Introduction
The measurement of performance in any business is very important. However, most businesses fail to measure performance. This may be because such businesses have not considered putting up elaborate performance metrics that promote performance in the first place leave alone measure it. A performance metric in an organization is simply a specific measurement or quantitative guideline that can be referred to when assessing whether an organization is improving or diminishing. Measurement metrics include satisfaction of its customers, achievement of its organizational goals and whether its employees are excellently discharging their duties (Fairholm & Farber, 2009).
Part 1
There are many possible underlying reasons why a department in a business set-up may underperform. Considering that this department is faced by challenges such as unmotivated employees, employees’ lack of knowledge of the organization’s direction and unclear employees’ job description, organizational strategic leadership and planning is necessary (Fairholm & Farber, 2009). For example, when considering operation productivity as a metric of improving these staff output, then I would consider applying the use of strategic leadership and planning measures such as sharing organization’s vision with the staff and arranging motivation schemes for them (Men, 2010). This has the potential to empower staff and promote competence especially when the employees aim to align themselves towards the organization’s perceived direction in terms of knowledge and skills (Men, 2010). Employee empowerment ensures that employees are assigned to roles that are in line with their strengths and expertise, giving clear job descriptions to avoid overlapping of roles, promoting teamwork and recognizing and appreciating their achievements (Markos & Sridevi, 2010).
Part 2
Increased staff productivity is a quantifiable goal that can be measured in an organization. Let’s say as a sales department leader, you want to understand the number of new accounts as a measure of sales staff’s productivity. What would be the average number of new sales accounts per a sales staff let’s say over a period of one month? Such a quantifiable approach to the situation amounts to what is referred to as a power metric . By understanding this as a sales team leader and setting a desired number of monthly new accounts, it is possible to come up with a benchmark of a monthly new sales account target per staff,
References
Fairholm, M. R., & Farber, W. O. (2009). Leadership and Organizational Strategy. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal , 14 (1), 1-16.
Markos, S., & Sridevi, M. S. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management , Vol. 5 (No. 12).
Men, L. R. (2010). Measuring the Impact of Leadership Style and Employee Empowerment on Perceived Organizational Reputation. Institute for public relation .
Treace, J. (2012, May 7th). performance metrics get the numbers right. Retrieved February 5th, 2016, from inc.com: http://www.inc.com/john-treace/performance-metrics-get-the-numbers-right.html
