Chapter 9. Performance Management

Five managements basics:

Clear statements of what is expected; explicit and measurable goals and deadlines; detailed evaluation of persons work; clear feedback; and rewards distributed fairly

Flaws on forced ranking systems

Don't work well in company cultures that value teamwork and unclear, qualitative data is mostly used

Best practices when conducting effective performance feedback interviews

Encouraging participation and getting training in performance appraisal interviewing

Careful selection of employees

Final aspect of performance facilitation; carefully select new employees

Purposes of performance appraisals

Help diagnose performance problems and provide legal justification for employment decisions

Appraisals can help diagnose organizational problems

Identify training needs and personal characteristics to consider in hiring, and a basis for distinguishing effective/ineffective performers

What is a key element to driving effective performance?

Measurement

Establish successful goals and objectives

Meet to agree on major objectives for a period of time; discuss and agree on plans to achieve; agree on the measurement tools for determining if objectives met

Obstacles in maximum performance

Outdated equipment, delays in supplies, inefficient design of space, ineffective methods

Performance encouragement

Provide a sufficient number of rewards that employees value, timely fashion, and fair manner

appraisals tend to be more lenient, less variable, more biased, and show less agreement with others

Self

360-degree feedback

The ratings from the different sources generally do not agree and the different sources are coomparable

Rank-and-Yank/Forced Ranking

What teachers call grading on a curve, a few people at the top, few at bottom, and rest clumped in the middle

intact teams engaged on routine tasks

Work or service teams

Lack of ___ is the main barrier keeping leaders from focusing adequate time and attention to performance management

accountability

Performance appraisal

administrative exercise they typically do once a year to identify and discuss job-relevant strengths and weaknesses of individuals or work teams

rating methods focus on evaluating the impact of employee behaviors

behavior-oriented

Critical incidents

brief anecdotal reports by supervisors of things employees do that are particularly effective or ineffective in accomplishing parts of their jobs

Provide adequate resources

capital resources, material resources, or human resources

Relevance

clear links between the performance standards for a particular job and organizational objectives and between the critical job elements identified through analysis on an appraisal form

is the main influence on ratings

direct observation

Performance

ensures that individual employees or teams know what is expected of them and they stay focused on effective performance

Halo

error is a result of raters who assign their ratings on the basis of global impressions of those being rated

Appraisals can help to identify developmental needs of employees

establishes objectives for training programs

Forced rankings

fewer and fewer companies are using them

The avoid surprises in the performance review process, assessments should be done more

frequently

Three key elements of performance

goals, measures, and assessment

Job analysis

identifies the characteristics necessary for successful job performance is one way to avoid legal difficulties with performance appraisals

Appraisal serves a twofold purpose

improve work performance by realizing full potential and provide info to employees and managers for use in making work-related decisions

Performance Management

indicates a person's actual direction as well as a person's desired direction

Observation and ___ are processes that occur when people interact during appraisals in organized settings

judgment

Contrast

leaders compares subordinates with one another instead of against performance standards

Full-spectrum

leadership involves ensuring that behaviors used to achieve business results are consistent with company values

Best practice in keeping performance appraisal systems viable

make them more likely to achieve a particular objective

is the simplest type of absolute rating system

narrative essay

Teams that include membership not constrained by time or space and membership is not limited by organizational boundaries

network teams

Supervisors often use information from ___ sources in making their own judgments about performance

outside

teams are assembled for a specific task and are expected to disband once their task is complete

project

Appraisals provide legal and formal justification for decisions

promote outstanding performers; weed out low performers; train, transfer, or discipline others; justify merit increases/decreases; key input for administering rewards and punishment system

Which of the following is true of behaviorally anchored rating scales?

provide a common frame of reference for raters

The type of evidence required to defend performance ratings is linked to the ___ for which the ratings are made

purposes

Goal setting

record of success in improving performance in a variety of settings and cultures

Evaluating each employee in terms of performance standards without reference to others

relative rating systems

The rating format used isn't as important as it is

relevance

Key Requirements of any appraisal system

relevance, sensitivity, and reliability

Performance Facilitation

resources to get a job done right and on time, and the careful selection of employees

Appraisals are used as criteria in test validation

results are correlated with appraisal results to evaluate the hypothesis that test scores predict job performance

Place primary emphasis on what an employee produces; dollar volume of sales, number of units produced, and number of wins

results-oriented rating methods

Appraisals provide feedback to employees

serve as vehicles for personal and career development

Which of the following is accurate about how results are expressed in graphic rating scales?

they are quantitative

Which of the following is a major advantage of behaviorally anchored rating scales?

they define the dimensions to be rated in behavioral terms

Recency

when a rater assigns his or her ratings on the basis of the employee's most recent performance