentifying its cause whether it is lack of skill, obstacles like external or internal barriers or unwillingness to do the job (Grote & Grote, 2002). When poor performance rocks an organization the management looks for a quick alternative but the most important thing is to focus on whether training will help or should there be a move to a different role. These solution focuses on the person who is performing that job bearing in mind that performance is both ability and solutions. This leads to stating that, in an organization, before one thinks of solving any problems, one should dig the root cause of the same problem so as to know whether it is from low motivation or lack of ability (Fink & Longenecker 1998). If one manager has a premonition that one is not putting the right efforts in his job, he/she can exert pressure on that person to perform but if it is due to inability, then this will make things worse. It is therefore agreed that one should first of all understand the problem eating up the organization. Finally, Balme Library needs to concentrate on involving the employees as well as coaching them. Coaching is an encouragement to good performance whose aim to draw the employee performance closer to the standards expected. After this is done, there is progressive discipline which should be initiated to ensure sustainable performance. In regard to the merit rule, progressive discipline is a system designed to ensure consistency, impartiality, predictability of discipline and penalties if justified by aggravating circumstances. The leaders in this firm need to stoop down and connect with the workers. From the case study, one can tell that there is no clear communication between the two. These leaders should maintain clear channels of communication. The leaders should also articulate the overall goals and unpack them for individuals while as for the individuals theirs is the need to understand how own target supports organizational goals and how the own performance impacts the organization as a whole. In connection to performances, promotions should be handled with a lot of clarity. While a person seems to be performing in a certain level, doesn’t mean that there will be continue success even in the next level. Managers should learn to spend time with employees so that they can indentify risks before they become performance problems. References A.K Martey, 2002. Appraising the Performance of Library staff in a Gahananina Academic Library, Library Management 23:403-406 Becker, Brian E., Mark A. Huselid, and Dave Ulrich. 2001. The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press,. Bernthal, P., Sumlin, R., Davis, P., & Rogers, R. (1997). Performance Management Practices Survey Report. Development Dimensions International. Bourne, M and Neely, A. (2002) "The success and failure of performance measurement initiatives: Perceptions of participating managers." International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol.22 (11):pp. 1288-1310. Boice, D.F. & Kleiner, B.H. 1997. Designing effective performance appraisal systems. Work Study 46 (6): 197-201. Bacal, R. 1999. Performance management. New York: McGraw-Hill. And the Society for Human Resources Management. Duncan, W.J. 1983. Management. New York: Random House. Smith, D. E. 1990. Training programs for performance appraisal: a review. In Peterson, T. O. Human resource management: readings and cases. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Fink, L.S. & Longenecker, C.O. 1998. Training as a performance appraisal improvement strategy. Career Development International 3 (6): 243-251. Grote, R.C. & Grote, D. 2002. The performance appraisal question and answer book: a survival guide for managers. AMACOM. Longenecker, C.O. 1997. Why managerial performance appraisals are ineffective: causes and lessons. Career Development International 2 (5): 212-218. Ittner, C, D., and Larcker, D, F. (1998)"Innovations in Performance Measurement: Trends and Research Implications." 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