The main aim of this paper is to shed more light on the issue of performance appraisal and particularly motivation technique as one of the key components that organizations have to engross in their organizational culture to enhance their effectiveness towards attaining the set goals.
This paper is dealing with how the management in various business organizations can use performance appraisal techniques to improve the performance of its staff. The paper is also aimed at equipping managers particularly those from the Human Resource department of the corporation to look critically at the best ways of rewarding employees in the organization.
Introduction
Foundations of Strategic Change Management and Practices
The main aspects of change management strategies are; employee motivation and retention strategies, employee selection strategies, and employee management strategies. Change management in business terms is the coherent and strategic approach to the management of the workforce of an organization (Daft, 2010).
Human resource management is a very crucial function in any modern organization that seeks to achieve its objectives including the task of ensuring that employees are motivated by the use of effective performance appraisal techniques such as reward schemes such HRM function is very crucial to a firm to motivate its employees. This is because employees are the most important assets of an organization as compared to other assets that aid in running the organization (Daft, 2010).
Therefore for the accomplishment of organizational effectiveness, performance appraisal is the most important critical factor that must be paid attention to by the management of any business firm wishing to remain competitive as well as remain international in scope (Bjbrkman and Fey, 2007).
Many business firms endeavor to produce economic, social, and environmental benefits as a social responsibility stance for the communities they serve. These organizations believe that it is possible to be good and do the best at the same time. Many organizations have failed to be effective and efficient in their business activities because they practice unacceptable managerial activities of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Organizations do not ensure that the respective managers of respective departments are well equipped with human, technical, and conceptual skills that allow them to integrate the managerial activities above to produce results expected from their departments. The absence of such skills by managers can lead to such organizations’ performance decreasing in some of their potential markets.
Discussion
Any business organization needs to attract, maintain and also manage its employees well to succeed in its competitive business undertakings. These tasks fall under the human resource department of an organization and therefore performance appraisal techniques such as reward systems are very essential in an organization.
HRM Strategy in organizations
Many organizations are criticized for not building a strong human resource relationship with their entire workforce who has failed to enhance the success of the corporation. There is speculation that many firms do not recruit their employees based on their qualifications and their competence. They have not achieved effectiveness and efficiency because they have not developed their staff through training and have not adopted proper compensation systems that have in turn demoralized the employees in their work. Such employees have not been able to cope with the effects of competition and thus they have produced poor results (Yeung, 2007).
Decisions regarding employees, operations management have not been constantly revised by the management of many companies to match international standards that will foster success in the business environment. For example, in many firms, we find that employees have not been properly trained to cope with new changes like the introduction of technology.
The importance of Strategic Human Resource Management
Human resource management in business terms is the coherent and strategic approach to the management of the working force of an organization.
The following are some of the core functions of human resource management applied in organizations; workforce planning, recruitment, and staffing, promoting industrial relations, personnel development, and performance monitoring as well as training, compensation, and benefits management (Yeung, 2007). It is considered that the human resource practices used in strategic human resource management in firms should enhance techniques, systems, and policies developed in line with the performance appraisal management of the organization’s tasks. This performance appraisal is designed to promote strategic planning and thinking in all aspects of employee assessment, problem-solving, and counseling (Maund, 2001).
Good knowledge of employee behaviors, performance, and needs helps organizations to deal squarely with diversity issues e.g. culture, religion, race, etc. in fact; studies have shown that certain human resource practices in business organizations have contributed both positively and negatively to the firm performance through workforce alignment.
It is also related to employee outcomes including; trust in management co-operation, higher commitment in workplaces as well as better employee efforts and involvement among other factors (Michael, 2006).
Manpower planning within an organization is very critical in that, cases of either overstaffing or understaffing are detrimental in one way or another. On the other hand, if overstaffing is sustained, it becomes waste and also expensive for the organization. These factors are therefore part of the planning process being carried out by human resource development officers in many businesses. For instance; they should ensure that the organization’s workforce is certainly enough to meet the general duty requirement
Human resource strategy is referred to in a layman’s language as the management of the people who are working in an institution or an organization. This is done because employee performance affects how far or how successful an organization can be. Human resource strategy also involves the managers clarifying to the employees the organization’s goals and objectives (Armstrong, 2006).
Performance Appraisal and Business Goals
The success of any organization is mainly determined by its human resources and hence there is a need for a motivated workforce. The human resource of any firm has to be innovative, energetic, creative, and motivated to remain focused in scope. Indeed any company should have guiding principles which help the employees to attain set goals and objectives. Such principles define what each and employee is expected to do thus attain their goals. Research indicates that every firm has principles and such principles point out how the company promotes trust, pride, professionalism, trust, teamwork, and openness in their undertakings. Such principles, however, do not concentrate much more on the issue of performance appraisal such as motivation which is a key factor in organizational success (Hoyer, 2007).
