Unit- 5.Measuring results and Behaviors

Herman Aguinis, University of Colorado at Denver

MEASURING RESULTS AND BEHAVIORS

Prof. Preeti Bhaskar

Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, NOIDA

Herman Aguinis, University of Colorado at Denver.

Measuring Results: Key questions

• Where should each individual focus efforts?

• What are the expected objectives?

• How do we know how well the results were achieved?

Key Accountabilities

Expected Objectives

Performance Standards

Statements of important and measurable outcomes

Broad areas of a job for which employee is responsible for producing results

Yardstick used to evaluate how well employees have achieved objectives


How to Determine Accountabilities?Collect information about job with the help of Job

Description.()Job description provides information on the task

performed. Task can be grouped into clusters of Task based on their relatedness.

Determine the relative degree of importance of task or cluster of tasks• % of employee’s time spent performing task• Impact on unit’s mission if performed inadequately• Consequences of error


Determining Objectives

Purpose:

• to identify Limited number of Highly important results that When achieved will have a dramatic impact on overall organization success

•After objective are set employee should receive the feedback on their progress towards attaining the objective. •Rewards should be allocated to those employees who have reached their objective


Characteristics of Good Objectives

• Specific and Clear• Challenging• Agreed Upon• Significant• Prioritized

• Bound by Time• Achievable• Fully

Communicated• Flexible• Limited in Number


Determining Performance Standards

Standards refer to aspects of performance objectives, such as:

• Quality – How well the objective is achieved

• Quantity– How much, how many, how often, at what cost

• Time– Due dates, schedule, cycle times, how quickly


Standards must include:• A verb• A due date• Some type of indicator

– Quality and/or– Quantity

Reduce overtime from 150 hours/months to 50 hours/month by December 1,2014 at a cost not to exceed 1,20,000

Verb

Due date

Indicator


Characteristics of Good Performance Standards

• Related to Position• Concrete, Specific, Measurable• Practical to Measure• Meaningful• Realistic and Achievable• Reviewed Regularly


Accountabilities, Objectives, and Standards

Job Title:

Graduate Associate, Sourcing & Procurement


Accountabilities: Provide analytical support for sourcing projects impacting

business units. Successful analytical support will ensure that project decisions are made on well-researched reasons. Poorly made project decisions may delay client deliverables or damage the Disney brand. (20% of time)

Benchmark current pricing models and develop new approaches to pricing/buying various products and services that yield creative and business advantages. This is extremely important to the continued sustainability of Disney, and will be critical to capture new portions of the market share. Incorrectly identifying pricing models would be crushing to the Disney business and would directly impact the bottom line. (30% of time)


Cont. Assist in the development of spend profiles, key

stakeholder lists, savings opportunities where existing contracts are leveraged, savings opportunities in commodity areas that have not been sourced, and sourcing and procurement strategy. Will play a small role in these extremely important activities. Successfully developing spend profiles, identifying key stakeholders, identifying savings opportunities, and developing a successful business strategy are keys to the financial stability of Disney. (50% of time)


Objectives: :• Develop spend profiles, key stakeholder lists, and a sourcing and

procurement strategy. These tasks need to be completed by July 1, 2004. Identifying savings opportunities where existing contracts are leveraged and identifying savings opportunities in commodity areas that have not been sourced are ongoing tasks. Report weekly on savings identified.

• Benchmark current pricing models and develop new approaches to pricing/buying various products and services that yield creative and business advantages. Benchmarking project due by August 1, 2008. Developing new approaches to pricing is an ongoing project. Turn in bi-weekly reports on new findings to your manager by COB every other Friday.

• Provide analytical support for sourcing projects impacting business units. Ongoing project where information must be delivered inside project deadlines and budget guidelines.

• .


Performance Standards::• Identified savings opportunities where existing contracts were

leveraged and identified commodity areas that have not been sourced on a weekly basis for total savings of 5% over previous quarter spending.

• Benchmarked current pricing models by August 1, 2008 in 80 hours or less of time billed.

• Submitted new approaches to pricing/buying various products and services on a weekly basis resulting in at least two new pricing approaches being adapted by the company by September 1, 2008.

