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Chapter 07 - Managing Employee Performance
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D. Coaching vs Mentoring
1. Mentoring is an intense, long-term relationship between a senior, more experienced
person (mentor) and a more junior, less experienced person (protégé).
2. Mentoring differs from coaching in two ways:
a. Goal of mentoring is focused on overall development, not day-to-day
performance
b. Mentors are typically not an employee's direct supervisor
XIII. Concluding Note
A. Set performance expectations immediately
B. Give feedback early and often
C. Focus on behavior, not traits
D. Assess both behaviors results
E. Identify and rectify performance gaps
F. Allow for productive failures
G. Reward desired behavior and ensure it repeats
H. Make it just
CASES
The Dallas Mavericks
1. Basketball players are typically evaluated in terms of their statistics. These statistics are
dependent in part on their positions/role on the team and include things like points scored, free
2. Answers will vary. Some team owners might care about things other than the statistics, like
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3. Answers will vary. The investment could be worthwhile for a number of reasons. First, a
better evaluation of performance would help indicate a player’s value – in other words, how
expectations.
Extra Time off at Proctor & Gamble
1. Answers will vary. The paid time off might have a positive impact on employee’s job
attitudes, like organizational commitment and job satisfaction. With regard to organizational
commitment, such a gesture might increase employee’s affective commitment (emotional
3. Answers will vary. Some students might think that vacations should be granted regardless of
performance because people have a right to time off; or students might cite the more practical
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4. Top performers are likely to value paid time off just like anyone else. However, equity theory
tells us that top performers might feel like it is unfair that they received the same reward as low
"MANAGE WHAT" SCENARIOS
7.1 Critiquing an Existing Performance Evaluation Form
Debrief is found at the end of the chapter.
7.2 Evaluating Job Performance
Debrief is found at the end of the chapter.
7.3 Managing Both the Problem and the Star Employee
Debrief is found at the end of the chapter.
7.4 Conducting an Effective Performance Appraisal Feedback Session
Hopefully you have already established the performance expectations with your employees
so that they will not come as a surprise. You also should have done some preparations in the
form of keeping notes about the employees’ behavior over the period of time since the last
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MANAGEMENT LIVE
7.1 The “Under Management Epidemic”
Class Discussion Questions
1. Have you ever been “under managed” while working on a job or on an extra-
curricular organization? Describe the situation and what it felt like to be under
2. Why do you think “under management” is so common? Why don’t managers perform
these critical tasks more frequently?
3. Why aren’t managers being held accountable for performing these basic and critical
functions of management (e.g., make clear performance statements, provide clear
feedback about performance and improvement)?
4. How can we hold managers accountable for these responsibilities?
7.2 The “Topgrading Debate”
Instructions
Host a class debate about topgrading. The class can either be randomly divided into two groups
or students can pick sides (pro-topgrading versus anti-topgrading) provided that there are a fair
number of students on both sides of the debate.
Ask students to prepare for the debate outside of class by reading empirical articles on
topgrading and by researching institutions that have used topgrading (e.g., Enron, Princeton,
GE). Students should consider the consequences – both good and bad – of using topgrading in
different situations.
The instructor should debrief the class after the debate and discuss students’ opinions after the
debate. Did they change their minds? What information did they find convincing from the other
side of the debate? Would anyone now advocate for a middle-ground approach (i.e., topgrading
is effective sometimes but not always)?
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7.3 Revenge of the Plant Workers
Class Discussion Questions
1. Were you surprised by the results of the study?
2. Do you think that people stole the tools and supplies because they needed money after the
pay cut? If not, why did they steal?
3. How common is employee theft?
4. How do employers try to deter employee theft? What would this research suggest that
employers do to deter employee theft?
7.4 Problem Employees: Invest or Divest?
Instructions:
Read the scenario below. The answer the questions that follow by using the knowledge you have
gained through this chapter and the Management Live 7.4 discussion of “investing or divesting”
in employees.
Scenario:
Terell is a senior manager at an insurance company. He has been with the company for 15 years
and oversees 4 regional managers who in turn oversee approximately 8 to 12 account executives.
The account executives are responsible for selling group life insurance policies to corporations
and then servicing those accounts. It is of great importance that the account executives not only
make the sale, but also provide excellent follow-up service to the clients once the sale has been
made. If the clients are not happy with the level of service provided, they can easily go elsewhere
and buy their employees’ life insurance policies with a competing insurance company.
Terell is reviewing the performance appraisals conducted by his 5 regional managers on all their
account executives. Terell has noticed that the performance ratings tend to cluster into three
basic groups: Outstanding (exceeds expectations), Average (the employee is performing
employees.
