Design and Implementation in Organizations - Assignment Example

Name: Professor: Course: Date of Submission: Project Plan Description THE PROCESS UNDERTAKEN TO DESIGN PASIFIKA PETROLEUM’S PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The designing process for the company’s performance management system started with identification of its mission, values, and the strategic goals needed to be accomplished in order to remain competitive and profitable. The major focus was placed on identification of how the management and employees can participate effectively in supporting organizational objectives. It was assumed that by adopting a big pictorial approach of the organization, managers harness individual efforts in a way that provides practical measures of organizational effectiveness. In essence, the whole idea of designing a performance management system was guided by the series of activities involved in the systems that can assist the organization achieve enhanced performance it desires from the its workforce. Identification of the organization goals values and mission also entailed analysis of how the goals are communicated to all stakeholders (Grote 198). The organizational goals identification involved scaling down to the departments to establish the goals and the planning for every department in Pasifika Petroleum Company. The goals for each department were identified and streamed towards the overall strategic goals in introducing the performance management system. The pivotal stakeholders of the company including customers, business partners, shareholders, and the community were consulted and evaluated to determine their understanding of the company’s goals, vision, and mission. Consultation of important stakeholders on their views about the proposed performance management system as a solution to the company’s problems sought to garner enough support required during the implementation process. The key stakeholders’ consultation process particularly minimized the resistance expected in almost every change initiative in organizations. Through the stakeholders’ consultation process, the system managers were able to identify the key risks associated with every party. The risk analysis step was crucial in identifying ways of dealing with stakeholders’ fear in the company operations in order to address them through the performance management system (Mathis and Jackson 33). This step was crucial in establishing substantial support for the implementation of the system through guarantee the stakeholders that the systems aimed at resolving or addressing their concerns about the company’s operations. The whole picture of the systems was presented in a manner that suggested that the system would lead to improved profitability, development of employees and overall improvement in Pasifika Petroleum Company. Adequate support for the system implementation was garnered through involvement of all key stakeholders from the change initiation stage, planning, and execution of the plan. Frequent meetings to address the need to embrace the system as well as collecting different views from the stakeholders made them feel as part of the change initiative thereby preparing them to implement the system as if it was their own initiative. The reward system and recognition was to be part of the system implementation process. THE BUSINESS STRATEGY AND HRM STRATEGY THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SUPPORTS One of the key elements in Pacifika’s business strategy is the commitment to remain highly innovative in the products it offers to the market while maximizing profitability and cutting the cost of operation. In this case, the company views operational excellence as the key strategy in ensuring that its business strategy remains relevant in the increasingly competitive markets. Since the performance management system seeks to enable the organization to get the desired performance from its workforce, it therefore supports the company’s commitment to the operational excellence strategy. The system seeks to emphasize on important issues crucial in promoting operational excellence such as review of job description and recruitment and production induction of new employees. The performance management entails identification of performance expectations, provision of performance direction, assessment of job performance, conducting of performance appraisals, and encouragement of employees’ participation in supporting the organizational business strategy (Mathis & Jackson 126). On the other hand, the performance management system supports Pacifika’s human resource management strategy (HRM) founded on the philosophy of understanding employees and motivation in the workplace. Through its HRM strategy, Pacifika’s human resource managers endeavors to build teamwork, promote effective leadership, better relations with all stakeholders and development of the workforce. The aims of the company’s HRM strategy include getting the right people and skills on board in its workforce through proper recruitment and skills identification, development of employees’ skills and promotion of talent and allocation of workers to different roles based on their skills (Nyambezi 6). The strategy takes into consideration workforce diversity in a move to tap the best talent in the global job market. In line with the HRM strategy to ensure highly motivated, innovative, talented, and effective workforce, the performance management system provides a sure a venue of accomplishing the intentions of the strategy. The performance management system proposed for Pacifika Petroleum Company include several aspects that support the HRM strategy such as the recruitment procedures, job description, staff training, reward system and recognition of employees with outstanding performance. Therefore, the system adequately supports Pacifika’s HRM strategy and all that entails establishment of an effective and efficient work. The performance management creates a great opportunity for the management to streamline its operations towards achieving increased profitability and minimization of operational costs. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DESIGN The design for the Pacifika’s performance management system encompassed the contemporary components and additional key area unique to the company’s operations including job description, recruitment procedures, and induction of newly recruited employees. The design caters for the competence requirements aimed at ensuring that all employees are selected and allocated different tasks based on their skills and competence. The design further scaled down to departmental level to determine the unique competencies required to ensure achievement of the departmental goals. The design also covered identification of key performance indicators both at the departmental levels and at the overall organizational level. Performance and development formed crucial components of the performance management design. The formal feedback in the system involved transfer of information from the implementation team through the system assessors or managers and finally to the executive management team. The feedback mechanism was designed to allow free flow of information in both ways either upwards or downward the management structure. The two feedback strategy allow the management to monitor the system implementation progress, allow stakeholders’ views to be heard, and make necessary changes to enhance effective system implementation. The formal feedback design also allows rewarding and recognition of pioneers and people who have shown outstanding efforts in seeing the system yield the desired outcomes associated with system. THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN The system implementation plan assumes the implementation process of a large-scale organizational change since the performance management system affects almost every operational area of Pacifika Petroleum Company. Implementation of the system first involves creation of urgency through sensitization of all key