Purdue MGMT 44428 CH. 9
Developing action plans to improve employee performance
feedback isnt enough to improve it - effective managers take the next step ... -diagnosing the source of any performance problems - helps devise strategies to fix it requires -clear under understanding of nature of performance deficiency -the development of a plan to address problems -(when necessary) effective disciple of employees
the contributions employees make are a....
function of their competencies, attitudes and behaviors, and work environment
What purpose are individual comparisons good for? unhelpful for?
good for administrative purposes ex) who to promote or how to had out raises or who to lay off bad for developmental rankings and distribution often boil down to a score that often does not capture the specifics of why they are performing at certain level. In other words, being ranked 5 only tells you who is ahead of you, not what you can change to get better
Step 1
identifying performance dimensions
poor performance and competencies
if an employee doesn't have the skill, knowledge or abilities to perform a task punishing the employee isnt effective
Limitations of graphic rating scale
if scales are poorly designed they can be ambiguous = performance standards can be interpreted differently by raters ex) what does it really mean to be above average? managers may have different ideas
feed back: timely manner (WHEN)
if you dont give ongoing feed back then the feedback you give in formal appraisals is less effective NOT telling an employee immediately that they did something wrong is implicitly telling them that they're performance is satisfactory - THEY DONT KNOW ITS BAD longer you wait to tell someone of their bad behavior the longer they and their firm have to deal with below avg performance
feed back meeting
in addition to deciding when to formally apprise your employees you must also consider... 1. SEPARATE evaluation from development 2. FOCUS on behavior rather than employee - targeting behaviors or outcomes rather than the individual 3. being balanced on your appraisal
recency error
in contrast to primacy error A bias that occurs when a rater narrowly focuses on an employee's performance that occurs near the time of the evaluation. (can be positive or negative) ex) inaccurate rating based on the raters reliance of their most recent memory. aka you just successfully finished a huge presentation at work and ur performance review is only based on that
primary source of identifying performance dimensions
job analysis
if you do not have clear standards....
just knowing the level of performance won't give you enough information to evaluate it
developing performance measures
levels of performance that relate to levels of task or job effectiveness You cannot just identify the performance measure, you must also evaluate them effectively
what does MBO stand for
management by objectives
forced distribution
managers are forced to distribute employees into predetermined categories and prevented from rating everyone as outstanding, or average -makes managers be much more critical ex) managers are required to rate 10% very good, 20% good, 40% average... and so on...
positive vs. negative
managers are usually more comfortable giving positive feedback BUT - Those who would get negative feed back are the ones who will benefit the most from clear feed back and a plan for improving
cause of poor performance - competencies
managers can use training and development programs to address skill deficits that may cause poor performance
evaluating employee performance
many ways to evaluate
Taking action
once you have a clear understanding of WHERE the performance deficits exist and a discussion with your employee about the potential CAUSES of deficiencies you can now help steps 1. remove barriers 2. reach agreement on performance 2. training and development activities 3. coach and mentoring 4. work design and tech solution 5. address quality
coworkers
peers offer unique position to comment on certain aspects of performance coworkers also have a solid understanding of challenges associated with job
3 requirements of performance measures
performance measures must be -valid -have clear standards -be specific
Valid measures
performance measures must be valid and reliable validity means that your performance measures reflect the actual performance of your employees Reli-ability refers to how well a measure yields consistent results over time and across raters. Validity is the extent to which you are measuring what you want to measure and how well that is done.4
Understanding the cause of poor performance
poor performance can be tied to any of he following these include: -work environment -design of job technology support or performance of coworkers -employee competencies, attitudes and behaviors ex) performance issue might not come from a lack of effort, but rather that she lacks skills, knowledge, and ability
step 4
providing feed back
Results based approaches
rely on objective performance dimensions such as production or quality measures. measurements are necessarily tied to job analysis but instead to the outcomes employees achieve includes -direct measure approaches -management by objectives
disciplining employees
sends a strong signal to employees about how they should behave or otherwise perform at work *not always negative types: -progressive discipline -positive discipline
causes of poor performance - work environment
solution comes from aspects of work design consider: -design of the job -the competencies of coworkers -technological consideration that may strain what employees are able to do in their job
limitations to MBO
some jobs lack quantifiable goals employees need to strive to meet if goals are set too narrowly then employees are like to strive to meet only those goals and neglect other aspects of job despite limitations MBO is powerful to help raters and ratees agree on whats most important and the performance level that needs to be met
targeting behaviors or outcomes rather than the individual (behavior>Individual)
tell he what she did bad, not that she's bad ex) telling an employee she didnt handle customer complaints well is more constructive than telling her she is a bad behaviors
Specificity
the clarity of performance standards ex)
performance measurement standards
the level of expected standards - must have specificity ex) for a cars sales man, is selling 10 cars a month good, average, or bad? what are the standards
subordinates
the people who are below you important for them to say how their boss is doing
Performance dimensions
the specific tasks and activities for which employees are responsible helps you identify areas that the employee can develop
global performance measure
the use of s single score to reflect an individual employees overall performance ex) rating your teacher just "good"
supervisors
ultimately responsible for the performance of employees they over see so its only logical *depends on the opportunity they have to view their employees
Paired comparison
variation of the ranking approach: Job evaluation method in which each employee in a business unit it is compared to every other employee in the unit. then points are assigned to the "better" people and totaled to be compared ex) the box using the check marks. rather than assign a score you are compared to one another. i.e bob is better than maggie, maggie is better than bill and john, etc.
