Employee Engagement and Performance Management - Annotated Bibliography Example

Employee engagement and performance management Name: Institution: Professor: Course: Date: Introduction Employee engagement and performance management is seen as a combination of commitment to the organization and its values and a willingness to help out colleagues (organizational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract. In managing performance employers want engaged employees because they deliver improved business performance. The aim of this information is to provide best strategic means and ways for improving employee engagement in a move to boost performance of the company. Employee engagement is high when the statements and conversations held reflect a natural enthusiasm for the company, its employees and the products or services provided (Stockley, 2005). For acknowledgement purpose I have reviewed and cited a number of articles in relation to the subject matter of the step the company is intending to take. Information provided from 7 sources will aid in ascertaining the argument towards employee engagement and performance appraisal. Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B., Stine, C. (2011). “Performance Management at the Wheel: Driving Employee Engagement in Organizations.” Journal for Business Psychology. (2011); 26:205–212 This article is based on a study conducted in a large corporation (XINC, a pseudonym) and other research; it gives an overview of how performance management can be used to increase levels of employee engagement. The article begins by with a discussion of employee engagement, define engaged employees as those who feel involved, committed, passionate, and empowered, and demonstrate those feelings in work behavior. It then discuses an expanded view of performance management, conceptualizing it as five major activities that serve to organize relevant behaviors shown to be either direct or indirect predictors of employee engagement in the study at XINC Although there is evidence for performance management as a driver of employee engagement, the authors conclude that there is a need for additional research that clarifies for managers which of these activities have the strongest impact on employee engagement. With this information there are factors that will be useful to the management of Nokia Corporation Australia, to strategize ways of employee engagement towards achieving greater employee performance. Nankervis, A.R. & Compton, R.L. “Performance management: Theory in practice?” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2006; 44(1): 83-101 This paper gives a report of the findings of a recent Australian study of performance management systems conducted. With views of a broad sample of Australian HR professionals have been reflected, I personally recommend its findings and approaches that it stipulates towards achieving employee performance. Its main purposes were to update findings from earlier studies, to ascertain current levels of use and satisfaction, and to determine whether performance management has become a more effective strategic tool in the human resource management repertoire. The article is mostly just trying to ascertain the available theories towards employee performance, basing on that view it would be a recommended move towards gather relevant factors and information on employee engagement from this source. The findings suggest, as in earlier studies, that the use of, and satisfaction with performance management systems remain problematic, although there are some indications that the increasing integration of the balanced scorecard within these systems appears to encourage more strategic links between individual, group, and organizational outcomes, as espoused by strategic human resource management theorists. Compton, R. (2005). “Performance Management: Panacea or Corporate Outcast?” Research and Practice in Human Resource Management. 2005; 13(1): 46-54. This paper reports the findings of the most recent and largest Australian study undertaken to date of performance management systems across industry and government organizations of all sizes and types. With Performance management continuing to be one of the most critical and criticized processes within the discipline of human resource management, methods like employee engagement have to be applied and that’s why I find this to be a relevant and useful source for gathering evaluative information on engaging into employee engagement. Campton concludes that there was some expectation that the pressures of globalization, increased regional competition, industry rationalization, and a significantly more cooperative industrial relations environment, would have encouraged employers to redesign their performance management systems in order to reflect their competitive imperatives, and to enable closer links between individual, group, and organizational objectives and outcomes. His conclusion hints to the various factors that should be considered in the process employee engagement. London, M., Mone, E. M. and Scott, J. C. (2004), “Performance management and assessment: Methods for improved rater accuracy and employee goal setting.” Human Resource Management, 2004; 43: 319–336 This article examines the gaps between research and practice in the areas of rater accuracy and goal setting. Prior research has shown that human resource managers may incorrectly believe that training raters to recognize errors will increase rater accuracy and that employee participation in goal setting is more effective than assigning goals. London and his team formulated their Theory-based research suggesting ways to help raters recognize expected performance and enable employees to self-regulate their pursuit of goals. Although this article does not provide a comprehensive work on employee engagement, I find it has a few pointers that can be used in facilitating the introduction and emphasizing on employee engagement here at Nokia Corporation Australia. The later can be achieved because when we look into the authors’ conclusion that describes applications of these findings to performance management programs and suggest methods for evaluating their effectiveness once implemented. Fee, A., McGrath-Champ, S., Yang, X. 2011. “Expatriate performance management and firm internationalization: Australian multinationals in China.” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. 2011; 49(3): 365-384 The article presents the results of an empirical study exploring the expatriate performance management systems of 16 Australian multinational firms operating in China. Looking at Nokia Corporation Australia being a Multinational Mobile Phone Manufacturer operating in Australia makes the findings in this article very useful. The authors results show that highly internationalized firms tend to be better at deploying the ‘hard’ components of performance management (goal-setting and performance appraisals), and yet most firms, and in particular highly internationalized ones, are poor at managing ‘soft’ control mechanisms like training and mentoring. The results in this article can be a better guide on the key trends in multinational firms on employee engagement and how widespread is the practice, its effectiveness and its influence towards employee performance. The results give some support for the notion that expatriate performance management takes on increased importance as a firm's international operations become more dispersed; however, it also suggests a lack of appreciation of the value of soft control mechanisms in achieving this. Appreciation I this case strongly leaning towards Catteeuw, F., Flynn, E., & Vonderhorst, J. (2007). “Employee engagement: boosting productivity in turbulent times.” Organization Development Journal, 25(2), 151–156. This article was written to bring out an understanding that internal and external change impacts productivity, J&J PRD's Global Organizational Development (OD) team identified employee engagement as an important tool to ensure long-term growth and success. Following both internal and external research, the OD team partnered with business leaders and Human Resource Generalists to develop and implement a global employee engagement model and strategy. At the time this model and strategy was developed and implemented, it was unclear what the model and strategy would do to, or for the organization's business reality of ongoing change. Although just recently implemented, the anecdotal evidence shows promise. This article concludes with suggestions for OD professionals to consider when planning a similar initiative in their organization. The survey carried in the process of writing this article gives relevant information towards employee engagement, it even offers various strategies, those that work and those that fail towards attaining an effective employee engagement process. Fred Luthans, F. & Peterson, J.S. (2002) "Employee engagement and manager self-efficacy", Journal of Management Development. 