Goal, System, and Contingency Performance Models in Management - Literature review Example

Introduction For every organization the performance is greatly influenced by the management of the human resource. There is great significance of management practices with relation to the human resource management as well as industrial relations with as far as the success of any given organization is concerned. In order for any manager to maintain a smooth and a good performance culture, he or she should adopt some very important performance models. The models that any organization will adopt must provide a strong link between the employees and the management (Hill & Jones, 2007). This means that they have to be structured in such a way that they provide great motivation and courage to the employees for the purpose of improving their working skills and productivity. In addition, the models also must infuse some aspects of the organization like values, experiences attitudes and beliefs. This is because these performance models are the instrument that every organization uses to cause motivation among all of its workers and employees. These models comprises of beliefs and ideas of which each and every member of that organization must comply with so as to achieve the objectives and the goals of that particular organization. This then means that the models must be made in such a way that they are acceptable to all the members of the organization whether in the management or employee Goal Model This model was critically from three different articles. According to an article by Gregory et el (2007), Goal setting is important for the success of every organization. It involves the establishment of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted objectives. It is one of the most effective tools any organizational manager can use to ensure the organization is making progress. The management is expected to ensure the employees working in the organization are working toward a common goal in the organization (Gregory et el. 2007). This is because apart from the common goal that the organization is targeting to accomplish, all the employees are also expected o ensure their personal goals with relation to working for the organization are in line with the goal of the organization. The setting of goals also enables personal development and provides the employees with a clear sense of purpose and direction. Goal setting has an effect on the performance of an organization in four ways. Effort: goal setting enables the people to add more effort in what they are doing. If the goal an individual sets requires more work that he or she was doing before then it means there is a need to put more efforts to ensure they accomplish what they have to. Choice: goal enables the narrowing of attention and proper direction of efforts to activities that are more relevant. Cognation: through setting of goals, people are able to adopt more cognitive strategies which will enable change of behaviour. Persistence: setbacks are expected once one sets on accomplishing their goals. This then enables them to keep persisting till they reach their target. In Their article, Boselie et el (2005), noted that in the organizations that are profit making, it is through goal setting that the participants are encouraged to put extra effort. This ensures that each of the individuals had no room for inadequacy. The managers in the organization may not be able to ensure the performance of the employees is improved, increased or maintained by motivation but through goal setting, they acquire self discipline to ensure their goals are accomplished (Boselie et el, 2005). This is because the goals can act as self regulatory mechanisms to ensure performance is improved. Goal setting has also enabled the individuals to improve their performance in a number of ways namely: It will focus an individual to activities which are relevant to the goals and defocused them from irrelevant goals Goals setting is a source of energy for an individual because the more goals one sets the harder one works but setting less goals means working less hard Resources maybe be a limiting factor in a workplace but individuals will keep persisting on their goals in a workplace hence increasing persistence and eventually performance Goals enables the employees to invent strategies that will enable them to cope with the situation in the workplace Finally, Becker & Huselid (2006), proved that setting challenging and specific goals has enabled an organization to experience high performance from the employees. It is not enough to simply urge the employees to do their best in an effort to accomplish their work but with goals set, then the employees will automatically have to do their best to meet the requirements. Goal setting is the best way for any organization to meet their objectives and in a SMART way. In order for this model to function well, there is a need for the individuals to show great commitment to their work (Becker & Huselid, 2006). There is a need for keeping feedback to enable the participants to keep a track record of their efficiency in meeting their goals, employees must also be motivated. System Model Three more articles were analysed to describe the system model. According to an article by Gregory et el (2007), Organizations use different systems of leadership and management to improve performance. Knowledge management in any kind of organization is very important because it is one of the ways through which any organization can attain organization excellence. There are number of factors that still lead to a slow knowledge sharing and management in the organizations. They include increase in the turbulence level, growth in the globalization, dispersion geographically and finally the localized movement. There is need for increase in the area of organization knowledge sharing. This means that there is need for involving the employees in the process of knowledge sharing through involving them in meeting sharing the objectives of the organization. Knowledge sharing at each level f the organization is the best tool to enable the organization work better (Gregory et el, 2007). Apart from the organizations focusing on competition with their rivals, it is also very important for it to think beyond the existence problems and try to improve the company’s ways of operations by ensuring that the employees are getting the knowledge they need especially on what is happening in the market at that particular point. Hill & Jones (2007), in their article covered knowledge management with