Research reveals that in many modern business organizations there is a lack in recognizing the achievements of skilled employees.
Motivation
Finally, it should further be noted that motivation affects behavior which in turn will lead to poor performance by the employees. As social beings, basic human interaction and communication are considered as relevant needs that should be attended to in the working environment. The rational and emotional aspects of a person enable one to be participatory and reflective on certain aspects of the operations in the organization. Social interactions are necessary to provide for the social needs of an individual. Since people are more than a resource of an organization, their active and contemplative nature will always be open and shown.
Aside from the primary needs for existence, social interaction in the form of companionship helps in shaping the character of a person as a quality individual that is capable of doing complex things and acting complicatedly (Buck, Filatotchev and Wright, 2008).
Research has shown that many firms do not pay well its employees and thus they do not carry out their jobs well and in return, the company’s performance has been negatively affected. In business organizations, employer-employee relations are considered not very important thus the corporations fail to realize their missions effectively. With job security, some employees in organizations have failed to know whether at the end of the month he/she will be paid thus becoming demoralized to work (Foster and Harris, 2005). From this study, we find that performance appraisal is a key factor to the success of any organization.
The HR department of any firm should formulate corporate and HR strategies that incorporate performance appraisal analysis and clarification of the corporation’s mission statement. The department should also offer guidelines to the rest of the management when considering how the business should develop and in what direction it should be directed. In this line, the HR department should ensure that the strategies developed in the organization should be the ones that direct efforts towards accomplishing the basic mission or purpose of the company (Armstrong, 2006).
To enhance the activities of any business, the HR department should redesign the department dealing with the human resource to remain competitive in the marketplace and to respond to any changes in the marketplace; Also strategic objectives that encompass performance appraisal measures of an organization should be formulated; this implies that the HR department should turn the mission statement into supporting objectives for each level of management in the corporation. The objectives formulated should be directed to key result areas in the corporation where performance is necessary for business survival (Daft, 2010).
Research reveals that a human resource manager in any business firm carries out resourcing through which the human resource manager advertises for the posts that are vacant in the organization. The potential employees then apply and later on interviews are carried out. The manager in an organization, therefore, ensures that the employees are qualified for the posts before they are employed in the corporation.
Work-life balance
Benefits
The management team in an organization should ensure that there is a proper work-life balance for the employees by issuing out benefits that will be regarded as a benefit to both the organization and the employees’ families at large. This means that the benefits issued should be helpful to the employee and his family, these benefits may be the provision of medical cover to the employees family and also the provision of housing allowances, ensuring that the employees are provided with considerable work leave periods which allows them to share a humble time with their families(Yeung, 2007).
Better working conditions
Organizations should ensure that the environment through which their workforce use is conducive and safe, to avoid work injuries when they carry out their daily duties.
Human resource development and training
An employee can only have a better work-life balance when an organization recognizes his efforts in enhancing productivity in the firm. Therefore for an organization to succeed in motivating its employees then the management should be able to provide room for the career development of the workforce and this can only be done through training the employees and also allowing them to further their studies in the field of expertise (Yeung, 2007).
This training can be done every month whereby the employees are allowed to share out their skills with others and also hiring other expertise from outside to come in and train them on various developments in their areas of interest, this will enable the employee to have that curiosity of learning more and improving his or her technical know-how in the area of specialization, this will automatically create satisfaction and development of the employee.
Human resource development in a business organization should be carried out by the human resource managers. All the employees should go through training and development which is to be carried out both formally and informally (Daft, 2010). Therefore the organization should ensure that when employees are newly recruited, they should go through training in which they come to understand the organization’s goals and its mission statement.
Employee training
Training involves behavior modification which is normally carried out formally and systematically. It is a result of planned experience, instruction, and education. Training and development play a big role in the achievement of organizational goals. Most of these goals are normally long-term in nature. Training is part of the strategic framework of organizations and it produces a comprehensive and coherent plan that helps in developing employees and other stakeholders in organizations (Daft, 2010). When a business incorporates training and development therein, it acquires a competitive advantage over the other businesses.
This is because the intellectual capital in the business is greatly developed. In fact employees in an organization get an opportunity to improve their skills in their areas of specialization. This leads to great impacts on the organization as a whole, through training, we find that there is usually improved team performance when training and development strategies are incorporated in a business. Research shows that such training influences the performance of employees at personal levels. For instance, employees are in a position to carry out a self-evaluation of their performance and implement self-corrections where necessary (Hoyer, 2007).
