PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Approaches to Performance Management

Approaches to Performance Management

Question 1

Behavioural and Results Approaches of Performance Management

Performance management is an ongoing process of recognizing and evaluating the employee's performance and find ways to enhance their performance by aligning it with the goals and objectives of an organization (Aguinis, 2013, p.2). It is a core process in human resource management as it ensures the effectiveness of employees and organizations, as well. It is different from performance appraisal as it is conducted by the line managers on a regular basis. Any organizations who wish to improve its performance continuously, it requires assessing and evaluating an individual's performance, giving feedback, and undertakes corrective measures. However, there are various approaches to performance measurement (Cardy & Leonard, 2011, p.4).

One of the approaches is Behavioural Methods. This method specifically explains the actions which should be executed and which should not. It is a way to bring improvement in a rating scale with including descriptions of behaviour along a continuum or scale. Such explanations enable the evaluator to recognize the current standing of an employee on the scale (Aguinis, 2013, p.94). The measurement of behaviours requires an evaluator to consider three noteworthy things including identifying competencies, identifying indicators, and choosing the appropriate measurement system. The competencies include a set of knowledge, skills, and abilities which makes an individual successful in completing the required task or job. These clusters of KSAs are a key indicator of recognizing that how results are going to be achieved. The evaluator must consider the differences in performance of superior and average. The identifying indicators include observable behaviour, which determines the extent to which relevant competencies are possessed by the individual. There are two types of the measurement system in behavioural approach; comparative and absolute system. The comparative system as its name suggests that measuring performance by comparing employees with each other. The absolute system is based on comparing employee's current performance with the pre-specified standards of performance. However, the comparative system is not suitable due to inappropriate in providing ranking for the valuable feedback. The absolute systems include different approaches. Essays provide a detailed description of matching the employee's performance with specified criteria. This approach is not very suitable because it is dependent on the writing skills of the supervisor. Behavioural checklist is a method through which the evaluator uses the checklist of statements and marks them according to the employee's behaviour or performance. However, this approach is difficult to interpret the feedback (Aguinis, 2013, p.95).

Critical Incident Method is used in order to evaluate employee behaviour on the basis of some critical incident which results in any unusual success or failure. It is very time consuming. In Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) individuals are assessed in such a manner that their performance is analyzed on a small set of job dimensions. The advantage of using this approach is that the evaluator does not have any pressure to choose any numerical value to rate an employee. Instead, it includes a job-based behaviour descriptions among which ...