Performance Management Systems at Apple Company - Case Study Example

Performance Management Systems Name University Course Tutor Date Performance management systems are essential in any organization that seeks to maintain its performance on a positive scale. In this paper, we shall evaluate the meaning of performance management systems and analyze their importance to an organization. The paper will also look into the external and internal factors. These factors are responsible for transforming talent and motivating employees to stick to a routine that will benefit the organization. In addition, the paper will analyze the critical elements within the performance management system that should be improved. In the end, the research will help the reader understand why those improvements are necessary by showing how they would be effective in the organization towards achieving personal organizational goals. All these issues will be discussed basing on Apple store as the case study. In addition, the paper shall analyze where it went wrong or succeeded in its performance management systems. A company that has well trained can achieve organizational goals. However, there is more than just employing trained personnel (Manoharan, Muralidharan, & Deshmukh 2012, p. 449). Therefore, in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, due to the existence of other competitor rivals in place, there should be performance management system in place (Bhattacharjee & Sengupta 2011, p. 499). These systems are responsible for monitoring and building the employees by transforming their talents and motivations into useful strategic business advantage. According to Apple store, performance management systems have been very useful in performance enhancement. There are many companies in place that are trying extra hard to out compete Apple store. However due to their performance management skills, employees have been motivated to work extra hard to keep the company’s name high. In this case, performance management system refers to a synchronized way of involving employees and other members of the organization while aiming at improving employee involvement to achieve the organizational set goals and objectives (Bento & Bento 2009, p. 98). Several things are often considered in this aspect; however, among the things to be considered in employee management include how to plan work by the human resources department and setting expectations that should be reached. There should be a continuous way of monitoring performance of employees to keep them on track (Waal & Counet 2009, p. 370). This ideology will help them in developing a capacity to perform, as they will be reminded on where they go wrong and in the end improve on their weaknesses (Kumar, Anjum & Sinha 2011, p. 4). In addition, it is essential to undertake periodical rating performance to analyze how employees’ attitude and other attributes connected to their work. It is best to reward those who perform well in their duties as a way of motivating others to work harder (Markos & Sridevi 2010, p. 6). All these are helpful in coming up with a performance management system for an organization to help the employees work to the best of their abilities. Performance management system considers four things. They include planning, acting, reviewing and recognizing of the employees (Aslam 2010, p. 6). Performance management systems also seek to address the following things; Apple store is a company that deals in the manufacture and distribution of highly advanced computers and other electronic devices highly demanded by consumers. It was founded by Steve jobs who was passionate about bringing the best to consumers’ at the most affordable rate. The chain Apple stores in the world are controlled and owned by Apple Inc. Apple stores deals in the selling of software, iPods, Macintosh personal computers , IPads and iPhones. In addition, the stores offer a variety of consumer electronics include apple TV. The technology used to design the Apple products are outstanding making their products highly valuable to many consumers. Apple stores are located in strategic places that are consumer centric, for example, Boston, Beijing, New York, Frankfurt, Munich, Osaka, Sydney, and Montreal among others. Apple Company Store is the only store that does not deal with the selling of software, ipads and iphones. This employee store deals with the selling of Apple T shirts, caps and other merchandises are purchased. It is evident that Apple Company applies a lot of innovation to come up with new designs of computers and other iPod lineups. In order to clinch top positions in terms of good designs that attract more consumers to purchase the Apple products, the company often employs great innovators. However, to allocate vast innovators, the human resource department has to identify people with talent and develop them to useful resources. In addition, the company invests highly in training the employs with the aim of making them up to date with skills that are relevant in attaining organizational goals. The culture of consumer service perspective is also crucial in determining come back of the customers. The employees are entitled to carry out bet relation ever with the consumers. The customer service experts are not allowed to discuss certain issues with the clients. For example, it is unethical to discuss issues concerning the abnormalities facing the company. This includes any employee or a technician-posting issue facing the company via social media is forbidden. Whoever is caught feeding the public with rumors, leaking out information about the company’s latest designs before the administration makes any announcements to the press, or public, the person automatically is fired. Such rules have benefited the company as the employees do their best not to be fired from such a popular company. Therefore, understanding the organizational culture is key to developing strategies that are in accordance to organization’s rules. When analyzing the key performance indicators within Apple store, the human resource department makes it a point to look into several factors. Among them, include technology, marketing strategies, supply chain management, employee motivation and training. The technology within Apple store is outstanding making it valuable to achieve the anticipated goals and objectives. For example, IMac apple computers are well designed with the latest software that is eye captivating. The features in the IMac computers are amazing and easy to maneuver through. They have advanced storage options of about 3TB drive or a flash storage capacity of 768GB. These amazing features are third power generation Intel Core processors. This processor is considered the fastest and best by 2012. Marketing strategies are equally valuable in determining if the objectives set within an organization can be achieved. In this case, the marketing strategies within Apple have been tremendous. Since the introduction of the company, apple has managed to open many stores that are recognized internationally. The marketing strategies used include online advertisements, and traditional press advertisement. The advertisements are usually innovative and persuasive to make sure the consumers know what they are to buy. Online marketing has made the company sell more with its ability to sell and distribute at doorstep level. In the end, the consumers find it easier to get spares to their computers in case they need