PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management

Performacne Management

Performance management of individual employees differs. It generally includes the following: planning work, setting goals, offering feedback and reviews, offering opportunities to learn more in one's field, and rewarding employees who perform well. Employee performance management works best when work is planned and goals are consistent. This may mean having a clear way to communicate regarding work expected at the moment and upcoming work. Planning also includes defining expectations of the employee so that he or she is not broadsided by evaluation criteria not included in planning. (Gary Cokin, 2009, 654-78)

Chapter III

Methodology

A case study method was used in order to allow for a secondary qualitative analysis, suiting the explorative purpose. Initially, the purpose was formulated in order to collect specific data systematically. To ensure construct validity a theoretical frame of reference concerning the PM process was developed out of multiple sources. It specified integration issues for PM process integration. Literature on process integration was however scarce. Primary case companies were selected based on access to the companies and their interest in delivery service PM. Practically, they were found in two different networks for logistics or process managers, which we are in ongoing contact with. All companies were manufacturing companies located in Sweden. Data collection was survey absed and not random but rather theoretical; by looking for a variety of company characteristics, a number of typical situations or conceptual categories were covered. Company sizes varied from 2 to 580 M. Some were individual companies, while others were part of business groups. Most companies were Swedish, while one dyad belonged to an international company group. That dyad was the only company group-internal dyad, although consisting of two separate companies. In some dyads, the supplier could easily be exchanged; in others, the supplier was chosen based on unique technologies and is hard to replace. Each case selected one customer or supplier to focus the study on, generally an important business partner. The researchers did consequently not execute this part of the sampling. Company characteristics are further described in the following section and concluded in Table II. (Gary Cokin, 2009, 54-78)

Data collection was crafted by a survey. Analysis was firstly conducted as a within-case analysis. The survey validated these case descriptions (however, not shown in this paper) to ensure construct validity, as recommended by (Gary Cokin, 2009, 54-78). After this, a cross-case analysis phase followed, which can be found in the analysis section. Pattern matching was conducted, searching for patterns in integration of the PM process and the relation between business process integration and PM-process integration. Comparisons with literature (explanation building) were made, in order to increase internal validity. Pattern matching and explanation building are two ways to reach internal validity (Gary Cokin, 2009, 54-78). Altogether, the study was judged to possess validity and reliability.

Case descriptions

The empirical section contains descriptions of company characteristics, in order to understand typical situations (Table II), the dyadic business processes, in order to understand the context of PM (also Table II) and delivery service PM ...