Management Chapter 14 Managing And Enhancing Performance The Big Picture Performance Feedback Plays Important

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Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

Performance feedback plays an important role in both behavior modification and goal setting,

and it is also seen as a useful tool in its own right for performance management. Instead of

providing feedback annually, in tandem with the annual performance-appraisal interview, it

performance assessment where they disagree.

It is also important during a performance feedback interview to encourage participation and

two-way communication. Participation and two-way dialogue, however, allow the individual

to express his or her own feelings and opinions about job performance and to provide other

kinds of feedback as appropriate. It is also important for the manager to try to balance positive

(after which employment may be terminated), the development of a training strategy for

improving performance, and so forth.

Even with these recommendations, feedback is not always as effective as we would like to

believe. Many of today’s recommendations and practices are based on the assumption that, if

done properly, they will provide employees with feedback about their job performance.

Several years ago, however, a study reviewed the research on the effectiveness of feedback

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

interventions, beginning with early studies from the 19th century. This study found out that,

although feedback was effective in almost two-thirds of the cases, it was not effective in the

rest. In fact, in a large number of cases, providing feedback to employees actually lowered

subsequent performance.

B. ProMES

The productivity measurement and evaluation system (ProMES) incorporates ideas from

goal setting to feedback, and it includes incentives for improvement. More important, it

includes a method for tying performance at the individual and group levels to organizational

productivity.

The other important part of the ProMES process involves the various “connections” among

the components. The procedure is based on a model of motivation that is similar to the

expectancy model. Thus, these connections are concerned with the relationship between effort

some measures of engagement correlate very highly with job satisfaction. But still others have

argued that employee engagement is a unique and important construct that is worth studying

in its own right. Whether employee engagement is a truly new idea or simply a new way of

looking at affective reactions to the job may not really matter. Instead, what may matter is that

V. Evaluating Performance-Enhancement Programs

It is relatively easy to think about measures of individual performance (units produced or sales

dollars), but assessing firm-level performance is much more complex. First, any true measure of

organizational success must tie back the organization’s strategic goals. In addition, several more

general indexes of firm-level performance could be useful in determining firm performance.

turnover rates, absenteeism, accident rates, and even general labor costs. In addition, there are

measures of profitability, productivity, and controllable costs. These measures actually are

related, with specific measures making more sense in some businesses than in others. Finally,

organizations also use a set of financial and accounting indicators. One of these is the stock

price, which presumably reflects the market’s view of a firm’s success, although there are surely

VI. HR in the Headlines

A. HR and Islam

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. In fact, a recent report suggests that, in the

second half of this century, Muslims are likely to surpass Christians as the largest religious

group in the world. The United States is part of this trend, with Muslims expected to surpass

Jews as the second largest religious group in this country, although Christians are expected to

remain the largest group.

upon the The Holy Qur’an (or Koran). In addition, HR systems in Muslim countries rely (to a

greater or lesser extent) upon Sharia, which is the entire body of Muslim law.

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

But values based on the Qur’an itself are the most important part of Muslim human resource

B. Privacy and Cybersecurity in the 21st Century

Concerns over privacy and security have become more and more important, and HR managers

must make greater efforts to protect the privacy of both business and employee information.

In today’s workplace, every desktop computer, laptop, or hand held device is vulnerable to

attack. Intruders hacking into a computer system, malware, lost laptops, and insider threats all

combine to present serious challenges to companies.

These concerns have led to the development of the National Cybersecurity and Critical

Resource Integration, Synchronization and Management), a program used by the NSA.

PRISM has been described as a data tool designed to collect and process foreign intelligence

that passes through American servers.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the PRISM program is that it has been carried out with

the apparent cooperation of Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype,

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

and this appears to be the case. Furthermore, requested information was sent to a special,

secure server to which the NSA has access and so can obtain that information.

