Special Issues in Performance Management

An organization may encounter things which can hampers it’s performance management. Following are some special issues identified by literature reviews,

• Counterproductive Work behaviour (CWB)
• Managing Team Performance
• Technology
• Cross cultural Issue
• Future trends

Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CBW)

According to Spector et al in 2006, CBW is defined as “volitional acts that harm or intend to harm organizations and their stakeholders (for example, clients, co - workers, customers, and supervisors)”. And Atwater & Elkins in 2009 further says that CWB includes abuse behaviour towards others (including incivility, workplace violence and sexual harassment), poor performance, sabotage, theft, absenteeism and lateness as well.

Before dealing with CWB it is essential to find the root cause of the problem. Root cause may range from substance abuse, family problem, financial burden, employee traits, toxic leadership ship, job dissatisfaction to organizational climate.

To mitigate CWB, managers need to handle these performance problem such a way that they will not make the issue more complex or complicated (Atwater & Elkins, 2009). This includes adjusting the work arrangements that impacts the WBS behaviour.

Managing Team Performance

When studying an efficient teams Kozlowski and Ilgen found in 2006, that they have satisfied members, and are viable. They further states that their effectiveness is shaped by cognitive process, interpersonal, motivational & affective process and behavioural process.

The team cognitive process includes team climate, teams shared knowledge, transactive memory and team learning. While interpersonal, motivational process are influenced by team bonding, shared goals and potency. The final behavioural process includes coordination of efforts, member competency and team regulations and adoptability (Kozlowski & Ilgen. 2006).

In order to be an effective PfM, these aspects need to be considered when forming a team and managing them.

Technology in PfM

Technology can influence and used to multiply the effectiveness of the PfM. According to Krauss & Snyder, 2009, with technology it can be used, To educate the employee about their goals
Employees can update their goals overtime.
Employees can update about the current project and stakeholders and once the project is completed, the system can gather feedbacks from stakeholders
Employee & Manager can create, store & revise performance plan in a common electronic space
To maintain a database to track high performance employees, opportunities
Help managers’ complete formal appraisals and reviewing

Having said the above, there are potential challenges such as information overloading, time consuming for feed data, frustration associated with inadequate user interface & requirements. In addition to the above, the employees need to be technologically literate in order to master the technology.

Performance Management in Cross Culture

This applies to when an organization works in a multicultural environment. Since cultural difference are present around the globe, when a multinational organization employees form different culture and ask them to work together it causes leads to conflicts. This is phenomenon is a major issue threating the PfM in multinational organizations (Day & Greguras, 2009).

Cross-culture PfM implementation are challenges to the managers because of the contrast difference in interpreting competencies used to evaluate performance. In addition to this, discussing negative feedback to employees directly as a feedback is also a main drawback (Day & Greguras, 2009).

Performance Management in the Future

According to Tippins and Coverdale (2009), Successful PfM in organizations will depends on number of components such as characteristics of the job, contextual demands of the organization and attributes of employees.

They further conceptualize that all the trends expected to occur are either employee attributed or workplace attributed. Following table depicts the trends,

Changes in workplace

• Working as groups
• Globally dispersed groups
• Flexible definition of jobs
• Outsourcing
• Remote working arrangements
• Flexible work schedule
• Job sharing
• Flat organizational structure
• Matrix Management
• Multimedia communication models
• Global Business
• Technology
• Changes

Changes in worker characteristics

• Number of qualified workers
• Employee expectations of job
• Loyalty of employers & employees
• Change in supervisory relationship

These trends pose serious challenges to the management when implementing the PfM. Hence needed to be addressed to sustain the organization in long term.



References

Atwater , L. & Elkins ,T. (2009). Diagnosing, understanding, and dealing with counterproductive work behavior . In J. W. Smither & M.London (Eds.), Performance management: Putting research into practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp 359- 410.

David, V. D. & Gary J. G. (2009). Performance Management in Multi-National Companies. In J.W. Smither & M. London (Eds), Performance management: Putting research into practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp 271-296.

Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Ilgen, D. R. (2006).Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7(1), pp 77–124.

Krauss, A. D., & Snyder, L.A. (2009). What role does technology plays in performance management?. In J.W. Smither & M. London (Eds), Performance management: Putting research into practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp 445- 490.

Smither, J.W. & London, M. (2009). Performance Management: Putting Research into Practice. 1st Ed. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. pp 585-625.

Spector, P. E., Fox , S. , Penney, L. M., Bruursema, K., Goh, A. & Kessler, S. (2006). The dimensionality of counterproductivity: Are all counterproductive behaviors created equal?. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 68(1), pp 446–460.

Tippins , N. T , & Coverdale, S. H. (2009).Performance management of the future. In J.W. Smither & M. London (Eds), Performance management: Putting research into practice San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp 555-583.