PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

                                                                                                                              ST ID 21201314
  

 Performance Management can be defined as a systematic approach used for evaluating the performance of employees and at the same time understand the abilities of the employees for their further growth and expansion (Henderson, 2007). In the present report, based on Locke’s Goal Theory, impact of a conducted appraisal meeting will be evaluated. The reason of choosing this theory is because it emphasis on the fact that people who has difficult goals to attain perform much better than the one who have easy goals to achieve (Locke, 2008).

APPRAISAL AT WORK

            During the annual meeting, held two years ago in my organization, I was appraised by the top management team of my organization regarding the challenging work conducted by me in the entire year. A very positive feedback was provided for the work that I did throughout the year. The method used to appraise my performance was 360-degree feedback (Foot and Hook, 2008).

PLANNING BEFORE THE MEETING

            As the time of annual meeting came closer, I stated planning to provide an answer that can define all my pros and cons of the entire year in a positive manner. I was aware of the fact that the appraisal technique that is used by the organization to appraise the employees is 360-degree appraisal. In this method, appraisal is provided by generating feedback directly from employee’s subordinates, peers, supervisors, and employees own evaluation (Ward, 1977). I made up a mind that when asked for self-evaluation I’ll mainly focus on the point that will highlight all good work and at the same time give a solid reason for the mistakes made by me that will.

DISCUSSION WHILE MEETING

            The meeting started with solid welcome speech. After that, the entire management team put some efforts to explain all the employees the importance of performance management and why performance appraisal is an essential part of every organization. In the meeting it was discussed that by providing a comprehensive appraisal without any biasness, the employees get motivated and at the same time it become easy to take decision regarding the future growth and development of the employees (Tietjen and Myers, 1988). Reasons behind the problems and success, along with how these problems can be resolved were mainly focused in the meeting (Redmond, 2012).

OUTCOMES OF MEETING

After the successful ending of the meeting, the following outcomes were generated:

ü  The employees whose performance was appraised were motivated.

ü  The employees whose performance was not up to the mark were provided with certain guidelines that could help them to identity their own efficiency.

ü  The gap that was hindering the organizations performance was identified.

ü  In order to improve employees, training and development needs were identified (Mullins, 2010).

 

AFTER THE MEETING

            As the meeting ended, I was very much motivated. The feedback provided turned out to be every effective and I was able to identity my own efficiency that helped me to accomplish challenging goals, hence increase the efficiency of the organization.

  From the presented report, we can conclude that performance management plays a crucial role in identify the factors that can lead to employees growth and development and at the same time provided a bedrock to the organization to improve productivity.

 REFERENCES

Books

Foot M. and Hook C., 2008. Introducing Human Resource Management. 5^th ed. London: FT Prentice Hall.

Henderson, I. R., 2007. Performance Appraisal.  2^nd ed. The University of Michigan.

Locke, A. E., 2008. A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance. Prentice Hall.

Mullins, L., 2010. Management and Organisation Behaviour. 9^th ed. FT Prentice Hall.

Schwartz., 2001. Performance Appraisal: Apprasial and Meeting. Andrew E Schwartz.

Tietjen, A. M and Myers, M. R., 1988. Motivation and Job Satisfaction. Journal of Management Decision. 36(4). pp. 226-231.

Ward, P., 1997. 360 Degree Feedback. CIPD Publishing.

Online

Redmomd, F. B., 2012. Goal Setting Theory Overview. [Online] Available through: < https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/6.+Goal+Setting+Theory> [Accessed on 19^th February, 2013].

                                                 EMPLOYEES ENGAGEMENT 

Communicating with employees has become one of the major tasks for organizations. This essay is being formed with the objective of how a company can communicate with their employees.  In order to have smooth running of any organization, there must be a proper chain of communication as else the business houses can suffer (Saks, 2006).

In order to have effective communication, various methods are being adopted by the companies like weekly or monthly meetings can aid in focus and attention a senior level management seeks from its subordinates (Jane, 2013). The downward communication tool telephone is another effective method. Another method through employees can be communicated is through emails or having direct face to face conversations (Saks, 2006).

To have a better understanding of the above, clear examples of upward and downward communication & also employee participation and motivation are discussed here.  The main of upward communication is to render information from the lower level employees to senior level. In regard to this, best example would be presenting business report to the managing direction of the company by the branch manager. This style of communication helps in bringing out the views and ideas of executive or managerial level employees in front of main roots of management.

Downward communication means transmitting the information like rules, policies, procedures, target, appreciation form, etc to the lower level in the organization. For instance, change in the management policies or giving employee performance feedback.

In any department to solve the problems or to plan any strategy, participation of all the members are so much important. Participation allows employees to come up with new ideas, solutions and views. This participation motivates the employees and they also feel appreciated (Brim, 2013). For instance, P&G in India started “Shiksha” – new project wherein they are providing education to uneducated children. In this, employees participated voluntarily to make this a successful project (Shiksha, 2012). In concern to employee involvement, Mc.Donald’s legal department involved their employees in providing assistance concerning law to those low income individuals. Also, necessary law education was imparted to these people (Employee Involvement, 2013).