In addition to differences in results, Terell notices that the manager’s ratings of the behaviors of
the “below average” employees are problematic and include things like “employee gave client
incorrect information about insurance policies,” “employee did not return client’s calls in a
timely manner,” and “employee used inappropriate language during a client sales pitch meeting.”
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1. How do you think Terell should use the money?
2. Should all employees receive an equal amount of the budgeted training and development
money? Or should more money be spent on certain employees? If so, specify the
allocations and your rationale behind these allocations.
3. Is there anything that Terell could do with the “below average” performers rather than
investing more money to develop them into better account executives?
4. Are there any non-monetary things Terell might do to train and develop his employees?
7.1 Managing the Organizational Cynic
Instructions:
Read the scenario below and use the strategies from the tool kit to formulate a plan for handling
the situation.
Scenario:
Maria is the Vice-President of Marketing at a large company that manufactures home electronics
and appliances. One of her employees, Jeffrey, is very cynical about everything related to his job
and the company. Maria knows that Jeffrey is resentful because he was passed over for a
promotion to her job as VP of Marketing. Jeffrey had been at the company for 4 years and was
one of the top performers in his department. He has said on more than one occasion that he was
led to believe that the job would be his. Instead, the company conducted an external search for
the position, and Maria was brought in to do the job. In addition to being upset about not getting
promoted, Jeffrey also believes that the company’s marketing strategy is misguided and out of
date. He is very critical of several new projects the company is working on for various clients.
Maria thinks Jeffrey has a lot of potential but he is rarely willing to share his ideas, frequently
saying things like “What does it matter anyway? Nothing ever changes around here and no one
listens to me.” Jeffrey usually does a fairly good job at the assignments he is given, but he is not
living up to his potential and his cynicism is starting to be a real problem for Maria. What should
Maria do to try to reduce Jeffrey’s cynicism?
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7.2 Managing the Performance Appraisal Meeting
Class Discussion Questions
1. What do you think is a good location(s) for holding a performance appraisal meeting?
Why?
2. What is the purpose of allowing the employee to review his or her own performance?
What should the manager do if the employee gives himself or herself a much better
review than is warranted?
3. How should the manager deliver negative feedback? What should the manager do if the
employee gets defensive or argumentative? What should the manager do if the employee
starts to cry or gets his or her feelings hurt?
4. How often do you think performance appraisal meetings should occur? Why?
7.3 Analyzing a Performance Problem
Instructions to students:
You don’t have to be a manager in order to deal with a coworker or fellow student who has a
performance problem that negatively impacts your work. You do not have the same sources of
power as a manager (e.g., you might not be able to make formal performance ratings or provide
training opportunities to a coworker), but there are still techniques from the Tool Kit 7.3 that you
can modify and apply.
Identify someone whose behaviors are negatively impacting your school or work performance in
some way. This person might be a fellow student working with you on a group project or it
might be a coworker whose poor performance makes your job harder. Read through the tips in
Tool Kit 7.3 and identify ones that might help address the person’s performance problem. Note
that because you are not the person’s manager, some of the tips might need to be modified or
abandoned altogether. Implement at least one tip from the Took Kit and write a short summary
of the outcome. What happened? Did you notice any improvement? Is there anything else you
could try? Are there any additional things you would do if you were this person’s manager and
had legitimate authority?
Alternative exercise for Tool Kit 7.3
Case
Charles Nguyen sat down at his desk with a sigh. Mid-year reviews were due in less than two
weeks, and tonight he had to write up his notes on May Tran. Tran was a Claims manager who
had been with the Allied Insurance Company for five years. Nine months ago, she was selected
from a group of six claims representatives to take the management position in Nguyen's Life
Insurance division. She had come with glowing recommendations - her former manager, Alice
Corgie, had told Nguyen that Tran knew
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more about the auto claims process at Allied than anyone else in the company. She had a knack
for getting claimants to accept Allied's first offer, and her settlement rates were always the
highest in her division. Her coworkers liked her, and she often stayed late to help Corgie with
departmental finance reports. But Nguyen almost didn't recognize the woman he had hired with
such high expectations. Tran's department settlement rate was down, her direct reports were
complaining that Tran wasn't letting them do their jobs, and Tran didn't seem to have time for
getting her own job done, much less helping Nguyen with his job. To top it all off, Tran just
didn't seem motivated. Was there anything he could say that would turn things around?
Across town, May Tran was talking with her husband. "I just don't know, Bill. When I applied
for this job, it seemed like such a great opportunity, but now, everything is falling apart."
