The Potential for Performance Management to Contribute to Organizational Effectiveness - Essay Example

The Potential for Performance Management to Contribute to Organizational Effectiveness [The of the appears here] [The of appears here]Managing performance means, by definition: Creating visions of what the desired future state is; Planning--assessing present organizational status relative to the vision, creating strategies for how the desired future state can be attained, and building on strengths so as to move toward your visions; (Martin F. Stankard, 2002)Designing, developing and effectively implementing specific improvement interventions that have a high probability of moving us toward the desired future state, particularly in terms of levels of performance; Designing, redesigning, developing, and implementing measurement and evaluation systems that will tell us whether we are going where we said we wanted to go and how well we are doing along the way; (Richard C.

Kearney, Evan M. Berman, 1999)Ensuring that cultural support systems are in place so that we are rewarding and reinforcing progress, so that we can maintain the excellence we are achieving, and so we can control levels of performance necessary to compete with our new competition. (Kazemek, Edward A. Glime, Rebecca, 1989) A performance management process is a process by which these things will take place in a systematic, consistent, persistent, patient, and comprehensive fashion throughout the organization.

An organization's management process must both manage what gets done, as well as how those things get done (Sink, D. S. 1987). For example, the management process must make sure plans are developed, and that the process by which plans are developed is constantly improving; the management process must make sure services and products are delivered on time, and that the processes by which those goods and services are developed is constantly improving. The process by which an organization's management team accomplishes constant performance improvement in all aspects of the business must be given at least equal emphasis to the process by which the organization gets products and services out the door on time.

These two aspects of management need to be well-integrated in order for an organization to improve and meet the challenge of world-class new competition. As in the organization of the future everyone will have at least two primary responsibilities: To get the job done on time, within quality specifications, with the right amount of resources, and to continuously improve individual, group, organizational, and systems performance. (Waterman, R. H., Jr. 1987) If you are from a successful organization, your problem may be one of complacency and a feeling that we don't need this; we're doing OK without it.

If you are in a failing organization, your problem may be urgency, a feeling that this will take too long--you may need a "quick fix." The decision to do something is not an easy one, regardless of the situation you may find yourself in. There will not be strong consensus, one way or the other, to do anything different than what you are already doing. There is, in fact, likely to be stronger sentiments for maintaining the status quo. As the predominant belief is that maintaining the status quo will be sufficient for survival and success in the future.

This means that most, if not all of you, regardless of your position in your organization, face the challenge of how to sell a more systematic and proactive process for managing and improving performance. (Taylor, Paul J. Pierce, Jon L, 1999) In order to pull off an effective implementation of this process, or any other for that matter, an infrastructure has to be developed. The infrastructure is a management of the process design, if you will. We are so used to management structures that manage functions, plants, divisions, disciplines, that it is hard for us to think about management structures that are designed to manage processes.

Yet the organization of the future will require that we do more managing collaterally, across functions and disciplines. In some respects the concept is not unlike that of the matrix organization. The performance management process is an umbrella program that cuts across the traditional vertical management structures we find in most organizations. The challenge is to set up an infrastructure for the performance management process without establishing a VP for performance improvement or a productivity and quality center.

Performance improvement must be seen as an integral part of everyone's job, and if you implement the process with a center or with a single champion you run the risk of not establishing shared ownership. (Glenn Bassett, 1993) Musashi Semiconductor Works spent over five years laying the foundation for its small group activity process. The company trained, communicated, designed, developed, and sold the process top to bottom in the organization (Davidson, W. H. 1982). It is this kind of planning and preparation that is essential to the long-term success of a process.

Programs can be pulled off in shorter periods of time. But you don't need another program if you truly want to become the organization of the future. You need a process that is an integral part of your culture, the way you do business. The design of the "grand strategy" for the effective implementation of the performance management process application in your organization will likely have to be developed by a small group of "champions" with perhaps the assistance of select outsiders. Very quickly thereafter, that group will have to begin to build this thing called an infrastructure.

Many American organizations do this by having a core staff group that coordinates the process with a council that is composed of key decision-makers in the organization. The council acts as a policy making, planning, problem-solving, and decision-making body. It represents a critical mass of top and middle management who will share ownership for the management of the process. They will share the burden of deciding how to guide the design, development and evolution of the process from its conception out into the future.

The infrastructure is then the organization and management of the process itself. It is an organization within the organization that is designed to make sure that the performance management process is successfully implemented. The formality of the infrastructure will likely dissipate as the process evolves and becomes more firmly embedded in the way you do business. (HR Focus, 2005) Reference: Davidson, W. H. 1982. "Small Group Activity at Musashi Semiconductor Works," Sloan Management Review.

Spring, 3-14. Glenn Bassett, 1993. The Evolution and Future of High Performance Management Systems; Quorum Books HR Focus, 2005. Making performance management work. (STRATEGIC HR)(Human resource) Kazemek, Edward A. Glime, Rebecca, 1989. Performance management increases productivity. Healthcare Financial Management; July 1 Martin F. Stankard, 2002. Management Systems and Organizational Performance: The Quest for Excellence beyond ISO9000; Quorum Books Richard C. Kearney, Evan M. Berman, 1999.

Public Sector Performance: Management, Motivation, and Measurement; Westview Press Sink, D. S. 1987. "Guiding Principles: The Foundation of Successful Efforts to Better Manage Productivity and Quality," IIE Integrated Systems Conference Proceedings. Institute of Industrial Engineers. Norcross, Georgia. Taylor, Paul J. Pierce, Jon L, 1999. Effects of Introducing A Performance Management System on Employees' Subsequent Attitudes and Effort. (Statistical Data Included) Public Personnel Management; September 22 Waterman, R. H., Jr. 1987. "The Renewal Factor," Bantam Books.

New YorkFurther Reading Alan Lonsdale, 1998. Performance Appraisal, Performance Management and Quality in Higher Education: Contradictions, Issues and Guiding Principles for the Future. Australian Journal of Education, Vol. 42 Bonnie P. Stivers, Teresa Joyce, 2000. Building a Balanced Performance Management System; SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol. 65John R. Ogilvie, 2004. Jon Mckenzie, 2001. Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance; Routledge Richard Rudman, 2003. Performance Planning and Review: Making Employee Appraisals Work; Allen & Unwin Robert L. Cardy. Performance Management, Concepts, Skills and Exercises; Personnel Psychology, Vol.

57 Ronald R. Sims, 2002. Managing Organizational Behavior; Quorum Books