Management Chapter 10 Performance Appraisal And Career Management Related His Her Job And Livelihood

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Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

related to his or her job and livelihood over the course of a working life. Most people have

historically thought of the various components making up a person’s career as having some

degree of interrelation. This perspective stems from the fact that, in the past at least, people

by an organization.

B. Traditional Career Stages

One traditional view, shown in Figure 10.5, suggests a typical individual progresses through

four career stages:

• The first stage is called exploration.

• Finally, the fourth stage of a typical career is the disengagement stage.

o During this period, the individual gradually begins to pull away from her work in

the organization, her priorities change, and work may become less important to

her.

C. New Views of Career Stages

Of course, in the contemporary era of downsizing and layoffs, sometimes people go through

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

these four stages of career development in a relatively short period of time. Many experts

agree that even though the traditional model of careers summarized above still has

choose to enter certain careers because they are considered “hot,” or because of general

economic trends. They also choose careers because they are more consistent with their own

interests, education, and values.

D. Issues Facing Older Workers and the Decision to Retire

Persons age 40 and older are protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, but

the fact remains that many people assume that abilities and job performance decline with

age. In fact, the evidence regarding such declines is rather mixed and generally weak. In any

event, eventually older workers must confront the decision to retire.

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

makes continuing to work excessively burdensome. Individuals are also more likely to retire

when their spouses have retired. Many people tend to continue with some type of “bridge

work,” and these people generally adjust well to retirement.

Individuals who have structured leisure activities and those who do volunteer work tend to

adjust better to retirement. But one of the most important factors related to adjustment is

one’s health. It is important to realize that these and any other issues relating to the decision

to retire are likely to become much more important for HR managers as the workforce ages

and as lives and productive work careers expand.

VI. Human Resource Management and Career Management

Part of the responsibility for career planning resides with the organization, and the feedback

from the appraisal process is a critical factor in this process. But the individual her- or himself

must also play a role in this process. This section examines the organizational and individual

perspectives on careers as shown in Figure 10.6.

A. Organizational and Individual Perspectives on Careers

It is in the organization’s best interests to take an active role in career management for

people in the firm, and for this reason, career management is often part of the larger

performance-management process. The organization can take steps from the outset to

facilitate career management.

If an organization does indeed help its employees plan and manage their careers more

effectively, it can expect to find itself with a larger pool of talented individuals who are

generally more satisfied and motivated. On the other hand, if an organization does a poor job

responsibility for managing their careers will also be better prepared to deal with

unanticipated career setbacks such as job losses and demotions. Unfortunately, many people

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

are surprisingly uninformed about and uninvolved in their own careers.

B. The Importance of Career Planning

Usually, HR managers represent the organization in the career-planning process. In general,

most career-planning systems involve the steps shown in Figure 10.7.

• In the individual assessment phase, individuals need to analyze carefully what they

perceive to be their own abilities, competencies, skills, and goals.

Even though career planning is important to both organizations and individuals, and

effective career planning benefits both, everyone should also recognize that career planning

has limitations and potential pitfalls. For example, no amount of sophisticated forecasting

VII. Career-Development Issues and Challenges

Regardless of the career stages for individual employees, many organizations that are sincerely

interested in more effective career management for their employees deal with and address

various issues and challenges.

A. Career–Counseling Programs

Formal career-counseling programs usually take the form of workshops, conferences, and

career-development centers. In some cases, the organization establishes general-purpose

career-counseling programs that are available to all employees. They may also create special

programs targeted for certain categories of employees.

Organizations also have informal counseling programs. Much of this counseling takes the

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

form of one-on-one interactions between an employee and his or her supervisor and typically

occurs during the performance-appraisal period.

B. Dual-Career and Work–Family Issues

Back in the 1950s and into the 1960s, most married couples in the United States were

characterized by roles that gave the male partner career precedence over the female partner;

that is, the family tended to live where the husband needed to live. For many married

couples now, the wife’s career is on an equal footing with the husband’s or perhaps may be

given precedence over it. Thus, when organizations offer a transfer to an employee, they

must be prepared to deal with the complexities associated with another career.

The entire process of career planning must take into consideration the fact that another

career must often be managed simultaneously. Perhaps related to this trend is the growing

concern over balancing family needs with the demands of work.

