Forgot password. Log in. Some workers like to know where they stand regarding their job performance and want to see what else useful they can do for the company. Self-development is the most important benefit for the employee. Performance appraisal allows you to provide positive feedback as well as identifying areas for improvement.
An employee can discuss and even create a developmental training plan with the manager so he can improve his skills. Every manager has multiple obligations, not the least of which are certain kinds of relationships with peers, subordinates, and various consumer, financial, government, supplier, and other publics.
Some of these are more important than others, and some need to be handled with much greater skill and aplomb than others. In some situations a manager may be expected to take a vigorous and firm stand, as in labor negotiations; in others he may have to be conciliative; in still others he may even have to be passive.
Unless these varied modes of expected behavior are laid out, the job description is static. Because static job descriptions define behavior in gross terms, crucially important differentiated aspects of behavior are lost when performance appraisals are made.
For example, in one of the more progressive performance appraisal systems, which is used by an innovative company, a manager working out his own job description prepares a mission or role statement of what he is supposed to do according to the guide which specifically directs him to concentrate on the what and the when, not on the why and the how. The manager is told that he is to recognize good work, suggest improvement, get agreement on top priority elements of the task, clarify responsibility, verify and correct rumors, and talk about personal and long-range goals.
Some personnel researchers have advocated role analysis techniques to cope with static job descriptions, and this is a step in the right direction. But even these techniques are limited because they lean heavily on what other people—supervisors, subordinates, peers—expect of the manager. These expectations are also generalized; they do not specify behavior. Nowhere in these examples is an individual told what behavior is expected of him in a range of contexts.
Who are the sensitive people with whom certain kinds of relationships have to be maintained? What are the specific problems and barriers? What have been the historic manufacturing blunders or frictions? How should union relationships and union leaders be dealt with? What are the specific integrative problems to be resolved and what are the historical conflicts?
These and many more similar pieces of behavior will be the true bases on which a person will be judged, regardless of the questions an appraisal form asks.
Static job descriptions are catastrophic for managers. Job proficiency and goal achievement usually are necessary but not sufficient conditions for advancement; the key elements in whether one makes it in an organization are political.
The collective judgments made about a person, which rarely find their way into performance appraisals, become the social web in which he or she must live. Therefore, when a person is placed in a new situation, whether in a different geographical site, at a different level in the hierarchy, or in a new role, he must be apprised of the subtleties of the relationships he will have with those who will influence his role and his career.
Furthermore, he must be helped to differentiate the varied kinds of behavior required to succeed. Some people develop political diagnostic skill very rapidly; often, however, these are people whose social senses enable them to move beyond their technical and managerial competence. And some may be out and out manipulative charlatans who succeed in business without really trying, and whose promotion demoralizes good people. But the great majority of people, those who have concentrated heavily on their professional competence at the expense of acquiring political skill early, will need to have that skill developed, ideally by their own seniors.
That development process requires: 1 a dynamic job description, 2 a critical incident process, and 3 a psychological support system. If a static job description is at the root of the inadequacies of performance appraisal systems, what is needed is a different kind of job description.
What we are looking for is one that amplifies statements of job responsibility and desired outcome by describing the emotional and behavioral topography of the task to be done by the individual in the job. Psychologists describe behavior in many ways, each having his or her own preferences. I have found four major features of behavior to be fundamentally important in a wide range of managerial settings.
Using his preferred system, one can begin formulating a dynamic job description by describing the characteristic behavior required by a job. This is what these terms mean with respect to job descriptions:.
Must he or she vanquish customers? Must he hold on to his anger in the face of repeated complaints and attacks from others? Will she be the target of hostility and, if so, from whom? Must he give firm direction to others? Must she attack problems vigorously, but handle some areas with great delicacy and finesse? Which problems are to be attacked with vigor and immediacy and which coolly and analytically?
Is the person required to be a socially friendly leader of a close-knit work group? Should the person work closely and supportively with subordinates for task accomplishment?
Is the task one in which the person will have to be content with the feeling of a job well done, or is it one which involves more public display and recognition? Will he be obscure and unnoticed, or highly visible? Must she lavish attention on the work, a product, a service, or customers? Must he be cold and distant from others and, if so, from whom? Will the individual be able to lean on others who have skill and competencies, or will he have to do things himself?
How much will she be on her own and in what areas? How much support will there be from superiors and staff functions? How well defined is the nature of the work? What kind of feedback provisions are there? What are the structural and hierarchical relationships?
How solid are they and to whom will the person turn and for what? With which people must he interact in order to accomplish what he needs to accomplish, and in what manner? If one does the task well, what are the gratifications to be gained? That way, employers can make sure that employees are allocated to tasks they excel at, and offer opportunities for skills development in areas where the employee is weak, reports the business software company KPI.
They clarify expectations that the supervisor has for the employee and help the employee prioritize his duties. Ideally, performance appraisals open the lines of communication between supervisors and employees. Performance appraisals benefit the company as well as individual employees.
All of these lead to higher productivity among employees, which improves organizational productivity. Then the official performance appraisal day is just an extension of the normal performance discussion. Effective performance appraisals are never a talk to an employee by a manager. If the manager is talking even half the time, the performance appraisal is not a two-way conversation.
Make the majority of the conversation positive, reinforcing, and developmental for the employee. After all, it's his or her stage —in a performance appraisal done correctly. Improve performance appraisals by using an employee self-appraisal prior to the performance appraisal. Far too many managers give employees a copy of the actual form before the performance appraisal meeting. Use these sample questions to develop an effective self-evaluation form.
In the worst cases, both the manager and the employee fill out the form prior to the meeting, give the employee a grade or score, and then, arrive at the performance appraisal meeting deeply dug into their positions and points of view.
Even worse, some managers tell the employees to fill out their performance appraisals, and if they do a good job, the manager will sign it. In this recommendation, the manager arrives at the meeting with ideas jotted down on the form; the employee comes with their self-appraisal filled out and then the discussion begins.
An effective performance appraisal trusts employees to do the right thing if they know what the right thing to do is. Consequently, setting performance goals is critically important , but how these goals are set with the employee is the most important factor of all. Set goals in a way that reinforces the employee's ability to plan and implement the steps necessary to reach the goal.
The performance appraisal must support and strengthen the employee's empowerment , his or her ability to chart the course to successful accomplishments.
You can use these five ideas immediately to improve your performance appraisals.
0コメント