Shared Activity Unit 5: Performance Management Systems and Motivation: Share Your Work

Performance management systems, which typically include performance appraisal and employee development, are the 'Achilles' heel' of human resources management. They suffer flaws in many organizations, with employees and managers regularly bemoaning their ineffectiveness. (Pulakos, 2004).'

You may have encountered a performance management process within your own organisation and had the same thoughts. You may have experienced the process as an annual occurrence. Rather, it should be a year-round process monitoring your progress and performance.Cultural norms will influence how the monitoring and the formal review take place, but generally, performance management processes contain three main stages - creating goals, pursuing your goals and reviewing the performance of your goals through a performance appraisal (Atkinson and Shaw, 2007). When performance management processes are instituted properly, managers and employees should be continuously interacting with all aspects of the system. Consider what might be effective and ineffective in a performance management system in which you participated and the effect that this could have had on employee motivation. Your Individual Assignment in this unit focuses on these issues. In this Shared Activity, you will have the opportunity to share an outline of your Individual Assignment with your colleagues and receive feedback prior to submitting it. You will also help your colleagues by giving them feedback on their outlines.

For feedback to be most effective, it must be specific and rationalised. In other words, to provide quality feedback, you must clearly state what your feedback is and why it is important. The rationale is particularly important because it will help the person receiving the feedback understand how to apply the feedback to other work in the future. As you do this, consider how you can provide quality feedback to colleagues in this module as well as to co-workers in your profession.

References
Atkinson, C., & S. Shaw, (2007) 'Managing Performance', in Lucas, R., B. Lupton, & H. Mathieson (eds.) Human Resource Managementin an International Context, London: CIPD, Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D328E151-E1D2-4F74-B8D1-3CC6AEC5BF0E/0/1843981092sc.pdf, (accessed: 9/1/13)

Pulakos, E. D., (2004) Performance Management: A Roadmap for Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Performance Management Systems, Alexandria: SHRM, Available at: http://www.shrm.org/about/foundation/research/documents/1104pulakos.pdf, (accessed: 17/12/12)

To prepare for this Shared Activity:

• Review the Unit Introduction and the Learning Resources, including the HR/OB Matrix.
• Review the Unit 5 Individual Assignment (Performance Management Systems and Motivation) instructions.
• Consider how you might outline your ideas for your Individual Assignment. Consider any useful resources you find during your library research.

To complete this Shared Activity:

• Construct an outline of your Unit 5 Individual Assignment. Your outline should show how you plan to organise and support your arguments, incorporating a critical perspective on the resources. Keep in mind some specific areas of performance management and how they may influence motivation, as well as how they might play out in your scenario organisation:
• The performance appraisal process (goal setting, evaluating performance and conducting reviews)
• Different categories and levels of employees
• Manager bias

• Post, midway through the week, your outline of your Individual Assignment to the Unit 5 Discussion Forum for peer feedback.
• Respond to your fellow students by using the Discussion Forum to provide feedback on their outlines by asking clarifying questions, suggesting new or alternative ways of structuring their outlines, sharing additional resources and providing encouragement. Strive to make your feedback specific and constructive. In many cases, simply asking questions in a helpful and open way can be the most useful feedback.
• As you receive feedback from your fellow students, consider how you might use it to improve your work.

Participate in this Shared Activity only during the period of this unit to ensure that you and your colleagues can keep track of one another's postings and maintain a focused, collaborative discussion. Review the Syllabus and Shared Activities Rubric for information on how your contributions to the Shared Activities will be graded in this module. In each unit, you will receive feedback from your Faculty Member on your participation in the Shared Activities, focusing on your contributions to the learning community. In Unit 6, your Faculty Member will provide final feedback and a final grade on your Shared Activity contribution throughout the module.

Individual Assignment Unit 5: Performance Management Systems and Motivation

Throughout this unit, you may be discovering new ways that organisations manage performance. How would you do it? Some may respond with a performance management system, and others may say a performance appraisal. While many may think they are the same, they are indeed different. Performance management systems are the processes that organisations use to analyse and develop the employees' skills and capabilities. Organisations implement these systems to improve employees' performance on a long-term basis. On the other hand, performance appraisals, also referred to as performance evaluations, evaluate the performance or the skills of employees. They are just one component of the performance management process. (Lussier and Hendon, 2013)

Many organisations align rewards within their performance management systems to motivate their employees. Rewards can be provided to employees that reach organisational goals, objectives and/or continually contribute to the organisational vision as demonstrated in their performance appraisals. The use of rewards focuses on both the extrinsic motivation (financial reward and benefits) and intrinsic motivation (employee recognition) of employees (Wilton, 2011). Yet, the use of rewards can have a negative impact by creating perceptions of bias and lack of fairness. Consider the impact that a rewards system may have on employees within your scenario organisation. In this Individual Assignment, you will analyse the relationship between motivation and performance management systems. You will also evaluate a performance management system in the context of your scenario organisation.

References
Lussier, R. N, & J. R. Hendon, (2013) Human Resource Management: Functions, Applications, Skill Development, Los Angeles: Sage

Wilton, N., (2011) An Introduction to Human Resource Management, Los Angeles: Sage

To prepare for this Individual Assignment:

• Review the Unit Introduction and the Learning Resources, including the HR/OB Matrix.
• Conduct library research to identify relevant and current academic literature beyond your Learning Resources.
• Select a performance appraisal system you would implement in your scenario organisation and consider how its use may impact motivation within your scenario organisation.

To complete this Individual Assignment:

• Write a 2- to 3- page critical analysis on the effects of performance management systems on employee motivation. Your analysis should include:

   A description of your selected performance appraisal system and its components (e.g., evaluation, reflection, rewards).

   A critical evaluation of the system within the context of your scenario organisation. Include the potential strengths and limitations of using the system for your assigned organisation. 

   An analysis of how the performance management system may impact motivation in your scenario organisation in the following areas:

§  The performance appraisal process (goal setting, evaluating performance and conducting reviews)

§  Different categories and levels of employees

§  Manager bias

• Support your Individual Assignment with current academic literature beyond your Learning Resources.

Note:

Be sure to include references to all sources, including your Learning Resources, in Harvard format.

You should fully state and justify any assumptions that you choose to make in relation to your scenario organisation. Please recall any previous assumptions that you made about your organisation so that they will not conflict while preparing your Final Project. You may include information from this Individual Assignment within Section 2 of your HRM Consultancy Report.