stakeholders about the importance and potential benefits the organization as well as the stakeholders. The awareness creation process involves identification of risks among the stakeholders concerning the introduction of the system and communication of the performance management goals. The change initiation communication involves direct involvement of all key stakeholders through frequent meetings and workshops to get their opinions about implementation of the system. This step ensures that majority of the key stakeholders support the change initiative for its implementation to be successful. Some staff members are tasked with the role of overseeing full implementation of the performance management system throughout the organization. The system implementation team is also tasked with the creation of a powerful coalition and setting of the implementation vision. Another important step in the implementation plan is the agreement on the proper communication channels during the implementation process to limit conflicts and delays in the process. Identification of potential resistance or obstacles in the implementation also forms a crucial step to allow timely establishment of proper mechanisms to deal with such difficulties (Cadwell). Monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process progress also forms an important part of the system to facilitate effectiveness of the feedback mechanism. Finally, the implementation plan provides the final step as efforts to anchor the system into the corporate culture. THE TRAINING PROCESS AND SUMMARY OF CONTENT The training process revolves around empowering the management, the system implementation team, and employees among other stakeholders to allow realization of the desired system outcomes. The training process forms a crucial step in providing the system managers and assessors with the necessary skills to guide effective implementation of the performance system management in the entire organizational operations. The training process also aims at providing managers and supervisors with skills in effectively managing the workforce, motivational skills, recruitment and analysis of individual job performance as well as enabling non-performing employees to reach their full potential (Smith and Mazin 126). The content of the training program includes participating in setting both work and development goals, self-review or assessment skills, self-management, skills in providing both downward and upward skills and feedback receiving and interpretation skills. Refresher courses have also been recommended for all individuals in the managerial positions to ensure that their skills are aligned with changes in workplace environment. Evaluation of the training involves determining the ability of the managers to effectively control the workforce, motivation, and the extent at which the system is implemented. The effectiveness of the training can also be evaluated through ability to interpret feedbacks and counter the negative aspects in the company operations. Changes in the organization’s overall performance can also determine effectiveness of the training indirectly. DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS The implementation process involves creation of awareness about the intended change initiative as well as creating the system implantation goals and vision. The next step in the process involves creation of a strong coalition comprising all key stakeholders to guarantee smooth implementation of the change initiative. The system implementation team together with other stakeholders then sets out the vision for the implementation process and agrees on communication strategy to be applied during process (Williams 229). Through identification of obstacles in the system implementation process, the change lead-team establishes necessary mechanisms to avert such obstacles. The other important step entails monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process. The system assessors to ensure that the implementation process conforms to the established plan carry out the monitoring process. This step is critical in identifying setbacks in the process to allow timely elimination in order for the process to be success. On the other hand, the evaluation process is conducted in relation to the established goals and visions of the system. The success of the system implementation is determined based on the achievement of the expectation and goals set such as time limit, speed of implementations, and other measureable factors in the organizations such as efficiency (Vance and Yongsun 297). The implementation managers and assessor get adequate support from the executive management including financial support for all requirements in the implementation process. The organization finances the training programs required to ensure successful implementation of the performance management system. Non-performing employees are guided on the way to boost their performance failure to which they face termination of their employment contract. The organization’s policy requires non-disclosure of company information to competitors without the consent of the executive management team. It was agreed that all information concerning the system implementation should be maintained a secret, and be safeguarded from the competitors. It was further agreed that not all individual performance issues should be disclosed to the rest of the stakeholders to avoid victimization of such individuals in the organization. However, outstanding performance was to be awarded and recognized throughout the organization. The management team was to appoint a team to deal with grievances arising from the performance feedback in which underperformances are to be reprimanded, and then given the first, the second, and the third warning before being dismissed from the organization. The team is to comprise of experts to provide specialized advice and career development to the company under performers. The organization provides managers with an opportunity to undertake refresher courses sponsored by the organization. In addition, the company hires specialized trainers on contractual basis to train employees on the various aspects of the system. OVERALL RESULTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS AND FUTURE CHANGES At the end of the system implementation, it was imperative that the overall performance of the organization would improve by several folds including profitability. The operational costs also dropped significantly due increased efficiency and reliability of the workers. Other results included improved morale in the workforce, and enhanced individual competence from the training programs offered through the system implementation. However, the organization needs to employ workers within their regions of operation to benefit from the available talent as well as promote corporate social responsibility. Finally, the training program has covered all interested individuals rather than focusing on the management team. Work Cited Cadwell, Charles. Performance Management, New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgt Assn, 2000. Print. Grote, Richard C. The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal. New York, NY: AMACOM, 1996. Print. Mathis, Robert and John, Jackson. Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Nyambezi, Vuyo. Development of a Performance Management System for the SABC (Port Elizabeth), 2009. Web. 31/05/12. Smith, Shawn and Rebecca, Mazin. The HR Answer Book: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals, 2nd ed. New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2000. Print. Vance, Charles and Paik, Yongsun. Managing a Global Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities in International Human Resource Management, 2nd ed. New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2010. Print. Williams, Richard. Managing Employee Performance: Design and Implementation in Organizations, 2nd ed, Stamford: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2002. Print. Read More