• Provided ongoing analytical support for sourcing projects as rated by monthly project evaluations conducted by the relevant project managers and communicate0d to your manager on a monthly basis.


Measuring Behaviors: Overview

• Identify competencies• Identify indicators• Choose measurement system


Identify Competencies

Measurable clusters of KSAs – Knowledge's– Skills– Abilities

That are critical in determining how results will be achieved


Types of Competencies

Differentiating Threshold

Distinguish betweensuperior and average

performance

Needed to perform job at minimum

Adequate standard


We don’t measure competency directly but we measure Indicators

A competency can have several indicators.

competency

Indicator 1 Indicator 2 Indicator 3 Indicator 4


Necessary Components for Describing Competencies

• Definition• Description of specific behaviors

– When competency demonstrated– When competency not demonstrated

• Suggestions for developing the competency


Measurement System to evaluate competencies

Compares employees with pre-specified performance standard

Choose Measurement System

Comparative

system

Absolute

system

Compares employees with each other


Types of Comparative Systems

Simple rank order

Alternation rank order

Paired comparisons

Forced distribution

Advantages

• Easy to explain• Straightforward• Better control for biases and errors

found in absolute systems– Leniency– Severity– Central tendency

Disadvantages

• Rankings may not be specific enough for– Useful feedback– Protection from legal challenge

• No information on relative distance between employees

• Specific issues with forced distribution method


Types of Absolute Systems

Essays Behavior checklists

Critical incidents

Graphic rating scales


Essays

• Advantage:– Potential to provide detailed feedback

• Disadvantages:– Unstructured and may lack detail– Depends on supervisor writing skill– Lack of quantitative information; difficult to

use in personnel decisions


Behavior checklists

• Advantage:– Easy to use and understand

• Disadvantage:– Scale points used are often arbitrary– Difficult to get detailed and useful feedback


Critical incidents

Two kinds of measurement– Report of specific employee

behavior• Allows focus on specific behavior• Very time-consuming

– Examples of behavior illustrative of core competencies• Easier to use• Describes behavior desired


Graphic rating scales• Clear meaning for each response category• Consistent interpretation by outside readers• Supervisor and employee should have same understanding of

rating


Graphic rating scales:BARS improvement

• Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)– Use critical incidents as anchors– Involves multiple groups of employees in

development• Identify important job elements• Describe critical incidents at various levels of

performance• Check for inter-rater reliability



Measuring Performance

• Several types of methods • Differ in terms of:

– Practicality (time and effort)– Usefulness (quantifiable)


Make a group of 5 students

Creating BARS-Based Graphic Rating Scales for Evaluating Business Student

Performance in Team Projects


In many universities, students are required to conduct Team Projects.

Job Description for students-:• Work with team member to deliver project outcome

on time and according to specification .• Complete all individual assignment to highest

quality ,completing necessary background research , making analysis and preparing final documents.

• Foster a good working environment


Please do the following:

1. Generate a list of competencies for the position described.

2. Identify the list of critical behavioral indicators for each competency.

3. Generate critical incident (High ,average and poor performance for each behavioral indicator.

4. Create Graphic rating scales using BARS to measure each competency.


Competencies:

• Teamwork: Ability to work with a team to finish all project deliverables on time and according to instructions. Assists others as necessary and constantly seeks to further relationships with team members. Failure to develop teamwork will result in reduced team effectiveness due to lack of communication and cooperation between team members.

• Business knowledge: Aware of current business trends and applies relevant business research skills to projects at hand. Always learning new skills, staying current on business news, and talking with business professionals. Failure to develop business knowledge will result in a decrease in the quality of work produced by the team.

• Communication: Ability to articulate verbally or through written communication ideas on project deliverables. Use of correct grammar, professional presentation, and clear and concise messages characterize good communication. Failure to communicate well will result in the decreased performance of the team, because team members will no longer understand ideas put forth.