separating evaluation from development
**SEPERATE performance from salary decisions performance values help - administrative: help managers make decisions regarding employees salaries, raises, and other incentives - development: improve performance of employee ISSUE - your employee isnt going to talk about how they can improve when you are talking about possible raises FIX: you dont have to do them together. you have have two sep meetings
behavior based approach: Forced choice
**not sure if this is behavior or attribute, need to check behavior based evaluation approach where managers must choose from a set of alternative statements regarding the person being rated - sentence has a predetermined score usually statements viewed has "better" aren't known to the rater. MAIN point is to lesses bias ex) you get a sheet and have to check 1 of the lines that says -is effective OR is efficient -follows directions OR takes initiative
ways to reduce the chances of bias occurring
*no in a specific order* 1. SPECIFIC - more specificity into rating formats (#2 of developing performance measures) - define precisely what is being evaluated 2. APPRAISAL TRAINING -train raters - familiarize them with the errors that can occur and encourage them to avoid them 3. FRAME REF TRAINING - frame of reference training - help raters develop common evaluation standards 4. MULTIPLE -use multiple raters - so if one is based having other will balance out (one of the reasons ppl use 360)
issues and nonIssues with attribute based approaches
*overcome some of the limitations of comparison apaches because they rely on a variety of dimensions and evaluate and employee along a range of performance standards issues because alone they can be misleading. -sometimes attributes truly reflect an employees performance but more likely the attributes predict the personal POTENTIAL to perform
ethics/social responsibility shapes
- employees perceptions of the performance mgmt -how employees react to surveillance and monitoring -how ethically employees behave at work
Methods of evaluating
-Individual comparisons -absolute approach -results based approaches -weighting performance criteria -compare and rank order -rate them against set standards - evaluate results or outcomes vary in terms of usefulness for meeting administrative or development purposes
identifying performance dimensions
-dimensions should reflect the tasks, duties and responsibilities that are essential to the job.
Performance management in practice: regulations guie
-efforts to reduce discrimination in the performance mgmt process -the importance of documenting employees performance
Performance management in practice: Environmental demands
-labor force -technology -globalization -ethics/social responsibility
causes of poor performance - attitudes and behaviors
-review the performance dimensions with your employee -review the standards of performance with employee -ensure that the performance measures are accurate -evaluate potential role overloads or ambiguity
step two reach agreement
-review the performance dimensions with your employee -review the standards of performance with employee -ensure that the performance measures are accurate -evaluate potential role overloads or ambiguity - reach agreements on target for improved performance and timelines -ensure managers support
Performance management in practice: organizational demand
-strategy -company characteristics -culture employee concerns
Sources of performance data
-supervisors -coworkers -self appraisals -subordinates -customer evaluations
labor forces influence
-the accuracy of performance evaluations -the need to evaluate diversity efforts
culture establishes
-the objective of performance mgmt system -which evaluation approach is used - effectiveness of performance mgmt approaches
technology effects
-the performance mgmt process -how telecommuters are evaluated
globalization impacts
-what is evaluated -the acceptability of the performance mgmt system -who provides perofmance data
strategy drives..
-which performance dimensions are emphasized -the performance evaluation method used
company characteristics determine..
