Performance Management: Benefits and Concerns
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.Adapted from Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development
Sections of This Topic Include:
4 Key Benefits of Performance management15 Other Benefits
Concerns
4 Key Benefits of Performance Management
1. PM focuses on results, rather than behaviors and activitiesA common misconception among supervisors is that behaviors and activities are the same as results. Thus, an employee may appear extremely busy, but not be contributing at all toward the goals of the organization. An example is the employee who manually reviews completion of every form and procedure, rather than supporting automation of the review. The supervisor may conclude the employee is very committed to the organization and works very hard, thus, deserving a very high performance rating.
2. Aligns organizational activities and processes to
the goals of the organization
PM identifies organizational goals, results needed to
achieve those goals, measures of effectiveness or efficiency (outcomes)
toward the goals, and means (drivers) to achieve the goals. This
chain of measurements is examined to ensure alignment with overall
results of the organization.
3. Cultivates a system-wide, long-term view of the organization.
Richard A. Swanson, in Performance Improvement Theory
and Practice (Advances in Developing Human Resources, 1, 1999),
explains an effective performance improvement process must follow
a systems-based approach while looking at outcomes and drivers.
Otherwise, the effort produces a flawed picture. For example,
laying off people will likely produce short-term profits. However,
the organization may eventually experience reduced productivity,
resulting in long-term profit loss.
4. Produces meaningful measurements
These measurements have a wide variety of useful applications.
They are useful in benchmarking, or setting standards for comparison
with best practices in other organizations. They provide consistent
basis for comparison during internal change efforts. They indicate
results during improvement efforts, such as employee training,
management development, quality programs, etc. They help ensure
equitable and fair treatment to employees based on performance.
15 Other Benefits of Performance Management
Performance Management (PM):1. Helps you think about what results you really want. You're forced to be accountable, to "put a stake in the ground".
2. Depersonalizes issues. Supervisor's focus on behaviors and results, rather than personalities.
3. Validates expectations. In today's age of high expectations when organizations are striving to transform themselves and society, having measurable results can verify whether grand visions are realistic or not.
4. Helps ensure equitable treatment of employees because appraisals are based on results.
5. Optimizes operations in the organization because goals and results are more closely aligned.
6. Cultivates a change in perspective from activities to results.
7. Performance reviews are focused on contributions to the organizational goals, e.g., forms include the question "What organizational goal were contributed to and how?"
8. Supports ongoing communication, feedback and dialogue about organizational goals. Also supports communication between employee and supervisor.
9. Performance is seen as an ongoing process, rather than a one-time, shapshot event.
10. Provokes focus on the needs of customers, whether internal or external.
11. Cultivates a systems perspective, that is, focus on the relationships and exchanges between subsystems, e.g., departments, processes, teams and employees. Accordingly, personnel focus on patterns and themes in the organization, rather than specific events.
12. Continuing focus and analysis on results helps to correct several myths, e.g., "learning means results", "job satisfaction produces productivity", etc.
13. Produces specificity in commitments and resources.
14. Provides specificity for comparisons, direction and planning.
15. Redirects attention from bottom-up approaches (e.g., doing job descriptions, performance reviews, etc., first and then "rolling up" results to the top of the organization) to top-down approaches (e.g., ensuring all subsystem goals and results are aligned first with the organization's overall goals and results).
Concerns About Performance Management
Typical concerns expressed about performance management are that it seems extraordinarily difficult and often unreliable to measure phenomena as complex as performance. People point out that today's organizations are rapidly changing, thus results and measures quickly become obsolete. They add that translating human desires and interactions to measurements is impersonal and even heavy handed.
For the Category of Performance Management:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For Your Own Performance Management, See
Personal Productivity
-- Recommended Books
For Employee Performance Management, See
Supervision -- Related
Books
For Group Performance Management, See
Facilitation and Teams
-- Recommended Books
For Organizational Performance Management, See
Organizational
Development -- Recommended Books
For Nonprofit Organizational Performance Management, See
Nonprofit Capacity Building -- Recommended Books
General Information -- Books About General Topic of Performance Management
The topic of performance management can be scoped to individuals/employees, groups and organizations. Regardless of the scope of the process, there are many aspects in common. The following books are useful about these many common aspects. For books on a specific scope of the process, see the above recommended links.
To get more information about each of the following practical books, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