Behavioral Indicators

• Teamwork– Friendly environment exists– Team members’ input is accepted– Offers to help other team members when necessary

• Business knowledge– Student offers input when group is discussing business problems– Actively researches solutions presented– Reads business news sources on a daily basis to stay up-to-date on

business trends

• Communication– Clearly articulates points in meetings– Uses correct grammar and word usage in written communications– Professionally presents ideas and findings in project presentations


Critical Incidents:

Indicator High PerformanceAverage Performance Poor Performance

Student offers input when group is discussing business problems

Continuously provides relevant input into group discussions

Offers input on areas of expertise in group discussions

Does not offer input into group discussions

Actively researches solutions presented

Researches practical and theoretical implications of decision

Researches practical implications of decision

Does not research implications of business decisions

Reads business news sources on a daily basis to stay up-to-date on business trends

Comments on a daily basis on the status of ongoing business developments of interest

Comments on a weekly basis on the status of ongoing business developments of interest

Does not comment on the status of ongoing business developments of interest

Clearly articulates points in meetings

Presents ideas in a clear and concise manner and ensures that team members understand point

Presents ideas in a clear and concise manner

Does not get point across in meetings, which results in arguments with other team members or mis-education of team members


Indicator High Performance Average Performance Poor Performance

Uses correct grammar and word usage in written communications

Written communications are clear, free of spelling and grammatical mistakes

Clear use of language in written reports

Poor spelling and grammatical usage in written reports

Professionally presents ideas and findings in project presentations

Prepares presentation so ideas are communicated well and in a professional manner

Minimally prepares for presentations, so communication is rushed or drags on

Does not prepare for presentations

Friendly environment exists

Takes an interest in team members outside of project

Talks to team members to complete tasks Withdrawn from team

Team members’ input is accepted

Supportive of other team members’ ideas

Solicits, but does not support team members’ ideas

Does not solicit input from other team members

Offers to help other team members when necessary

Volunteers for extra assignments so that team members can finish projects on time and to the highest standards

Offers to help team members if deadline is approaching

Does not offer to help team members


Scales


Teamwork: Ability to work in a team to finish all project deliverables on time and according to instructions. Assists others as necessary and constantly seeks to further relationships with team members. Failure to develop teamwork will result in reduced team effectiveness due to lack of communication and cooperation between team members.

5 Exceptional: Takes an interest in team members outside of project.

3 Competent: Talks to team members to complete tasks.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Withdrawn from team.

5 Exceptional: Supportive of other team members’ ideas.

3 Competent: Solicits, but may not support team members’ ideas.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Does not solicit input from other team members.

5Exceptional: Volunteers for extra assignments so that team members can finish projects on time and to the highest standards.

3 Competent: Offers to help team members if deadline is approaching.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Does not offer to help team members.


Business Knowledge: Aware of current business trends and applies relevant business research skills to projects at hand. Always learning new skills, staying current on business news, and talking with business professionals. Failure to develop business knowledge will result in a decrease in the quality of work produced by the team.

5 Exceptional: Continuously provides relevant input into group discussions.

3 Competent: Offers input on areas of expertise in group discussions.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Does not offer input into group discussions.

5 Exceptional: Researches practical and theoretical implications of decisions.

3 Competent: Researches practical implications of decisions.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Does not research implications of business decisions.

5Exceptional: Comments on a daily basis on the status of ongoing business developments of interest.

3Competent: Comments on a weekly basis on the status of ongoing business developments of interest.

1Major Improvement Needed: Does not comment on the status of ongoing business developments of interest.


Communication:Ability to articulate verbally or through written communication ideas on project

deliverables. Use of correct grammar, professional presentation, and clear and concise messages characterize good communication. Failure to communicate well will result in the decreased performance of the team, because team members will not understand ideas expressed.

5Exceptional: Presents ideas in a clear and concise manner and ensures that team members understand point.

3 Competent: Presents ideas in a clear and concise manner.

1Major Improvement Needed: Does not get point across in meetings, resulting in arguments with other team members or miseducation of team members.

5 Exceptional: Written communication is clear, free of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

3 Competent: Clear use of language in written reports.

1 Major Improvement Needed: Poor spelling and grammatical usage in written reports.

5Exceptional: Prepares presentation so ideas are communicated well and in a professional manner.

3 Competent: Minimally prepares for presentations, so communication is rushed or drags on. 1 Major Improvement Needed: Does not prepare for presentations.


Unit- 5.Measuring results and Behaviors

Education

university of colorado

herman aguinis

expected objectives

standards job title

objectives purpose

important results

measuring results

employees time