There are various advantages to the methods that are being discussed above. Firstly, efficient communication reduces the incidence of misunderstanding and the level of dissatisfaction. Secondly, because of upward communication proper flow of data, problems and grievances are being looked out and sorted out increasing the level of transparency. Thirdly, downward communication helps in better co-ordination which makes the industrial and consumer relation healthy. Fourthly because of participation, employees feel free to communicate. Fifth, the morale of employees are escalated which strengthens the decision making power; lastly, effective communication helps to retain the employees (Welbourne, 2007).

Linking above methods with Maslow’s theory:

Physiological needs: are the basic needs of any employee. If these are not provided, a proper chain of communication between employees and managers will not be there. Employee participation and involvement will not exist in such case. Safety needs: In this, safety regarding the job, family, financial etc are given. These all stuffs are communicated in advance to their employees so that they can be with the organization for longer period. Social needs allows employees to participate in decision making creating a healthy work environment (Welbourne, 2007). Esteem needs comprises of confidence, power, status etc. Participation in decision making arouse the level of confidence in the employees and they all feel free to communicate or transmit information to upper level. Self actualization needs: because of continuous participation and effective communication of ideas and views arouse the quality of leadership or they feel to get promoted. This all can happen because of proper communication and participation.

References

Online

Employee Involvement. 2013. [Online]. Available through: < http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/library/policies_programs/community/employee_involvement.html >. [Accessed on 1^st May 2013].

Jane, M., 2013. Ways to Communicate With Your Employees. [Online]. Available through: <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/different-ways-communicate-employees-10535.html>. [Accessed on 30^th April 2013].

Shiksha. 2012. [Online]. Available through: < http://www.pg.com/en_US/sustainability/social_responsibility/shiksha.shtml >. [Accessed on 1^st May 2013].

Journals

Brim, B., 2013. Applying Employee Engagement to a Specific Business Problem. Gallup Business Journal.

Saks, M. A., 2006. Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 21(7). pp.600-619.

Welbourne, M. T., 2007. Employee Engagement: Beyond The Fad And Into The Executive Suite. Leader to Leader Journal. 44.

	CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a buzzword for carrying out the ethical operations in the company. In order to have a clear picture of the meaning of the concept of CSR, few definitions are presented. In simple terms, it is being described as treating all the stakeholders of the organisation ethically and equally. Various authors proposed various definitions of CSR which are:

According to author Carol (2008) – “CSR is that social responsibility of business which includes comprehensively the ethical, legal, economical and various expectation that society demands from organisation at different point of time”.

According to author Mallenbaker (2012), “CSR basically means how the organisation manages the process of their business and comes with the productivity which directly or indirectly have positive on the society”.

According to author M. Hopkins (1998), CSR is directly linked with the stakeholder both within a firm & outside and treating all of them in an equally manner and in an ethical way is the major responsibility of the organisation.

Above stated definitions, the most relevant will be the Mallenbaker because society includes not only stakeholders but encompasses each and every person with whom organisations are dealing with and what organisation are doing, doing for them only to raise their goodwill by serving them best (Bacher, 2007).

Buckinghamshire University is the finest university, located in UK. They have demonstrated the corporate social responsibility by putting more emphasis on green. It’s not the only factor they are focusing on, but also they have started the public transport between campuses along with that they are getting indulged in the community. Another step for CSR that they have taken is contributing funds for the student learning. This step gaining so much importance that many companies started doing the same.

Ex: P&G, to increase the sale of their products they says that if their products are purchased than the part of their money spend will be contributed for students education.

Ex: talking about green, Panasonic come up with their products which are environment friendly. They consume less power and emit less dirt into the environment (Innes and Norris, 2005).

Ex: Easy day, a retail store which is a part of wall mart, started the bus services for the people to take them to their store or for their transport as well with the aim to connect with the public. That shows their responsibility towards the society.

Social responsibility policies proposed by the Buckinghamshire New University: inspiring for green, public transport and education for student (Mallin, 2009).

Now, their benefits are: first, though people depleting the nature’s resources but they love them equally as well. That’s why organisation is taking initiative for green to get familiar with the society. Which help them to raise their goodwill in the market. Second, where people face any problem, organisation seems as an opportunity to serve them and transport is one of them (Aguinis, 2013). That’s why the organisation started buses for the public and indirectly placed their image in the mind of people. Third, financially unsound people fails to provide education to their children’s so for them organisation provide funds to teach them and comes in the limelight and raise the positive image in market.

By the above explanation, it is being cleared that CSR is just like basic calories, without them organisation want be able to survive for long. To get placed in the society they have to give them the first priority rather to concentrate on profit only (Servaes and Tamayo, 2012).

REFERENCES

Books

Bacher, C., 2007. Corporate Social Responsibility. GRIN Verlag.

Innes, J. and Norris, G., 2005. Corporate Social Responsibility: a case study guide for Management Accountants.

Mallin, A. C., 2009. Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Approach. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Journals

Aguinis, H., 2013. What We Know and Don’t Know About Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of Management.

Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2012. The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value. Forthcoming, Management Science.