-which performance evaluation to method id used -who carries out the process
Purpose of performance management reasons 1 & 2
1. "Documentation" 2. Development
potential downside to coworkers feed back
1. close friends / do not like each other info will be bias 2. if ratings from a peer evaluation are used for promotions and raises then they might rate others lower to make them selves higher *try to just keep it for developmental - not administrative
Challenges of customer evaluations
1. data might not be equally relevant for all jobs (ex: gathering data for waiters at a restaurant makes sense cause they meet the customers but it wouldn't work for dishwashers) 2. reaching out to try and get busy customers to take time and complete a survey or give data will require and incentive and thats time consuming and expensive --also: if not all customers respond you are going to get an uneven picture of performance. customers with particularly good/bad experience are more likely to respond ***depsite challenges its an excellent idea to incorporate customers into your data
things to note about discipline
1. employees must understand rules, regulations and procedure for any discipline to be effective -----employee needs to know they did something wrong - this can be addressed this in appraisals ------doing so may avoid unnecessary discipline 2. discipline must happen swiftly -----if employees are disciplined immodestly they often dont know the problem exists and its unreasonable to expect them to correct it
how methods vary
1. focus on measuring performance outcomes - quantity, speed, sales (quantitative data) 2. focus on traits or behaviors
performance measurement errors
1. halo error / horn error 2. contrast effect 3. primary error 4. recency error 5. similar - to me errors 6. leniency errors 7. strictness error 8. error of central tendency 9. framing - of - reference training
5 steps of to develop and implement good performance mgmt processes
1. identify performance dimensions 2. developing performance measures 3. evaluating performance 4. providing feedback 5. developing action plans to improve performance
benefits of specificity
1. makes a standard clearer which makes managers more likely to be consistent on evaluations. which helps improve the reliability of performance mgmt process 2. more specificity means a wider array of job tasks is likely to be evaluated rather than focusing some overall global assessment
Limitations to direct measures approach
1. not all jobs are associated with objective outcome measure (ex: guidance counselors, mentor, receptionist) 2. focusing solely on certain outcomes can lead to there outcome being neglected. ex) overemphasizing sales in a retail store might create a disincentive for the stores employees to help one another
behavior based approaches: Behavioral observation scales
A behavior based evaluation approach that requires raters to evaluate how often an employee displays certain behaviors on the job. *similar to BARS because they are based on critical incidents that show high and low performance *diff because you show the frequency of them ex) "professor has examples from recent news stories relevant to topic" and then you check -almost never (1) -2 -somtimes (3) -4 -almost always (5)
behavior based approach: critical incident approach
A behavior-based evalu-ation approach where the evaluation criteria consist of statements or examples of exceptionally good or poor performance employees display over the course of the evalua-tion period. advantage: focuses on actual behavior, not just traits gives clear example to raters to refer to when evaluating *to be effective you need to keep track of your employees behaviors - gets hard when there are a lot
horn error
A bias that occurs when a negative characteristic of a person affects the evalu-ation of the person's other attributes.
halo error
A bias that occurs when a positive characteristic of a person affects the evalua-tion of the person's other attributes.
leniency error
A bias that occurs when a rater consistently rates employees on the higher end of an evaluation scale ex) rating everyone 4, 4, 4, or 5 out of 5
primacy error
A bias that occurs when a raters earlier impressions of an individual bias his or her later evaluations of the person ex) if you think someone is good once and then later you rerated them you might pay close attention to their good things and ignore the bad ones
error of central tendency
A bias that occurs when raters are unwilling to rate individuals as very high or very low on an evaluation scale. ex) manager giving out 3's out of 5's
positive disciplines
A disciplinary process that is not punitive but focuses on constructive feedback and encourages employees to take responsibility for trying to improve their behaviors or performance at work key to positive discipline is to help employees identify their problems early and address the causes of problematic behavior steps (typically 4) 1. get employee/his or her manager to verbally agree as to how to fix the problem 2. another meeting to explore problem , why it wasn't corrected, and a new action plan - at this stage there is a written document and plan to address the problem 3. final termination warning 4. termination positive discipline -utilizes employee counseling - basically uses problem solving instead of punishment
attribute based approach: Graphic rating scale
A method of evaluating employees based on various traits, or attributes, they possess relevant to their performance ex) extent to which they are cooperative during job, are the poor, average, or good tons of performance dimensions here.