Effects of manpower training and development on the general efficiency of workers
Manpower training and development is an important undertaking for any organization. This can be attributed to the positive impact it has not only on the development of the corporation but also on individual development.
Improved product delivery
Product delivery is one of the requirements organizations need to achieve to serve their customers well. This can only be achieved through manpower training and development. When employees are trained and motivated on how to handle customers, then it will be possible to achieve greater benefits through customer confidence.
Reduce labor turnover
Labor turnover has been a major problem in almost every sector of the world economy. Labor turnover results from the dissatisfaction of employees with their current employer or workplace issues. This can be easily corrected through the use of manpower training and development programs. Once an employee is assured of a better future through training in the current company, the chances of retaining the employee within the company will be high (Daft, 2010).
This is to be carried out through seminars and workshops in the organization. Training and development is an ongoing process that ensures that the employees are well known and that they are updated with technological advancement. Informal training should be carried out by the human resource managers as they instruct employees on what to do on an individual basis this will greatly contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Research shows that the human resource managers in business firms are greatly concerned with maintaining a cohesive relationship between employees and themselves in the workplace to have high morale and motivation amongst employees for satisfactory productivity therein. Therefore the management should come up with regulations that determine how the employees should be handled and also ensure that there is better communication between the employees and this will play a big role in maintaining employee relations within the organization (Daft, 2010).
Recommendations for HR Departments
The HR department in any firm should formulate corporate strategies that incorporate thorough analysis and clarification of their corporate mission statement. The departments should also offer guidelines to the rest of the management when considering how business should develop and in what direction it should be directed. In this line, the HR departments should ensure that strategies developed in the organization should be the ones that direct efforts towards accomplishing the organizational basic mission or purpose (Daft, 2010).
To enhance the activities of the corporation, the HR departments should redesign the following areas to remain competitive in the marketplace and to respond to any changes in the marketplace; Firstly, the departments should consider product scope, which will involve the current and future products to be produced by the organization this will ensure that they meet the needs of consumers. The second dimension is the market scope, which will involve the HR departments cooperating with the marketing department to identify the customers served and any changes that may be anticipated.
The third scope is the technological aspect and it involves a decision regarding products produced and the anticipated technologies. Proper training should be carried out to ensure that the employees are equipped with skills and competence regarding technologies introduced (Buck, Filatotchev, and Wright, 2008).
Also, strategic objectives of the organization should be formulated; this implies that the HR department should turn the mission statement into supporting objectives for each level of management in the corporation. The objectives formulated should be directed to key result areas in the corporation where performance is necessary for business survival.
From this study, we can therefore recommend that the management of any business organization should put in mind that manpower is very much vital for an organization to achieve its objective. Therefore to enable them to achieve this goal the managers should ensure that the functions of management are followed and applied in the organization. these functions include; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, and all four functions require that the managers of a particular organization should have skills and knowledge on how to carry out such management functions in the organization.
Planning is considered to be the primary function of management and encompasses establishing what should be carried out in the future. Planning entails the setting of objectives, processes, regulations, and other tasks required for the attainment of the organization’s mission statement. Usually, the best strategies are selected from various identified strategies and therefore will require forecasting the future and how best to attain the results that will ensure the success of the organization (Buck, Filatotchev, and Wright, 2008).
The other function of management is that of organizing which involves arranging and allocating tasks in the workplace to attain the set organization’s objectives. In essence, the organization function is responsible for how tasks will be divided and achieved efficiently and effectively. Usually, the supervisors of all organizations are responsible for identifying tasks and subdividing workgroups into separate sections in an organization.
Leading as a function of management involves directing the human resource of an organization on the right path to achieve the set goals efficiently and effectively. Traditionally this function involves directing, educating, and overseeing the employees within an organization (Daft, 2010).
The other function is that of controlling which entails ensuring that the real performance achieved is matched with the intended results and also ensuring that corrective measures are undertaken if there are deviations from the set goals. This function goes hand in hand with planning such that if poor planning was done then the set goals will not be achieved and therefore will necessitate controlling function to efficiently redesign the plan to achieve congruent goals.
Conclusion
From this study, we can therefore deduce that ensuring employee performance requires establishing a level of competence which the employee should be aware of as a target to be achieved. This is the measure that should be used by many firms’ managers in determining compliance with the standards and in identifying problems met by the employees in meeting such standards (Daft, 2010).
For instance; in developing a performance appraisal technique such as an efficient motivation structure to enhance the productivity of employees the manager will look at the competency problems of the employees and fashion the program to enable the employees to reach and even exceed the competency standard established for their work. This requires a great amount of perceptiveness on the part of the manager in determining what method of appraising will be most effective in improving employee competence.
List of References
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