, employees largely view performance management as something that is a means to an end for them, personally, rather than something which is good for the benefit of the wider company.
Theories for the use of Performance Management and Development
It is recognised that most performance management approaches do not make full use of all available skills and purposes. One of the main reasons for this limitation is that there is no vertical integration within an organisation. Targets and performance are generally managed by team leaders with the view to achieving their specific goals. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to expect that an individual will try and achieve the best possible appraisal and will not necessarily consider (or indeed care) about the wider organisation.
Regardless of the type of organisation, employees are powerful; therefore, the way in which they are encouraged to behave in relation to the organisational goals will be incredibly important. The key to performance management is setting the necessary goals and targets that will work towards achieving the same goals as the organisation as a whole.
This approach to performance management involves much more involvement at the higher end of the corporate ladder. What is needed and expected from every team should be something that is laid out by the top level of management. Moreover, these objectives should then be filtered down through the various levels of management in terms of setting goals and training and development needs, all the time ensuring that focus on the central goal is maintained.
Take a situation, for example, where there is a new technical product being planned. Performance goals and management should be looking at ensuring every department is ready for the launch, in advance of the actual launch itself. For example, extra technical training for the maintenance team, greater product awareness for the sales team and suitable involvement of the marketing team would all help to ensure that the best possible results are obtained from the launch. This is a classic example of performance at the lower levels of a corporation being used to feed into the ultimate success of the company (Armstrong, 2006)[5].
Recognised Best Practices in Performance Management and Development
Performance management is all about the comparison of actual performance with desired performance, in a way that brings together organisational goals. Clearly, the degree of control and management of the individual people will vary depending on the nature of the organisation. Factors such as the inherent employee motivation levels and general management style will make a big difference to how prescriptive the performance management process needs to be. Many of the parameters are company specific, but the process should also pay attention to the sector as a whole. For example, retail structures tend to need much more micromanagement in performance management than sectors with a high degree of professional participation such as accountancy or engineering.
Despite the differences in the company and sector approaches, there are still some widely recognised good practices that management should follow. Firstly, performance management is something that needs to be carefully planned and integrated into the role of management, at all levels. Haphazard use of performance appraisal means that not only are management not regularly getting the data they need, but employees are not being encouraged to recognise the importance of the whole process. If the process is not driven
