Performance Management: Development Plan (for organizations, subsystems, processes or employees)
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision.
Sections of This Topic Include:
Suggested Previous ReadingDevelopment and Contents of a Development Plan
Suggested Previous Reading
Readers will benefit most from having first read the subsections Overall Goal and Basic Steps, Key Terms, Performance Plan, and Performance Appraisal.
Development and Contents of a Development Plan
As described in these previous subsections, development of the Performance Plan typically includes the first eight steps of the basic 14 steps in performance management. Development of the Performance Appraisal includes steps nine through 12. Development of the Development Plan includes steps 13 and 14. We also continue our example of the machine operator below. At this point in our example, the Performance Plan and Performance Appraisal have been developed.Information in this section is generic to performance management, that is, the information generally applies to any performance management effort, e.g., organization, process, subsystem or employee.
NOTE: As review about key terms in performance management, key terms are bolded and italicized below.
13. If performance does not meet desired performance standards,
develop or update a performance development plan to address the
performance gap* (See Notes 1 and 2 below.)
If performance does not meet standards, implement a performance
development plan. This plan clearly conveys how the conclusion
was made that there was inadequate performance, what actions are
to be taken and by whom and when, when performance will be reviewed
again and how. In our example, if the operator (or other domain)
was not performing to standards, then some forms of help (or interventions)
should be provided (in this example, coaching, mentoring, training,
more resources, etc).
* Note 1: Inadequate performance does not always indicate a problem on the part of the domain. Performance standards may be unrealistic or the domain may have insufficient resources. Similarly, the overall strategies or the organization, or its means to achieving its top-level goals, may be unrealistic or without sufficient resources.
* Note 2: When performance management is applied to an employee
or group of employees, a development plan can be initiated in
a variety of situations, e.g.,:
a.) When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement
is needed
b.) To "benchmark" the status of improvement so far
in a development effort
c.) As part of a professional development for the employee or
group of employees, in which case there is not a performance gap
as much as an "growth gap"
d.) As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible
for a planned change in role in the organization, in which case
there also is not a performance gap as much as an "opportunity
gap"
e.) To "pilot", or test, the operation of a new performance
management system
14. Repeat steps 9 to 13 until performance is acceptable, standards are changed, the domain is replaced, management decides to do nothing, etc.
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.
