Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Characteristics of Effective Goals: Smart Goals

- Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Realistic - Time-bound

Evaluation in Goal Setting

consist of interim reviews conducted by managers and employees and formal performance evaluation. It helps employees to take self-corrective actions.

Performance management

is a process of defining, measuring, providing feedback on, and improving performance. PM leads to increased employee engagement, whereby workers know exactly what's expected of them and have the skills and abilities to meet those expectations.

Tri-mentoring

is a targeted, peer-mentoring system that recognizes and encourages implicit learning in organizations. In tri-mentoring, three employees meet as equals to share implicit knowledge and build organizational capability.

Mentoring

is a work relationship that encourages development and career enhancement for people moving through the career cycle. It goes through 4 phases: initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition.

Consensus

is an informational cue indicating the extent to which peer in the same situation behave in a similar fashion.

Executive coaching

is increasingly used to outsource the business mentoring functions, informational, collegial, and special peers aid the individual's development by sharing information, career strategies, job-related feedback, emotional support, and friendship. outsource=obtain, buy

Performance appraisal

is the evaluation of a person's performance. Accurate appraisal help supervisors fulfill their dual roles as evaluators and coaches.

Goal setting

is the process of establishing desired results that guide and direct behavior. Goals crystallize the sense of purpose and mission that drives success.

Individual Reward Systems

it directly affect individual behavior and encourage competition within a work team. Too much competition creates a dysfunctional work environment.

Classical Conditioning 1900's, Pavlov's discovery with dogs.

it is the process of modifying behavior by pairing a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit an unconditioned response.

Team Reward Systems

it solves the problem caused by individual competitive behavior in that they encourage cooperation, joint efforts, and the sharing of information and expertise.

Measurable, quantitative goals

provide opportunities for feedback about goal progress. Ex. # of customer complaints or the frequency of compliments.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System: Flexibility

Means staying open to modification based on new information such as federal requirements.

Operant Conditioning

Modifying behavior through the use of positive or negative consequences following specific behaviors. These consequences influence behavior through three strategies: Reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

A goal setting program based on interaction and negotiation between employees and managers. The employee writes a letter to the manager specifying manager and his goals. Then, the employee writes down the goals over the next six and twelve months, after negotiation both agree into a plan.

Reinforcement

A strategy to cultivate desirable behavior by either bestowing positive consequences or withholding negative consequences. Ex. u come to work late, u will have reduction in pay.

Punishment

A strategy to discourage undesirable behavior by either bestowing negative consequences or withholding positive consequences. withholding= hold back, restrain

Kelley's attributions theory proposes that individuals make attributions based on information gathered in the form of three informational cues:

1. Consensus 2. Distinctiveness 3. Consistency

Performance measurement problems:

1. Deficiency 2. Unreliability 3. Invalidity contribute to inaccuracy.

Classical Conditioning Limits Applicability in Organizations for 3 Reasons:

1. Humans r complex and less amenable (willing, agreeable) to simple cause-effect conditioning. 2. The behavioral environments in organizations r complex and not very agreeable to single stimulus-response manipulations. 3. The human capacity for decision making can override simple conditioning.

Goal setting serves 3 functions:

1. It can increase work motivation and task performance. The higher the goals the better the performance. 2. It can reduce stress caused by conflicting or confusing expectations because it clarifies the task-role expectations for employees. 3. It can improve the accuracy and validity of performance evaluation.

Four Sources of Task-Specific Self-Efficacy:

1. Prior Experience 2. Behavior models (witnessing the success of others). 3. Persuasion from other people 4. Assessment of current physical and emotional capabilities.

If the poor performance cannot be attributed to work design or organizational process problems, then supervisors should examine the employee:

1. Some aspect of the person's relationship to the organization or supervisor. 2. Some area of the employee's personal life. 3. Training or developmental deficiency.

3 Steps Correcting Poor Performance:

1. Supervisors must identify the cause or primary responsibility for the poor performance. 2. If the primary responsibility is the employee and not the organization, supervisors must determine the source of the personal problem. 3. They must develop a plan for correcting poor performance.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System:

1. Validity 2. Reliability 3. Responsiveness 4. Flexibility 5. Equitability

Point 7

An organization makes either an internal or external attribution. Internal might include low effort, lack of commitment, or lack of ability; External might include equipment failure or unrealistic goals. The process of determining the cause of a behavior is not always simple and clear-cut because sometimes bias interfere.

Extinction

An strategy to weaken a behavior by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it. This may require time and patience, but the absence of consequences eventually weakens a behavior. This may be most effective when used in conjunction with the positive reinforcement of desirable behavior.

Cognitive Theories of Learning

Based on the Gestalt school of thought and draws on Jung's Theory of personality difference. Personality Function and Learning r: Information Gathering :Intuitors and Sensors. Decision Making: Thinkers and Feelers.

Performance

Employees must understand exactly what is expected of them if they are to perform well. Consequently, organizations must first accurately define what they mean by "good performance", set standards for that performance, and communicate that information clearly to employees.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

He asserts that learning occurs when we observe other people and model their behavior. His central to Bandura's social learning theory is the notion of task-specific self-efficacy

Performance Feedback

It creates stress on both supervisors and employees. Employees respond to positive feedback constructively, but defensively to critical or negative feedback. Both Employee and supervisor should try to make performance feedback a constructive learning experience, since feedback has long-term implication for their working relationship.