• First, concerns over family-friendly work practices (such as child care, eldercare, and

C. Evaluating Career-Management Activities

The ultimate goals of career management are to have employees reach their full potential at

work, enjoy productive and satisfying work careers, and then make a successful transition to

retirement. Full appreciation of career-management activities on the part of the employee

may not come until after retirement. But as employees are increasingly unlikely to spend

Closing Case: Investing in Talent

Case Summary

Some businesses see employee costs such as wages and salaries as an expense. Others see

employees as vital resources that give them a real competitive advantage. Darden Restaurants

falls clearly in the second set. The firm has about 150,000 employees and owns 1,500

Case Questions

1. What factors have led Darden to take its current approach to employee development and

advancement?

2. Darden owns both family-oriented casual restaurants such as Olive Garden and more

sophisticated upscale places such as Capital Grill. What effects might this structure have

for employee development?

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

Discussion Questions

1. Identify and briefly describe the basic steps in performance appraisal.

The typical performance appraisal process includes several basic steps:

• Establish job duties

2. What are the basic goals of performance appraisal?

A basic goal of any appraisal system is to provide a valid and reliable measure of

3. Summarize the roles of the organization, the rater, and the ratee in performance

appraisal.

The organization, primarily through the work of its human resource (HR) function,

develops the general performance appraisal process for its managers and employees to

use, determines the timing of the performance appraisals, and is also responsible for

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

may require the ratee to acquire information about the performance of co-workers and

gain an understanding about how his or her behavior affects performance. This approach

should also allow the ratee to be more receptive to feedback from the rater, which in turn

makes it more likely that the ratee will change his or her behavior in response to that

feedback.

4. Who are the most common raters in the performance-appraisal process?

5. Identify and critique the basic methods for performance appraisal.

Ranking Methods:

The simple ranking method involves having the manager just rank-order, from top to

bottom or best to worst, each member of a particular work group or department. The

paired-comparison method involves comparing each individual employee with every

other individual employee, one at a time.

Rating Methods:

A graphic rating scale consists of a statement or question about some aspect of an

individual’s job performance. Following that statement or question is a series of answers;

the rater must select the one that fits best. For example, one common set of responses to

graphic rating scale is strongly agree to strongly disagree. Advantages are that graphic

(or did not do) that led to success or failure. Thus, this technique provides rich

information for feedback to the employee and defines performance in fairly clear

behavioral terms. An advantage of critical incident method is that it allows managers to

provide individual employees with precise examples of behaviors that are believed to be

both effective and less effective performance. On the other hand, the critical incident

effectively, and the process of developing the scales helps raters develop clearer ideas

about what constitutes good performance on the job. The process of developing a truly

effective BARS is extremely expensive and time consuming, and so these scales are

rarely used in their pure form. Instead, some modified BARS procedures are often

adopted in an attempt to reap some of the benefits without incurring the costs.

time, often one year. These goals are usually quantifiable, objective, and almost always

written down. During the year, the manager and the subordinate meet periodically to

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

review the subordinate’s performance relative to attaining the goals. At the end of the

6. How might feedback interviews and meetings be conducted most effectively?

Managers should provide feedback on a regular basis, rather than just annually, and

should focus on various characteristics of effective and less effective performance. The

individual should appraise his or her own performance in advance of an appraisal

7. What do we know about how individual performance relates to firm-level performance?

Students’ answers will vary. Since organizations employ significant efforts in appraising

employee performance and career management, one might assume that an increase in

8. What is a career? How do traditional models of careers differ from more contemporary

models?

A career is the set of experiences and activities in which a person engages related to his or

her job and livelihood over the course of a working life. It includes the various specific

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

The traditional model of career involves four stages. Exploration is the first traditional

career stage, and during this period in people’s lives, they try to identify the kind of work

they are interested in doing. This period of a typical person’s career starts in mid– to late

teens and lasts through the mid- to late twenties. An individual’s coursework in school

In the contemporary era of downsizing and layoffs, sometimes people go through these

four stages of career development in a relatively short period of time. Many experts agree

that even though the traditional model of careers summarized above still has conceptual

value, new perspectives on careers are better reflections of today’s realities. Some experts,

9. If you will soon enter a new career, what issues are you most concerned about? How

might an employer help you deal with these issues?

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management

Students’ answers will vary according to their individual career plans and value systems.

In general, however, students may cite early career issues such as finding challenging

10. Would you like to have an international assignment as part of your career? What issues

and concerns might you have about such a possibility?

Students’ answers will vary. Many young people today are more willing to accept

international assignments as part of their career development. As the economy becomes

more global, organizations are placing greater value on employees’ international

Additional Resource

Employee Performance Evaluation–What You’re Not Doing

Chapter 10: Performance Appraisal and Career Management