Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-1 Human Resource Management 11 th Edition Chapter 8 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

8-1

Human Resource Management 11th EditionChapter 8

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL


8-2

HRM in Action: Productivity and Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional Intelligence - Ability to recognize and manage emotions

• Individuals with high EQ - Cope successfully and proactively with life’s demands and pressures; build and use rewarding relationships with others, while not being afraid to make tough decisions

• Positive relationship between emotionally intelligent leadership and employee engagement, client satisfaction, and bottom line


8-3

Performance Management

• Goal-oriented process ensuring organizational processes are in place to maximize productivity of employees, teams, and organization

• Training and performance appraisal play significant role in process

• Training, appraisal, and rewards-integrated linked for continuous organizational effectiveness

• Effort of every worker directed toward achieving strategic goals


8-4

Performance Management (Cont.)

• PM has not yet achieved its potential • In survey, 75% said it is possible to develop

accurate measurement of an employee’s contributions, but only 40% believe their organization had accomplished that objective

• Organizations need to integrate company’s mission statement, vision, and values into their performance management systems


8-5

Performance Appraisal Defined

• Formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance

• Often negative, disliked activity that seems to elude mastery


8-6

Uses of Performance Appraisal

• Human resource planning - Identifies those who have potential to be promoted

• Recruitment and selection - Helps predict performance of job applicants

• Training and development - Points out employee’s specific needs for training and development

• Career planning and development - Assesses employee’s strengths and weaknesses and determines person’s potential


8-7

Uses of Performance Appraisal (Cont.)

• Compensation programs - Provides basis for rational decisions regarding pay adjustments

• Internal employee relations - Used in making decisions such as promotion, demotion, termination, layoff, and transfer

• Assessment of employee potential - Assesses employee potential as they appraise their job performance


8-8

Trends & Innovations: Performance Management, Appraisal, and Layoffs

• Software applications available to assist management downsizing and restructuring

• Software tools to help identify workers who should go during downsizing

• Software to compare employee performance and potential ratings

• Aid to ongoing workforce pruning that may stave off need for layoffs


8-9

Performance Appraisal Environmental Factors

• External:

– Legislation requiring nondiscriminatory appraisal systems

– Labor unions

• Factors within internal environment, such as corporate culture


8-10

Legislation Affecting Performance Appraisal

• Mistretta v Sandia Corporation - Federal judge ruled against company, stating, “There is sufficient circumstantial evidence to indicate that age bias and age based policies appear throughout the performance rating process to the detriment of the protected age group.”


8-11

Legislation Affecting Performance Appraisal (Cont.)

• Albermarle Paper v Moody – Supreme Court case supported validation requirements for performance appraisals


8-12

Labor Unions and Performance Appraisal

• Have traditionally stressed seniority as basis for promotions and pay increases

• May vigorously oppose use of management-designed performance appraisal system


8-13

Performance Appraisal ProcessExternal EnvironmentInternal Environment

Identify Specific Performance Appraisal

Goals

Establish Performance Criteria (Standards) and Communicate Them To

Employees

Examine Work Performed

Appraise the Results

Discuss Appraisal with Employee


8-14

Establish Performance Criteria (Standards)

• Traits

• Behaviors

• Competencies

• Goal Achievement

• Improvement Potential


8-15

Traits

• Employee traits such as attitude, appearance, and initiative are basis for some evaluations

• May be unrelated to job performance or difficult to define

• Certain traits may relate to job performance and, if this connection is established, using them may be appropriate


8-16

Caution on Traits: Wade v. Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service

• In performance appraisal system, general characteristics such as “leadership, public acceptance, attitude toward people, appearance and grooming, personal conduct, outlook on life, ethical habits, resourcefulness, capacity for growth, mental alertness, loyalty to organization” are susceptible to partiality and to the personal taste, whim, or fancy of the evaluator as well as patently subjective in form and obviously susceptible to completely subjective treatment by those conducting the appraisals.”


8-17

Behaviors

• Organizations may evaluate person’s task-related behavior or competencies

• Examples: leadership style, developing others, teamwork and cooperation, or customer service orientation

• If certain behaviors result in desired outcomes, there is merit in using them in evaluation process


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Competencies

• Broad range of knowledge, skills, traits, and behaviors that may be technical in nature, relate to interpersonal skills, or be business oriented

• In leadership jobs, relevant competencies might include developing talent, delegating authority, and people management skills

• Competencies selected should be those that are closely associated with job success


8-19

Goal Achievement

• Use if organizations consider ends more important than means

• Outcomes established should be within control of individual or team

• Should be those results that lead to firm’s success


8-20

Improvement Potential

• Many of criteria used focus on past

• Cannot change past• Should emphasize

future, including behaviors and outcomes needed to develop employee, and achieve firm’s goals


8-21

Responsibility for Appraisal

• Immediate supervisor

• Subordinates

• Peers and team members

• Self-appraisal

• Customer appraisal


8-22

Immediate Supervisor

• Traditionally most common choice

• Supervisor is usually in excellent position to observe employee’s job performance