C. HR in Faith-Based Businesses

Managing so-called faith-based businesses provides some interesting perspectives on how to

run a business. A faith-based business is one that is founded and managed in ways that

explicitly acknowledge religious beliefs. In the United States, most faith-based businesses

D. The #MeToo Movement

This movement has major implications for HR managers. There is a new urgency for HR

departments to get ahead of this. It seems that there have been large numbers of unreported

cases of harassment and even assault over the years. Women were reluctant to come forward

until something gets done. These leaders also noted that social media allowed employees to

see much more about how top management responds to harassment claims so that CEOs had

to be at the forefront of any moves to punish offenders and end practices and policies that

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

These actions are not only important because they represent the right thing to do. The impact

of these scandals on a firm’s reputation can be devastating to a company’s brand.

Closing Case: Creating Humane Work Schedules

Case Summary

Sixty-hour workweeks used to be the norm in the United States; now 80-hours is not uncommon.

But working longer hours does not always increase productivity. One recent study showed that

U.S. workers were less productive per hour worked than those from countries with shorter

workweeks, including France and Germany. Experts hypothesize that overworked employees

become tired, stressed, and less motivated.

Some companies are now actively seeking ways to offer a more reasonable work–life balance.

Case Questions

1. Do you think working hours will get longer or shorter in the future? Why?

2. Would you be willing to trade off scheduling flexibility and balance for slightly reduced

compensation? What factors would be important to you in such an arrangement?

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

Factors that would be important to an individual in such an arrangement are monetary

incentives; benefits like insurance and retirement; and special perks such as free

conveyance, gourmet meals, and snacks.

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss how individual-level performance might or might not influence firm-level

performance.

Individual-level performance can impact the effectiveness of the overall firm performance.

2. Identify and summarize the five basic approaches to job redesign.

The five basic approaches to job redesign are as follows:

• Job rotation occurs when employees are systematically moved from one job to

another. Thus, an employee might spend one day filing records, the second day

organizing and tidying the workspace, the third day making copies of records, the

3. Among the various alternative work scheduling options, which would you prefer to follow?

Students’ answers will vary. For example, individuals will have different situations that

will make flexible work schedules or compressed work schedules more attractive. For

4. How strong is your interest in having an alternative work site, such as working from home?

Why?

5. Identify the most common forms of individual incentive pay plans.

Merit pay is awarded to employees on the basis of the relative value of their contributions

to the organization. Merit-pay plans base at least some meaningful portion of compensation

on merit. The most general form of merit pay is annual salary increases to individuals

6. Identify the most common forms of team and group incentive plans.

Team- or group-based incentives are designed to reward groups or teams of employees for

particular performance outcomes. For example, gainsharing plans are designed to share

with employees the cost savings from productivity improvements. The Scanlon plan is one

7. Many managers do a poor job of providing performance feedback to their employees. Why

do you think this is true?

Managers might not provide feedback on a regular basis. They might also not encourage

employees to appraise their own performance in advance of an appraisal interview.

8. Describe as precisely as you can the kind of performance enhancement system that would

be most likely to motivate you.

9. How important is it to develop employee engagement? What are the keys to engagement?

Employee engagement is a factor that can contribute significantly to success and

organizational growth. This is because it can give each employee a sense of ownership and

10. How do current world events shape how we think about human resources and how we

manage those resources?

The following are events that are influencing the perception of human resources and human

resource management:

• The Muslim population is expected to grow 32 percent over the next few decades and

is likely to surpass Jews as the second largest religious group in the United States.

While HRM practices are consistent with Muslim values, it is important that HRM

Chapter 14: Managing and Enhancing Performance: The Big Picture

employees, especially women, feel safe at the workplace. Cultural change is necessary.

That includes face-to-face training and empowering victims and bystanders to speak

up without fear of reprisals. These actions are not only important because they

represent the right thing to do but also the impact of these scandals on a firm’s

reputation can be devastating to a company’s brand.

Additional Resource

Muslims Face Growing Bias in the Workplace

Students may refer to the article “Muslims Face Growing Bias in the Workplace” written by Eve

Tahmincioglu for NBC News at the following link: