Focus on Job Design, Facilitating Teamwork, and Rewards and Remuneration - Coursework Example

Performance Management: Focus on Job Design, Facilitating Teamwork, and Rewards and Remuneration The performance of any organisation comprises the actual results or output of the organisation in relation to its intended outputs in terms of objectives and goals. In order to ensure good performance, organisations need to be involved in managing how they perform by undertaking performance management. Performance management can be defined as a course of action that contributes to the successful management of teams and individuals so as to attain high levels of organisational performance (Simms 2005, p. 19). This essay will critically analyse how organisations can undertake performance management by focusing on the following three areas: designing jobs to enhance performance; facilitating teamwork and performance management; and rewards and remuneration. By highlighting the aforementioned areas, the essay will articulate the roles that different individuals are expected to play and the kind of performance that is expected to be achieved. The essay will also analyse how an understanding of the various issues can help in creating a culture of teamwork and performance excellence as well as how recognition and reward management influence behaviour. As noted above, performance management is a course of action or a process, and not an activity (Simms 2005, p. 19). This means that if performance management is to be successful in helping organisations to meet their strategic objectives, it needs to be incorporated into the operations as well as culture of the organisation (Simms 2005, p. 19). Thus, performance management has to be designed in such a way that individuals in the organisations know and understand what they are expected to do, are given the chance to contribute to team and individual objectives and aims, have the skills and ability to deliver what is expected, and are given feedback regarding their performance (Simms 2005, p. 19). Hence, in the entire organisation there has to be a clear understanding of the objectives that the organisation has set and the contribution that all the organisation’s members can make. This starts right from designing jobs to enhance performance. Job design is a critical method that managers can use to enhance how the employees of their organisations perform (Griffin, Phillips & Gully 2014, p. 209). Job design refers to how organisations characterise and structure their jobs (Griffin, Phillips & Gully 2014, p. 209). It can also be defined as a process that involves integrating the work content (functions, tasks and relationships), the rewards related to the work (both intrinsic and extrinsic), and the qualifications that are required of the job (abilities, skills and knowledge) in a way that satisfies the needs of the employees as well as those of the organisation that they work for (Aswathappa 2005, p. 113). This means that when designing a job, managers have to consider what the organisation needs to achieve through the job and also look at the needs of those who will be involved in doing the job. Most studies on job design stem from the principles of the classic Job Characteristics Model (JCM) by Hackman and Oldman (1980, cited by Shantz et al. 2013, p. 2608). JCM asserts that the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, knowledge of results and experienced responsibility have an influence on both job design and organisational outcomes (Shantz et al. 2013, p. 2608). It has also been found that how a job is designed can have a significant effect on the attitudes and behaviours of employees (Shantz et al. 2013, p. 2608). For instance, it has been suggested that when jobs are designed in such a manner that they can be controlled by employees instead of managers, people characteristically have a greater sense of commitment, involvement, and motivation (Daft & Marcic 2011, p. 421). This in turn helps in achieving higher employee morale, reduces turnover rates, and promotes better organisational performance (Daft & Marcic 2011, p. 421). This is in agreement with Garg and Rastogi’s (2006, p. 572) point that well-structured jobs can positively influence both the satisfaction of employees and the quality of work performance. This implies that when designing jobs, managers have to consider concepts that make the jobs more engaging and fulfilling to employees so as to enhance performance. Such concepts include job enrichment, quality of work life, job engineering, job characteristics approach, sociotechnical design and the social information processing approach to job design (Garg & Rastogi 2006, p. 572). The problem that might be faced is the type of aspects to focus on when designing a given job. Performance management activities also needs to include measures that facilitate teamwork. Job design can be linked to the effectiveness of teamwork in that a job design that promotes workplace flexibility also promotes teamwork (Delarue 2008, p. 127; Behson 2014). This can in turn lead to benefits such as increased motivation, morale, as well as the ability of organisations to attract and retain talent (Behson 2014). When jobs are designed in such a way that they can be done by people working as teams, this not only promotes cohesion in the organisation but also enhances the efficiency with which different tasks are accomplished (Driskell, Driskell & Salas 2015, p. 265). For instance, the responsibility for client accounts or an organisational project can be given to a small team instead of a single person. Behson (2014) also notes that when a team has adequate interaction and duties that overlap, the tasks and duties can