valid measure: contaminated performance measure
A performance measure that is irrelevant to an individual's actual job performance. ex) evaluating a sales rep on how fast they are able to type.
results based approaches: management by objectives
A results based evaluation apporach where managers meet with their employees and jointly set goals for them to accomplish during a particular time period. at end of period they remelt discuss performance. meet goals = positive review miss goals = negative goals should be objective and easy to measure
results based approaches: direct measures approach
A results based evaluation approach in which manag-ers gauge the outcomes of employees' work such as their sales, productivity, and absenteeism. focuses on quantifiable outcomes very clear and meaning fun when right measurements are evaluated ex) sales revenues generated are clearly an important indicator of an employees sales performance in retail
self appraisals & dis/advantages
An evaluation done by an employee that rates his or her own performance obvious issue of making yourself look better than you are. VICE VERSA asking someone to self reflect can be a useful starting point to developmental tool to improve performance
behavior based approaches: behaviorally anchored rating scales
BARS A behavior based evaluation approach where raters must evaluate individuals along a number of performance dimensions with each performance rating standard anchored by a behavioral example. associates each rating score with an actual specific example of an actual behavior that is avg, or below/above integrates adv of graphic rating scale and critical incident approach ex) you are given a sentence, "your teacher is always on time and has materials or your teacher is on time and sometimes has materials and from there you pick and that has a assigned score
what does BOS stand for
Behavioral observation scales
Once you understand how to use performance evaluations you....
Can figure out how to better manage your employees performance
Attribute based approach
Designed to measure the extent to which an employee possess certain characteristics that are viewed as important for the job and the organization in general ex)loyalty, dependability, creativity, initiative, and leadership -graphic rating scale
step 2
Developing performance measures
Providing feed back
Fourth step in effective performance mgmt involves providing feed for your employees **to help them improve their performance** feedback must be -in timely manner -professional -positive includes -WHEN -MEETINGS - BEHAVIOR>EMPLOYEE -INVOVLE/ENGAGE
Documentation
Performance management is a tool for administrative decisions such as: compensation, promotions, retention-termination, layoffs, and recognition
Development
Performance management is a tool to help employees improve their weaknesses and realize their long-term goals and career objectives
Step one of taking action
Remove barriers to employee success ex) if your appraisal meeting identified competencies as the leading cause of bad performance THEN training and development activities may fix it
individual comparison: absolute approaches
The evaluation of employees' performance by comparing employees against certain "absolute" standards (rather than against each other) along a number of performance dimensions (rather than simply making a global assessment about them) each employees evaluation is independent of others and includes traits, attributes, and behaviors -Attribute based approaches -behavior based approaches
frame of reference training
Training that aims to help raters understand performance standards as well as performance dimensions. calibrate or align different raters to reach a consensus on varying levels of performance
when to appraise employees
WHEN typically required every 6mo - 1 year most supervisors are required to do formal apprisals -***providing ongoing feedback is ideal tho
360-degree appraisals
a comprehensive measurement approach that involves gather-ing performance data from as many sources as possible—supervisors, peers, subordinates, and customers uses: supervisors, peers, subordinates, customers, etc.
progressive discipline
a process by which an employee with disciplinary problems progresses through a series of disciplinary stages until the problem is corrected steps (typically 4) 1. verbal warning 2. written reprimand 3. suspension 4. termination *stages can be bypassed if needed*
encouraging employee participation (involve/engage)
active employees view the appraisal process are more fair and useful. *ASK employees to reflect on how well they performed diff aspects and what factors may help helps employee understand that you aren't here to judge him but to help him improve engaging his thoughts and covers willl help take positive steps toward creating an open dialogue in development ****critical component in last step of performance mgmt process - developing an action plan
dis/advantages of progressive discipline
adv: -clearly informs employees that there is a problem and provides the opportunity to improve performance --if prob is corrected, no need to take further action dis: -puts a priority on punishment rather than a corrective action
dis/advantage of 360-degree appraisals
adv: -more accurate depiction of performance because it is so comprehensive dis: -collecting/sorting that much data can be cumbersome -takes managers time to make sense of different and sometimes conflicting data ex) a peer may have rated you above average on cooperation but your subordinate or supervisors may rate you poor in ur productivity... who's do you pick?