• Supervisor has responsibility for managing particular unit


8-23

Subordinates

• Our culture has viewed evaluation by subordinates negatively

• Some firms find evaluation of managers by subordinates is both feasible and needed

• Will do better job of managing

• Might be caught up in popularity contest


8-24

Peers and Team Members

• Work closely with evaluated employee and probably have undistorted perspective on typical performance

• Problems include reluctance of some people who work closely together, especially on teams, to criticize each other


8-25

Self-Appraisal

• If employees understand their objectives and criteria used for evaluation, they are in good position to appraise own performance

• Employee development is self-development

• Employees who appraise own performance may become more highly motivated


8-26

Customer Appraisal

• Customer behavior determines firm’s degree of success

• Organizations use this approach because it demonstrates commitment to customer, holds employees accountable, and fosters change


8-27

The Appraisal Period

• Prepared at specific intervals

• Usually annually or semiannually

• Period may begin with employee’s date of hire

• All employees may be evaluated at same time


8-28

The Appraisal Period (Cont.)

• Consider monitoring performance more often

• 63% of high-growth companies review performance more than once a year compared to 22% of low-growth companies

• In high-tech organizations, speed of change mandates that performance period be shorter, perhaps every three or four months


8-29

Performance Appraisal Methods

• 360-Degree Evaluation

• Rating Scales• Critical Incidents• Essay • Work Standards• Ranking• Paired Comparisons

• Forced Distribution• Behaviorally

Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)

• Result-Based Systems


8-30

360-Degree Evaluation

• Multi-rater evaluation

• Input from multiple levels within firm and external sources

• Focuses on skills needed across organizational boundaries

• More objective measure of performance

• Process more legally defensible


8-31

Rating Scales

• Rates according to defined factors

• Judgments are recorded on a scale

• Many employees are evaluated quickly


8-32

Critical Incidents

• Written records of highly favorable and unfavorable work actions

• Appraisal more likely to cover entire evaluation period

• Does not focus on last few weeks or months


8-33

Essay

• Brief narrative describing performance

• Tends to focus on extreme behavior

• Depends heavily on evaluator's writing ability

• Comparing essay evaluations might be difficult


8-34

Work Standards

• Compares performance to predetermined standard

• Standards - Normal output of average worker operating at normal pace

• Time study and work sampling used

• Workers need to know how standards were set


8-35

Ranking

• All employees from group ranked in order of overall performance

• Comparison is based on single criterion, such as overall performance


8-36

Paired Comparison

• Variation of ranking method

• Compares performance of each employee with every other employee in group


8-37

Forced Distribution

• Rater assigns individual in workgroup to limited number of categories similar to normal distribution

• Assumes all groups of employees have same distribution

• Proponents of forced distribution believe they facilitate budgeting and guard against weak managers who are too timid to get rid of poor performers


8-38

Forced Distribution (Cont.)

• Require managers to be honest with workers about how they are doing

• Also called a rank-and-yank system • Unpopular with many managers • May damage morale and generate

mistrust of leadership • Suspect that rankings are way for

companies to rationalize firings more easily


8-39

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)

• Combines traditional rating scales and critical incidents methods

• Job behaviors derived from critical incidents described more objectively


8-40

Result-Based Systems

• Manager and subordinate agree on objectives for next appraisal

• Evaluation based on how well objectives accomplished


8-41

Use of Computer Software

• Available in recording appraisal data

• Reduces required paperwork


8-42

Problems in Performance Appraisal

• Appraiser discomfort• Lack of objectivity• Halo/horn error

• Leniency/strictness• Central tendency

• Recent behavior bias• Personal bias

• Manipulating the evaluation• Employee anxiety


8-43

Appraiser Discomfort

• Performance appraisal process cuts into manager’s time

• Experience can be unpleasant when employee has not performed well


8-44

Lack of Objectivity

• In rating scales method, factors such as attitude, appearance, and personality are difficult to measure

• Factors may have little to do with employee’s job performance

• Employee appraisal based primarily on personal characteristics may place evaluator and company in untenable positions


8-45

Halo/Horn Error

• Halo error - Occurs when manager generalizes one positive performance feature or incident to all aspects of employee performance, resulting in higher rating

• Horn error - Evaluation error occurs when manager generalizes one negative performance feature or incident to all aspects of employee performance, resulting in lower rating


8-46

Leniency/Strictness

• Leniency - Giving undeserved high ratings

• Strictness - Being unduly critical of employee’s work performance

• Worst situation is when firm has both lenient and strict managers and does nothing to level inequities


8-47

Central Tendency

• Error occurs when employees are incorrectly rated near average or middle of scale

• May be encouraged by some rating scale systems requiring evaluator to justify in writing extremely high or extremely low ratings


8-48

Recent Behavior Bias

• Employee’s behavior often improves and productivity rises several days or weeks before scheduled evaluation

• Only natural for rater to remember recent behavior more clearly than actions from past

• Maintaining records of performance


8-49

Personal Bias (Stereotyping)

• Managers allow individual differences such as gender, race, or age to affect ratings

• Effects of cultural bias, or stereotyping, can influence appraisals

• Other factors – Example: mild-mannered employees may be appraised more harshly simply because they do not seriously object to results


8-50

Manipulating the Evaluation

• Sometimes, managers control every aspect of appraisal process and manipulate system.