2002; 21(5): 376 – 387 This article is based on a study that first examines the theoretical understanding of employee engagement. Then an empirical investigation is made of the role that a wide variety of managers’ psychological state of self-efficacy plays in the relationship between their employees’ measured engagement and a multiple measure of the managers’ effectiveness. Overall, these findings suggest that both employee engagement and manager self-efficacy are important antecedents that together may more positively influence manager effectiveness than either predictor by itself. Implications for effective management development and practice are discussed. Analysis The first article is based on a study conducted in a large corporation; it gives an overview of how performance management can be used to increase levels of employee engagement. Although there is evidence for performance management as a driver of employee engagement, the authors conclude that there is a need for additional research that clarifies for managers which of these activities have the strongest impact on employee engagement. This conclusion is what brings me to include the other six articles, this article on their own do no give a comprehensive understanding into employment engagement. But with the specific information gathered from each article, this will aid in creating an understanding into employee engagement towards improving the performance of the firm. With the first article as a basic guide we can draw certain assumptions the other articles starting with the second one which looks into performance management with its main purposes being to update findings from earlier studies, to ascertain current levels of use and satisfaction, and to determine whether performance management has become a more effective strategic tool in the human resource management. This comes into agreement with the conclusion of the first article on further study being carried in this field. The third article provides a report on the findings of the most recent and largest Australian study, undertaken to date of performance management systems across industry and government organizations of all sizes and types. The results in this study cannot be really used to critique the credibility in the assumptions of the first article because of its findings being based on past issues as much as it is basing its findings on current trends. Findings in the fourth article are not directly related to the information provided in the first article, but content forms a good source for gathering and understanding that goal setting is more effective than assigning goals. London and his team formulated their Theory-based research suggesting ways to help raters recognize expected performance and enable employees to self-regulate their pursuit of goals, which is another kind of approach on employee engagement. Article five presents the results of an empirical study exploring the expatriate performance management systems of 16 Australian multinational firms operating in China. The findings in this article are quite related to the results in the first article with even more useful information. The key issues in the first article about performance management have been clearly stated. The sixth article basically written to bring out an understanding that internal and external change impacts productivity, its relation to the first article is that whereas the company is focusing towards making changes in the employees perception, it is better to understand that there is always a chance of getting negative results even though with this move positive results have an upper hand. This article best explains why the results reached at in the first article are so. The last source on itself gives a reliable source of information, it complements the first source well and the two alone used are sufficient enough on required information. Conclusion After critically and keenly going through these articles, I can conclude that from the various studies and findings in these, a wide source of information for a thorough understanding towards increasing employee engagement can be found from this sources that I have provided. Also detailed understanding into performance management has been comprehensively worked on with sufficient information on the subject provided. Memorandum To: Boss, Nokia Corporation Australia CC: HR Manager From: Date: Re: increasing employee engagement and performance management Thank you for your note of date regarding increasing the employee engagement in the company on a move to increase their performance. I have researched this thoroughly, and have provide sufficient information to support the move, I have also noted requirements and recommendations towards organizing a n effective strategic plan to deal with this so as to get good results. Summary After looking into various articles and carefully analyzing them I have come up with these seven articles which have qualitative information that can be used in reference with the guide line and steps that I have provided. This steps are to aid in making this move achieve its objective which is the extent to which employee commitment, both emotional and intellectual, exists relative to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization. Engagement can be seen as a heightened level of ownership where each employee wants to do whatever they can for the benefit of their internal and external customers, and for the success of the organization as a whole. Employee engagement steps Employees and managers need to be fully focused and committed if they are going to rise to meet these challenges. It requires a total approach. Every aspect of the organization’s operations has to be supportive and have an encouraging effect. Here are 7 steps to help you fully path progress for robust employee engagement: 1. Accentuate the positive. Continually work towards small wins and breakthroughs. Ensure employees are working towards meaningful goals paired with sufficient autonomy to achieve success. 2. Eliminate the negative. Negative events have a disproportionate impact on engagement. Because negative events have a stronger impact than positive events it is important to prevent setbacks before they occur or minimize the damage setbacks can cause. 3. Hack your work and work around. Hacking work and workarounds are two powerful twins to achieve progress and minimize nasty setbacks. 4. Ready, willing and able. We must ensure that not only are employees ready and willing to be engaged they must also be able. Engagement without enabling is a fast track to frustration. Up to 20% of your engaged workforce may be frustrated because they are unable to fully act on their engagement. 5. Be game. Study the principles and practices of games to transfer gaming principles to work. 6. Little feats. Many of us are overwhelmed by the copious volume of work and shy away from new tasks because we have little or no capacity or we fear falling further behind on the tasks already on our plate. 7. Celebrate progress. Don’t forget to celebrate progress. You should have celebration markers along the way. The celebration can be a quiet yet mindful internal sense of satisfaction to a high five or more formal recognition. I hope this is helpful to your decision-making. I’m happy to discuss this with you, or to provide you with any of the articles I summarized in my annotated bibliography and the short research summary format which is included. Read More