dis/advantages of positive discipline
adv: -the meetings are more constructive and employees feel that they are being treated with respect dis: -requires more time and effort by managers to administer process -not every manager is adept at functioning in a counseling role
advantages/disadvantages of BARS
advantages: -it gives all raters a fram of reference for evaluating each dimension of an employees performance -consistency of performance ratings across diff raters shouldn't matter dis -takes more time and effort to develop the the behavioral anchors for a BARS -very time consuming -job specific so their use across jobs requires the creation of distinct bars evaluation forms for EACH job.
individual comparison: ranking approach
an evaluation approach in which employees are evaluated from best to worst along some performance dimension or by virtue of their overall performanc ex) manager might rank employee based on sales volume. Best is 1 and worst is 5 quantitative data makes this very easy
valid measure: deficient performance measures
an incomplete appraisal of an individual's perfor-mance when important aspects are not measured ex) measuring only the # of calls a sales person makes. - issue is you didn't include the actual sales made
absolute approach: behavior based approaches
attempts to define the behaviors an employee must exhibit to be effective in the job. aka examines the extent to which employees actually display certain behaviors on the job includes -critical incident approach -forced choice*maybe no? - behaviorally anchored rating scales behavioral observation scales *over comes limitation of attribute based approaches
BARS stands for
behaviorally anchored rating scales
similar to me errors
bias that occurs when evaluators more highly rate employees who resemble them in some way. ex) you and your rater both went to the same college, have similar opinions or just similar personalities the manager might give you a higher score *tendency for individuals to be more favorable to those similar to them
contrast effect
bias that results when an evaluation of one or more persons is artificially inflated or deflated by when compared to the evaluation of another person ex) employee with average rating might get rated high if they are compared to someone who has poor rating (vice versa)
poor performance and work environment
can stem from factors relat ex) sales people in rural areas often have to drive long distanced to call on their customers - this cases the number of sales calls they're able to make per day is fewer than that of NYC could also come from design of employees job, technology, or support/performance of their coworkers - all could prevent their best possible work
issues/challenges with subordinates
challenges: -subordinates may fear retaliation if they rate their boss badly (This issue would be magnified if the reviews weren't anonymous) - important to separate how well liked a supervisor is from how good they are at supervising and vice versa. ex) boss might be well liked but bad at getting ppl to work hard - if the rating of subordinates are weighted too heavily then the manager will have an incentive to put the satisfaction of his employees first, rather than the firms goals
training types that are useful in helping employees improve skill
coaching -typically focuses on an employees performance improvement, usually short term and relative to specific skills mentoring -long term relationship in which more senior employee teaches junior employee how the organization works and nurtures that person as they progress in career
Individual comparisons
compare employees to one another or discern their relative standing along a performance dimension -ranking approach -paired comparison -forced distribution one of the simplest performance evaluations
Strictness error
contrast to leniency error A bias that occurs when a rater consistently rates employees on the low end of an evaluation scale. ex) giving everyone 1's and 2's out of 5
poor performance and attitudes and behaviors
could come from lack of effort/bad attitude dealing with lack of effort is different - many ways to respond -tie annual raises to their performance review -provide employees with explicit goals and certain rewards if they reach them -work jointly with each employee to develop a better plan to improve performance
customer evaluations
customer satisfaction is a critical determination of a company success; it makes sense to ask for input. ex) car dealership, hotels, restaurants and other service industries try to get customer feed back
step 5
developing an action plan to improve employee performance
graphic rating scale is more suited for...
developmental purposes -since it breaks down performance into a number of things you can see where you scored low and high and figure out how to develop/improve
being balanced in your appraisal
discuss full spectrum of dimensions, including where they DO and DONT excel
weighting performance criteria
each job comprises multiple performance dimensions that vary in terms of their relative importance ex) for a teacher should being entertaining be as important an conveying information? jobs differ in terms of how it adds to the value of the company ex) you have the performance dimension, the employees rating, the equal weight and their score and then you total the scores to get the overall score
are individual comparison easy or hard to implement? why?
easy because all you do is set up a basis for the comparisons r rely on overall global assessment then compare individuals to one another.
step 3
evaluating employee performance
why use performance dimensions
ex) if you have two employees who both have similar job performance overall (average) but they excel at different things in the job
draw backs of individual comparisons
ex) what if employees display equal performance (ex both 20%) but you must rank them? or if 20% of your employees should be ranked very good but you can only do 10 ranking employees gets considerably harder once you the larger you get - causes time constraint and lack of confidence in information