• Example: Want to give pay raise to certain employee. Supervisor may give employee an undeserved high performance evaluation.


8-51

Employee Anxiety

• Evaluation process may create anxiety for appraised employee

• Opportunities for promotion, better work assignments, and increased compensation may hinge on results


8-52

Reasons for Intentionally Inflating Ratings

• Believe accurate ratings would damage subordinate’s motivation and performance

• Improve employee’s eligibility for merit raises

• Avoid airing department’s “dirty laundry”

• Avoid creating negative permanent record that might haunt employee in future


8-53

Reasons for Intentionally Inflating Ratings (Cont.)

• Protect good workers whose performance suffered because of personal problems

• Reward employees displaying great effort even when results were relatively low

• Avoid confrontation with hard-to-manage employees

• Promote a poor or disliked employee up and out of department


8-54

Reasons for Intentionally Lowering Ratings

• Scare better performance out of employee• Punish difficult or rebellious employee• Encourage problem employee to quit• Create strong record to justify planned firing• Minimize amount of merit increase subordinate

receives• Comply with organizational edict discouraging

managers from giving high ratings


8-55

Characteristics of Effective Appraisal System• Job-related criteria

• Performance expectations

• Standardization

• Trained appraisers

• Continuous open communication

• Conduct performance reviews

• Due process


8-56

Job-Related Criteria

• Most basic criterion needed in employee performance appraisals

• Uniform Guidelines and court decisions quite clear on this point


8-57

Performance Expectations

• Managers and subordinates must agree on performance expectations in advance of appraisal period

• If employees clearly understand expectations, they can evaluate own performance and make timely adjustments


8-58

Standardization

Firms should use same evaluation instrument for all employees in same job category who work for same supervisor


8-59

Trained Appraisers

• Common deficiency in appraisal systems – evaluators seldom receive training on how to conduct effective evaluations

• Training should be ongoing• How to rate employees and how to

conduct appraisal interviews


8-60

Continuous Open Communication

• Employees have strong need to know how well they are performing

• Good appraisal system provides highly desired feedback on continuing basis

• Should be few surprises in performance review


8-61

Conduct Performance Reviews

• Special time should be set for formal discussion of employee’s performance

• Withholding appraisal results is absurd

• Performance review allows them to detect any errors or omissions in appraisal, or employee may simply disagree with evaluation and want to challenge it


8-62

Due Process

• Provide employees opportunity to appeal appraisal results

• Must have procedure for pursuing grievances and having them addressed objectively


8-63

Legal Implications

• Employers must prepare for more discrimination lawsuits and jury trials related to performance appraisals

• Unlikely that any appraisal system will be immune to legal challenge


8-64

Courts Normally Require

• Either absence of adverse impact on members of protected classes or validation of process

• System that prevents one manager from directing or controlling a subordinate’s career

• Appraisal should be reviewed and approved by someone or some group in organization

• Rater, or raters, must have personal knowledge of employee’s job performance

• Must use predetermined criteria that limits manager’s discretion


8-65

Appraisal Interview

• Achilles’ heel of entire evaluation process

• Scheduling interview

• Interview structure

• Use of praise and criticism

• Employees’ role

• Use of software

• Concluding interview


8-66

Interview Structure

• Discuss employee’s performance

• Assist employee in setting goals and personal development plans for next appraisal period

• Suggesting means for achieving established goals, including support from manager and firm


8-67

Conducting Separate Interviews

• Merit in conducting separate interviews for discussing (1) employee performance and development and (2) pay

• When topic of pay emerges in interview, it tends to dominate conversation with performance improvement taking a back seat


8-68

Use of Praise and Criticism

• Praise is appropriate when warranted

• Criticism, even if warranted, is especially difficult to give

• “Constructive” criticism is often not perceived that way


8-69

Employees’ Role

• Should go through diary or files and make notes of every project worked on, regardless of whether they were successful or not

• Information should be on appraising manager’s desk well before review


8-70

Concluding the Interview

• Ideally, employees will leave interview with positive feelings about management, company, job, and themselves

• Cannot change past behavior; future performance is another matter

• Should end with specific and mutually agreed upon plans for employee’s development


8-71

A Global Perspective: Two Cultures’ View of Performance

Appraisal

• Special problems when translated into different cultural environments

• Chinese companies tend to focus appraisals on different criteria

• Place great emphasis upon moral characteristics • May tolerate less than optimal performance

because maintaining family control is so important

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Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-1 Human Resource Management 11 th Edition Chapter 8 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL.

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