be well coordinated. Having jobs in which different groups of employees are working together also ensures that knowledge is shared by different team members (Al-Ali 2003, p. 190). For example, when junior and senior employees are paired in a task, the junior member gains experience plus exposure by working with someone who is more knowledgeable in a particular area. At the same time, such a work design can make it possible for the senior employees to delegate tasks, thus freeing up time that can be used for other activities (Behson 2014). It is therefore necessary for managers to foster a culture that promotes teamwork in their organisations in order to enhance organisational performance. This can be achieved by adopting the human relations model that entails a flexibility or internal focus whereby human resources are used to achieve cohesion and to boost the morale of employees (O’Donnell & Boyle 2008, p. 9). This approach to organisational culture is also dubbed group culture since it is associated with participation and trust through teamwork. Managers who pursue such a strategy thus need focus on encouraging and mentoring employees to make such employees more accustomed to what happens through teamwork (O’Donnell & Boyle 2008, p. 9). However, achieving team cohesion can be stifled by challenges such as an inappropriate leadership style, poor internal team working, and inherent team conflict (Harvard Business Review Press 2006). Lastly, in addition to having well-designed jobs and facilitating teamwork, there is need for managers to focus on rewards and remuneration as a way of motivating employees to perform. Employees who attain the desired level of performance need some level of compensation as a way of motivating them (Daft & Marcic 2011, p. 421). The management therefore needs to evaluate and reward employees depending on how they perform. Apart from the fixed remuneration that is tied on the conditions of a given job, other forms of rewards include pay increases based on merit, promotions, and non-monetary rewards such as increased status and recognition through feedback (Aswathappa 2013, p. 397; Armstrong & Baron 2005, p. 103). The significance of such rewards is that employees do assess the connection between how they perform and the rewards that are related to that level of performance. This is then related to the level of fairness of the linkage between performance and rewards (Aswathappa 2013, p. 397). That is, employees will consider themselves fairly rewarded if the rewards or remuneration that they are given increase as their performance increases. In addition, if employees realise that hard work and better performance are appreciated and compensated by the organisation in question, they will anticipate that such relationships will continue in the future. As a result, the employees will set higher performance levels for themselves in the hope that the enhanced performance will result in even higher rewards. On the contrary, if employees perceive that there is an insignificant relationship between levels of performance and the associated rewards, then they will set lower targets so as to maintain their jobs but will not have the desire to increase their performance to higher levels (Aswathappa 2013, p. 397). In conclusion, designing jobs to enhance performance, facilitating teamwork and focusing on rewards and remuneration are all ways through which managers and organisations can enhance the performance of their employees. It has been noted that well-designed jobs are those that give employees control over what they do as opposed to the control being a preserve of managers. Such job designs lead to increased commitment and involvement as well as motivation among employees. The main problem related to job design is deciding the types of aspects to pay attention to when designing a given job. Well-designed jobs also promote teamwork, which in turn promotes cohesion, sharing of knowledge and delegation of duties within an organisation. However, teamwork can be hindered by an inappropriate leadership style and team conflict. Finally, there is need to look at rewards and remuneration as a way of motivating employee performance. As it has been argued, employees are more likely to increase their performance if they perceive that their effort is recognised through rewards and remuneration. As well, if employee effort is not recognised, then employees will work just enough to maintain their jobs but will not be inspired to attain higher levels of performance. References Al-Ali, N 2003, Comprehensive intellectual capital management: step-by-step, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. Armstrong, M & Baron, A 2005, Managing performance: performance management in action, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Aswathappa, K 2005, Human resource and personnel management: text and cases, 4th ed, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi. Aswathappa, K 2013, Human resource management: text and cases, 7th ed, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi. Behson, S 2014, ‘Increase workplace flexibility and boost performance’, Harvard Business Review, 24 March, viewed 20 June 2016, . Daft, RL & Marcic, D 2011, Understanding management, 7th ed, South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason, OH. 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Shantz, A, Alfes, K, Truss, C & Soane, E 2013, ‘The role of employee engagement in the relationship between job design and task performance, citizenship and deviant behaviours’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 24, no. 13, pp. 2608–2627. Simms, H 2005, Performance management, Select knowledge Limited, Hertfordshire. Read More