360-Degree Feedback

It is based on multiple sources of information to improve the accuracy of performance appraisals. Including self-evaluations in this process makes evaluation interviews more satisfying, more constructive, and less defensive. This method provides a well-rounded view of performance from superiors, peers, followers, and customers.

Performance and Kelley's Attribution Theory:

Managers make attributions, or inferences, concerning employee's behavior and performance. The attributions may not always be accurate. When both share same perceptions and attitudes tend to evaluate each other highly. Those who do not share perceptions and attitudes r more likely to blame each other for performance problem.

Time-bound goals enhance measurability

Many organizations work on standardized cycles of time, such as quarters or years. If there is any uncertainty about the time period of the goal effort, the time limit should be explicitly stated.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System: Responsiveness

Means allowing the person being evaluated to have some input.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System: VALIDITY

Means capturing multiple dimensions of a person's job performance.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System: Reliability

Means collecting evaluation from multiple sources at different times throughout the evaluation period.

5 Key Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System: Equitability

Means evaluating fairly against established criteria, regardless of individual differences.

Performance measurement problems: Deficiency

Occurs when important aspects of a person's actual performance r overlooked.

Point 4

People who believe they r entitled to rewards without earning them r not motivated to behave constructively. It engenders passive, irresponsible behavior, whereas earning engenders active responsive behavior. engender=produce, cause

Rewarding Performance

Performance appraisals can provide input for reward decisions. If companies celebrate teamwork, values, and customer focus, they must reward behaviors demonstrating these ideas. This is difficult for managers to make.

The power of earning

Performance management and reward systems assume a demonstrable connection between performance and reward; that is, organizations get the performance they reward, not the performance they say they want. When there is no link, people may believe they r entitled to reward regardless of their performance.

Two ingredients in Goal-Setting Programs:

Planning and evaluation.

Point 5

Poor performance may also stem from an employee's displaced anger or conflict with the organization or supervisor. It should be treated as a symptom with a deeper cause and resolve the underlying anger or conflict.

Decision Making: Thinkers

Prefer analysis of data and information. Work to be fair-minded and evenhanded. Seek logical, just conclusions. Do not like to be too personally involved.

Decision Making: Feelers

Prefer interpersonal involvement. Work to be tenderhearted and harmonious. Seek subjective, merciful results. Do not like objective, factual analysis.

Information Gathering : Sensors

Prefer specific, empirical data. Look for practical applications. Attempt to master details of a subject. Look for what is realistic and doable.

Information Gathering :Intuitors

Prefer theoretical frameworks, look for the meaning in material. Attempt to understand the grand scheme. Look for possibilities and interrelations.

Point 1

Punishment has unintended results that bring about negative psychological, emotional, performance, or behavioral consequences (such as workplace deviance), especially when applied to often.

Point

Reinforcement and punishment represent the positive and negative consequences of behavior.

Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement enhances desirable behavior, whereas punishment and extinction diminish undesirable behavior. This theory is important for organizations reward systems to retain top employees. Ex. bonuses , educational opportunities, stock options, and recognition award such as travel.

Performance measurement problems: Unreliability

Results from poor-quality performance measures.

Positive consequences

Results of a behavior that a person finds attractive or pleasurable. Ex. pay increase, bonus promotion, transfer a better location, etc.

Negative Consequences

Results of a behavior that a person finds unattractive or aversive. Ex. disciplinary action, an undesirable transfer, a demotion, or harsh criticism from a supervisor.

Point 2

Reward and punishment decisions affect entire organizations, not just people receiving the consequences. Ex. Rewarding implies when, how and which; when people r punish, peers watch what happens and adjust their own behavior. This shape indirectly or directly.

Point 3

Reward system shape productive behavior.

Point 2

Self-efficacy leads to high performance on a wide variety of physical and mental tasks.

Task-Specific Self-efficacy

They have the ability to get things done. they have higher in a learning context than in a performance context, specially in persons with high learning orientation.

Performance measurement problems: Invalidity

Stems from inaccurate definition of the expected job performance.

Distinctiveness

is a cue indicating the degree to which an individual behaves the same way in other situations.

Consistency

is a cue indicating the frequency of behavior over time.

Planning in goal setting

They usually develop operational and tactical plans to support the corporate objectives. The idea is to formulate a clear, consistent, measurable, and ordered set of goals to articulate what to do. Operational support planning then determines how to do it.

Point 6

We form attributions based on whether these cues r low or high. Ex. a customer complaints about a employees behavior, this person have been having the same problems with other customers. So, the employee behavior comes from internal attributions.

Specific and Challenging goals

focus attention on exactly what will be accomplished and inspire peak performance. Two studies of subconscious motivation found that goals that were ingrained, but not explicitly expressed enhanced task performance for difficult goals but not for easy goals.

Learning

is a change in behavior acquired through experience. It may begin with the cognitive activity of developing knowledge about a subject, which then leads to a change in behavior. Learning stems from Classical and operant conditioning.

Thorndike's law of effect

states that behaviors followed by positive consequences r more likely to occur and behavior followed by negative consequences r less likely to recur.