HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF AN

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management: A critical review of an essay

Introduction

'Intellectual capital' is the principal asset of knowledge-based organisations and their performance management systems seek to maintain and enhance the value of this human asset base. The management of professionals in such organisations is especially challenging in view of the level of autonomy and discretion in their work roles, and their loyalty may be primarily to personal development or a particular code of conduct.

Brief Summary/Synopsis,

Academic staff in higher education constitute a particular group of knowledge-based workers whose commitment is central to the effective operation of their institutions. Managers in higher education, therefore, have responsibility for designing and operating performance management systems that both motivate academic staff and align their efforts to institution objectives. This article examines performance appraisal systems for academic staff in universities and colleges and identifies the complex issues facing those in management education involved in the design and operation of such systems.

Literature/Concepts

Performance appraisal in the National Health Service (NHS) has a long and varied history. The original trait-based model of staff appraisal began in the nursing profession in the early 1970s, spreading to other professional groups in that decade. The early 1980s saw experimentation with local appraisal systems before the promulgation of a national approach designed for all managers - individual performance review, or IPR (appraisal of performance (AP) in Scotland). This article seeks to place performance appraisal within the broader context of performance management; to identify the purposes of performance appraisal and to explore some of the perennial issues associated with it; to develop some rules of thumb for scrutinizing appraisal systems; to suggest some success (and failure) criteria for the design of appraisal systems, and to suggest that performance appraisal is no panacea or “single bullet solution”.

Research Methods

Referring to the qualitative research method used in the study. The methodology was invasive enough to provide results, although empirical evidence suggests that this is the main use in practice and that the more developmental aspects are often ignored. No single performance appraisal system will effectively produce high quality results in all these areas. There are also a number of perennial issues associated with performance appraisal. They are: Current performance versus future potential. The short-termism which is a feature of UK organizations emerges in the continuing obsession with current performance at work, in terms of task accomplishment - with what is to be done, at the expense of how it is to be done.

Discussion of Results

One current problem which performance appraisal faces is that the term is often used synonymously with that of “performance management approach to creating a shared vision of the purpose and aims of the organisation, helping each individual employee understand and recognise their part in contributing to them, and in so doing manage and enhance the performance of both individuals and the organization.

It was suggested in the article that the main building blocks of such an approach include: development of the organization's ...