any via the internet. Employee training and motivation are also vital as a key performance indicator. This helps in determining how far an employee can go in order to achieve set goals and objectives. For example, Apple stores make it a point to reward the best store that performs through giving them bonus. In addition, the best innovative team is used to improve on the products distributed to the market. These innovators undergo a series of personal or group training as they work aiming at attains the best. Even though, Apple has shown tremendous growth in the company through embracing its strength, it has also experienced a number of weaknesses within the organization. For example, the prices of the products are too high for an ordinary person to purchase. This factor has made Apple company competitors more flexible in attracting middle-income earners to purchase their products and threaten Apple's market. Most products of Apple are not compatible with several operating systems. They have specific ones that need to be purchased. In case the operating system are expensive to purchase and can hinder a consumer from purchasing another computer. The changes in management within the organization have affected employee performance over sometime due to new rules coming up abruptly. Instead of working with the existing rules, it makes it harder for employees to adjust to the new strategies. Therefore, analyzing the organization’s performance indicators will show the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. When considering the external factors that are responsible in helping a company achieve its goals, business analysts often consider opportunities the organization can adopt to make their work even better. According to 2013 results of the SWOT analysis, the data reveals that Apple stores have high demand for the Iphone 5 and Ipad mini (Finkle & Mallin 2010). This is an indication that the company can make more sales than the revenues received in 2012 that amounted to $ 156.508 billion. Considering the main competitors of Apple, for example, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. among other companies, Apple has the opportunity of increasing sales in tablets and smart phone markets due to their originality. In addition, there are companies that are considering forming acquisitions with Apple. This will increase chances of gaining patents that will increase sales of their products due to the apple brand name. The strong growth of mobile advertisement is growing fast in different countries that do not have stores (Lan, Luo & Ratchford 2013, p. 30). It helps in bringing about innovative ideas of advertisement that lures the consumers to purchase the products. Therefore, such opportunities are significant for Apple to look into in order to out compete their competitors and increase sales. Areas within PMS at Apple store that need improvement and how to improve them high prices have been a hindrance towards attaining more consumers to purchase the Apple products especially the IMac computers Ipads and Iphone lineups. This means that a new strategy should be in place to address this weakness (Chatterjee 2008, p. 55). Apple store can hire more innovative employees that are strategic in designing software that are affordable to all classes of people (Jacque 2008, p. 825). This can be achieved by investing more in training talented employees. Thereafter these employees implement their designing skills while using resources that are less expensive. In the end, this will play as a factor that reduces prices on products making it affordable to 80 percent of consumers. In addition, designers should be allowed to be in the decision making panel especially when it concerns the manufacture of an operating system (Kuye & Sulaimon 2011, p.9). The company should combine efforts with other companies and sell software that are original and compatible with the Apple products. This means that those who have problems with their current operating systems especially in countries that do not have apple stores , to have access to compatible operating systems at affordable prices . Consumer service perspective should be handled with keen. Consumers are key in determining if a company will prosper or fail (Chitturi 2009, p. 10). Therefore, Apple should increase their training strategies onto how they handle their consumers. A balanced scorecard system should be undertaken regularly (Martello, Watson, Fischer 2008, p. 68). This will help in determining if consumers are satisfied with the nature of products Apple provides. An online mechanism can be designed to survey people’s responses regarding products on Apple stores. They survey can also include giving opinions on the nature of service given to them while at any store or via an online customer service representative (Stefan & Horst 2011, p. 211). In the end, the human resource department will be able to judge how to work on the weaknesses within the company (Coad & Rao 2011, p. 257). Evaluating an appraisal form is important to determine the level of performance management in at Apple Store. This concept involves looking through the trends at which employees have been performing and using it as a baseline of rewarding best performers regularly (Mathison, & Vinja 2010, p. 113). This form should be filled regularly while the graph of performance noted extensively. The appraisal form should analyze if an employee met goals set for him, behavioral change, and frequency of appraisal. In addition, the appraisal procedure should endeavor to be logical via including flexible rating scales (Paul & Laurel 2010, p. 210). In the end, the employees will appreciate what the company does for them through noticing their efforts and working hard towards increasing performance in the company (Jabeen 2011, p.198). As described above, investing more in identifying new talent and training customer service representatives continually will enable the human resource department in achieving goals of performance management. The main idea behind this training is to keep the employees up to date with skills that are relevant in meeting consumer demand. When performance management systems in place are deemed towards motivating the employees in which the employees will work harder to achieve organizational goals (Royaee, Salehi & Aseman 2012, p. 62). Understanding the need for performance management systems within an organization is the key to understand if the organization will meet it future goals. The performance of a company depends on the internal and external factors in place. However, human resource should be highly trained to ensure that they met organizational goals. Through linking and evaluating, several strategies that are undertaken by the employees will help in establishing the best team. In addition, it is vital to identify new talent that is beneficial to the organization rather than stick with people who have worked in the organization or long. It reaches a time when their innovations are consumed, and they need young and new talents to address some complex issues. Reference List Aslam, H. D. (2010). Improving performance management practices in it firms of Pakistan. Journal of Management Research, 2(2), 1-15. Bento, A., & Bento, R. (2009). A case for performance management in the public sector in Nigeria. 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International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 58(4), 367 – 390. Read More