reference to system model. There are a number of advantages of sharing knowledge in an organization which are as follows. It leads to improved level of creativity at a personal level hence leading to the creation of a room for innovation It leads the organization to a point of realizing economy of scale and so lowering the production costs. It ensures the company maintains consistency in terms of the quality of its services and products. It also enables the organization or the organization repeating the mistakes it had committed. Improves responsiveness in terms of competition Improves the organization’s process of decision making According to an article by Bosilie et el (2005), The structure and the operation with reference to the employment systems relation of an organization differs depending on the type of organization. There are so many factors that influence the attitudes of the managers in dealing with the employees. The perception of the managers towards the workforce is the factor that greatly influences managerial behaviours in terms of the styles of management and their attitudes in dealing with the employees. The manner in which the manager in an organization treats the employees will influence their productivity towards the organization (Boselie et el, 2005). This is because they are likely going to react according to the way the managers react towards them. On the other hand, the managerial styles used by the managers will also greatly affect their behaviour Contingency Model Contingency model focuses on the style of leadership that is used in an organization with reference to performance. An article by Becker &Huselid (2006), the contingency model of Fiedler involves the following The style of leadership is described in terms of relationship and task motivation The level with which the situation is favourable and it depend on three main factors the relationship of the leaders and members. This is the level that the members of a group accept their leader and support him. The second is task structure which entails the level in which the tasks are well defined and properly structure d for ease in accomplishment. Finally the position power. This means the level through which a leader is able to control the performance of the individuals in the group by punishing or rewarding as a way of motivation Motivation can be defined as a behaviour that is goal oriented. An article by Gregory et el, (2007), Motivation can be termed as extrinsic or intrinsic. Usually, motivation is aimed at increasing pleasure and minimizing pain in the lives of human beings. Intrinsic form of motivation is usually from within a person. This means that one is completely interested in whatever he or she is doing. This means that it originates from within and that kind of motivation does not depend on any other external happening. According to the researches that have been done, it means that this kind of motivation is mainly experience due to great educational enjoyments and achievements; this is whereby they attribute their success to the efforts that they have put in. On the other hand, extrinsic kind of motivation refers to the kind of motivation that comes from the external factors. Some of the most common extrinsic motivation on earth includes money, threats to be punished and coercion. It should be noted that competition is also a form this motivation. This is because at the end of the day it encourages the participants to win and get the reward that their opponents would have gotten. It should also be noted that a cheering squad is in the category of extrinsic motivation to the participants (Boselie et el, 2005). According to a research that was done it was discovered that intrinsic rewards can easily lead to a situation of over justification hence minimizing the intrinsic motivation in an individual (Boselie et el, 2005). Finally Hill & Jones (2007) noted in their article that in any business organization, motivation is very important. If we have to consider the Maslow’s hierarchy of need, then money is one of the motivating factors. Other motivating factors include praises, recognition, respect and sense of belonging. Therefore it is very important to note that motivation is vital in any business organization because it helps the employees to work harder and better (Hill & Jones, 2007). Other importance of motivation in nay organization includes: putting the human resources available into action by ensuring that all the employees have had willingness built up, it also leads to efficiency improvement of employees hence increased productivity, cost of operation reduction and overall improvement in efficiency, it also enable an organization to achieve all of it organized goals. This is because there is better resource utilization, better working environment, all employees are goal oriented. Conclusion In my own opinion, the contingency model should be adopted by organizations. This is because it involves human resource management. Human resource management is one of the most important activities as far as the success of any organization is concerned. This is because it entails the management of the employees in the form of recruitment and management. It also deals with all the other issue that involves the employees in the organization. Some of these issues are like the hiring, compensation, management of the employee’s performances, development of the organization, wellness of the employees, motivation of the employees, training, administration communication and the employees’ benefits among others. If in any organization the above factors are well taken care of, then it is very definite that the organization’s performance will improve. Organization’s performance refers to the status of the organization measured in terms of its output. It should be noted that this output is because of the employees work. The more the employees work the better their work performance while the lesser they work the less the performance in the organization. Reference Becker, B. and Huselid, M. 2006. Strategic Human Resource Management: Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 32(6), 898-926. Boselie, P., Dietz, G., and Boon, C. 2005. Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(3), 67-94. Gregory, G, Lumpkin, J & Covin, G. 2007. Entrepreneurial strategy making and firm performance: tests of contingency and configurational models. Strategic Management Journal. 18(9), 677-695. Hill, C. & Jones, G. 2007. Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach (8th Ed.). California: Cengage Learning. Read More