Bill nodded sympathetically, and May went on, "I knew that I didn't have any management
experience when I applied for the job, but how hard could it be? I only have four employees
reporting to me. But they always want something, and I can't get any of my work done. I don't
really know what Mr. Nguyen is expecting, but as far as I can see, they just don't do things right,
so I end up redoing all of their work. They keep telling me that things are different in Life
sheet! How was I supposed to know that he hates being called by his first name if I can't get the
contact sheet? To top it all off, I have my midyear review meeting with Mr. Nguyen in a couple
of weeks. I just know that's going to go badly."
Discussion Questions
1. Using the table in Tool Kit 5.4, diagnose the cause for May Tran's performance problems.
What do you think is the primary reason for her poor performance?
2. Why do you think Tran's employees are dissatisfied with her? Is there anything that can
be done to decrease their dissatisfaction?
3. Pretend that you are Charles Nguyen. Describe how you would handle your mid-year
review meeting with May Tran. What would you say? Do? (This can be done as a role
play with students taking the parts of Nguyen and Tran.)
Debrief
1. Using the table in Tool Kit 5.4, diagnose the cause for May Tran's performance problems.
What do you think is the primary reason for her poor performance?
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Tool Kit 5.4 contains the following table:
Question to Ask
Answer
Action to Take
Does the employee know what is
expected of him or her?
No
Reinforce expectations and seek
mutual understanding of those
expectations.
Does the employee know
performance can be improved?
No
Tell the employee there is room for
performance improvement.
Are there obstacles the employee
faces beyond the employee’s control?
Yes
Remove the obstacles. If can’t be
done, revise the performance
expectations to take this into
account.
Does the employee know how to
improve? Does the employee lack
particular skills necessary to perform?
Yes
Provide training and practice
opportunities to acquire skills.
Do negative consequences follow
good performance?
Yes
Reinforce good performance with
positive consequences.
In order, the answers to the above questions for this case are No, Yes, No, Yes, and ? (no
information given). The biggest problem in this case is that May Tran is having trouble
understanding her new role as a manager, and that her knowledge of the claims process isn't
2. Tran's employees are upset because they know what should be done, but Tran isn't letting
them do it. If Tran wants to motivate them, she needs to acknowledge the fact that these are
probably achievement-oriented people who know their jobs and want control over their own
work. As noted in Chapter 4, people who are achievement oriented:
• Want to be able to control situations
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The worst thing Tran can do is to redo people's work - instead she should make an effort to
understand the work being done, set clear expectations, measure work against expectations,
and give employees feedback, allowing them to redo the work on their own if necessary, so
they learn how to do it.
3. The conversation Nguyen and Tran are having is a performance improvement conversation,
but it must be handled with care. If Nguyen starts the conversation by assuming that Tran
has a "motivation problem", little will be resolved. Instead, students should use the
following format during the roleplay:
• Agree on the problem. (Be sure Nguyen is practicing active listening.)
• Train employees when appropriate.
In this situation, a blend of expert and consultative coaching is likely to be effective than either
one alone. Although Nguyen needs to offer assistance in areas where Tran doesn't have much
experience, consultative coaching will be very useful for helping Tran see where and how to use
her background in Auto claims in the Life division.
7.4 Terminating or Reassigning an Employee
Instructions
Read the scenario below. Students should then form groups of 4. The group will create a script
for terminating the employee in the scenario. Next, a member of each group will role play as the
manager and will enact their script in front of the class. This “manager” will “fire” a student
from another group who will role play as the employee. The goal of the student role playing the
employee will be to get the manager to deviate from the script (e.g., the employee might argue
with the manager about the reason for the termination, the employee might cry or ask for another
chance to improve).
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Scenario
Chris is a manager at a small movie theater in a town in the Midwest. Pat is a ticket cashier at the
theater and has been employed there for the last 7 months. During that time, Pat has had one
performance problem after another. Pat is frequently late for work – sometimes by more than 20
minutes. Pat has even missed work on two occasions, calling in at the last minute to ask for the
time off. Chris has given verbal reminders to Pat about the attendance policy and has given one
formal written warning. Pat has also received written warnings about other behaviors (e.g., not
wearing the movie theater uniform, making personal phone calls while behind the ticket booth,
and taking food from the snack counter without paying). Now Brian just observed Pat ignoring a
customer while Pat was talking on the phone to the babysitter of Pat’s daughter. The customer
got angry and left the theater and Pat did not even notice.
Debrief Discussion Questions
1. Was it harder to stick with the planned script than you thought?
2. What are the most important things to remember when engaging in the difficult task of
terminating an employee?
3. How do you think a “real life” situation would differ from this role playing exercise?
4. Do you think that terminating Pat was the right thing to do in this situation? Why or why
not?
