1- What are the primary reasons many managers avoid or resist performance management? What do you believe is the greatest challenge for managers in managing performance?
Performance management is a critical process for organizations involving a continuous identification, measuring, and development of performance by linking the performance of individuals to the overall mission of an organization (Aguinis 2). However, the process can be fraught with difficulties, particularly for managers with respect to the challenge of performance feedback and observational problems. Performance feedback can either be positive or negative and the difficulty for managers is that providing the corrective/negative feedback can be uncomfortable. A manager may thus resist providing negative feedback to employees out of fear of either being disliked and will assume that the individual will be able to avoid identified mistakes in future.
The greatest challenge for managers in managing performance is finding a performance management system that makes sense to both the managers and employees and minimizes discomfort. It is challenging when the system does not work as intended (Aguinis 6). As a result, there is a likelihood of managers experiencing dissatisfaction and resentment from employees thus a possibility of being demotivated.
2. According to Bacal as well as your instructor, managers very often focus on the wrong things regarding performance management – What are four or five of the wrong areas that managers typically focus on with regard to performance management?
Managers often focus on deficits of employees, monetary reward systems, right goals, and ranking which for a number of reasons are the wrong ways to manage the performance management system. Focusing on the deficits of employees limits the system from being forward looking because it overlooks issues related to workflow, communication, and inadequacies in the human resources competencies. Focusing on monetary reward systems makes the system more standardized thus limiting the logical flexibility of the systems. In addition, focusing only on the management set right goals means that managers often set goals without understanding the root causes of performance issues and problems in the processes. Furthermore, focusing on ranking/performance rating scales makes it difficult for managers to ensure they adopt a consistent management approach and bias effects in rating may occur.
3. When you think about managing performance (either from your experience or as you consider becoming a manager) what is your biggest concern about managing performance and why is it a concern for you?
Despite the importance of performance measurement in defining and measuring as well as rewarding desired behaviors in an organization, the important concern with respect to the appraisal process is the impact of situational factors that are at times not fully taken into account by the managers. According to Bacal, performance management systems should be viewed as systems that operate within a larger system meaning the situational factors must be taken into consideration (23). Situational factors include factors related to working conditions, supplies, tools, and machinery which are construed as shaping the situation under which the performance of employees is determined. Most managers lack control over situations and instead focus on personal performance factors thus the scope of performance management is limited when situational factors are not taken into consideration. Managers often underestimate the importance of situational factors and overestimate personal performance factors of employees which limit the extent to which they evaluate overall performance.
4. What do you think is the most important skill or competency for a manager to have in order to manage performance most effectively? Why do you believe this? What will you do to acquire or improve this competency?
Performance management is an area that cannot be separated from the aspect of leadership and ethical competence because the process should operate according to agreed and understood ethical principles. The ethical competencies mean that a manager suppresses individual self-interest when carrying out evaluations and evaluates performance aspects that he or she has sufficient information about and respect the rights of employees (Aguinis 16). Managers must face up to the challenge of observing ethical competency in their leadership role and exhibit honesty, truth-telling, moral courage, and benevolence which are important within the arena of judgment and decision-making. The ethical competencies are important because they indicate professionalism overall and can be useful in ensuring objectivity in the performance management process. Proficiency in ethics and competency is an ongoing process and can be achieved by ensuring compliance and professional ethics training which provide knowledge on aspects such as codes of conduct, rationality in decision-making, and self-awareness.
Works Cited
Aguinis, Herman. Performance management. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
Bacal, Robert. Performance Management. 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill Professional, 2012.
