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Organizational Behaviour 2011
Organizational Behaviour
Term Report
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Presented to: Mrs. Bushra Akbar
Presented by: Affan Khan
Anam Maqsood
Anuche Babar
Anum Naeem
Anum Rinch
Date: 10th June 2011
Organizational Behaviour 2011
ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................3
OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................6
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION.......................................................................14
PRIMARY RESEARCH....................................................................................14
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................21
RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................................................22
APPENDIX.........................................................................................................24
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The group is exceedingly grateful to and is appreciative of Mr. Imran Jaka1, the General
Manager as well as the Marketing head, for taking out his precious time to entertain our
questions that revolved around employee performance at their organization. He undoubtedly
proved to be exceedingly helpful in providing our group with the much desired information
that it desired.
In addition to this, our grateful thanks and appreciation goes to Mrs. Bushra Akbar, for
guiding us in the progression and smoothness of the entire term project. Without a shadow of
doubt, without her supreme guidance and knowledge, this term project would have not been
turned into a reality.
1Email: [email protected] Phone: 0300-2026360
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The sole purpose of this report is to delve deeply and gain a comprehensive understanding of
how the employee psyche at Pakistani organizations works and what is it that enables
employees to perform up to their capabilities. The organization chosen for this report was
Stallion Textiles and it proved to provide an excellent platform to indulge into the various
aspects of employee performance. The report commences with the objectives of the report
itself, going on to the research methodology used, the literature review of the article that was
chosen to use as a guide for the report, then giving a brief introduction of Stallion Textiles,
the primary research and finally giving a conclusion to the entire report and our
recommendations on it. The end of the report also contains an appendix which includes the
questionnaire that was presented to the general manager and the employee survey as well.
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OBJECTIVES
Pakistan the country that was once included in the top 10 growing nations of the world has
suffered greatly to come down to the list of the failing states. The economy of the country is
not that impressive either, all one can see around is depression and gloominess. The
economic conditions have decreased the number of job opportunities available for people and
the ones who do have it are not satisfied with it. The overall performance and efficiency has
seen a decline over the years with the result being the downfall in the GDP and the economy.
In such dire circumstances we decided to study the ways an employer can improve job
performance of the employees through the use of feedbacks, goal setting, rewards and
positive reinforcement. Job performance has historically been linked with rewards and
recognition, with the employers rewarding only those employees who have consistently
performed well, especially in the sub-continent region. Job performance has also shown to be
influenced by the feedback, both from the superiors and by the sub-ordinates, who point out
the flaws about an individual for him to work on. Goal settings has also been proven to
improve job performance by providing the individual with a vision and an objective look up
to and stay focus to achieve it.
The main focus for us was to understand the importance of feedback both from the superiors
and sub-ordinates and the significance of setting goals and objectives on job performance.
This would help us in pointing towards the use of appropriate methods to improve job
performance and thus the overall efficiency and output level of any organization.
The company that would be studied had to be not only successful in its industry but also
should have immense use of and dependence on employees, for example a factory or a
manufacturing company. With this mindset we choose Stallion textiles, a highly successful
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yarn producing company, to compare the ways of improving job performance as perceived by
the management and by the employees.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research for this report comprises of both secondary and primary research. The
secondary research is based on an extensive literature study that entailed a critical perusal of
literature sources relevant to our chosen topic. However the report is based on a research
article titled, “Expectancy Theory and its implications for employee motivation.” (Academic
Leadership Journal, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2008).
The research article revolves around an empirical study on the relevance of the expectancy
theory for employee motivation. It was conducted at Rustenburg Section of Anglo Platinum.
Due to time constraints, the researchers used quantitative research methods for data collection
and they distributed questionnaires to 50 contractor facilitators in Part-Time ABET. The
questionnaire had two sections: Section A dealing with biographical data, and Section B
dealing with questions arranged in the 4 point Linkert Scale. The data that were collected was
analyzed and recorded in a table showing rank, the mean and standard deviation.
The primary research comprises of an extensive questionnaire based interview with the
General Manager of Stallion Textiles, Mr. Imran Jaka and an employee survey. The primary
research focused on the different aspects that affect the job performance of employees. The
questionnaire comprised of a mix of open-ended and close-ended questions. The open-ended
questions allowed for extensive information gathering about the respondent’s feelings,
attitudes and understanding of the subject. The close-ended questions, on the other hand,
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allowed for simplicity and easier analysis. The survey presented to the employees comprised
of ranking-scale questions; Linkert Scale. The employees were presented with ten statements
and were asked to rate them in order of preference.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The article titled, ‘Expectancy theory and its implications for employee motivation’, written
by Isaac Ramoloko Mathibe show that there is a link between motivation and human
productivity and that link is proved by an empirical study. To support the study, individual
factors such as goals/expectations, unlocking potential, effort, equity and performance are
used. Moreover, it also gives a criterion for motivation which includes different levels of
effective leadership, goal setting and attainment of objectives, unlocking/unfolding of
potential and effort and equity, valences and incentives.
Introduction
Social theorists are of the view that employees are motivated by their needs and they develop
through and in relationship with others2. The implication of the preceding statement is that
when there is synergy between employees’ needs and organizational needs, employees will
be more accepting to productive tendencies than when their needs are not gratified.
Popular incentives include money, power and idyllic investments as well as general
incentives that are non-material. Expectancy Theory is that people make decisions among
alternative plans of behavior based on their perceptions [expectancies] of the degree to which
a given behavior will lead to desired outcomes.
2 Dawson, 1993
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There is a subtle link between expectancy, effort, productivity and reward. Werner states that
a person will exert a high effort if he/she believes there is reasonable probability that the
effort will lead to the attainment of an organizational goal, and the attainment of the
organizational goal will become an instrument through which that person will attain his/her
personal goals. If this is the case with employees, one would thus conclude that
organizational goals will be elevated above personal goals, and this may account for the use
of incentives and rewards to recognize the effort made by employees.
Elements of Expectancy Theory:
1. Goals/Expectations: Clarifying the meaning of goals is necessary for forging a shared
understanding of what the organization wants to accomplish. It suffices to state that goals
assist in focusing the energy of workers towards attainment of organizational visions. It
suffices to state that goals assist in focusing the energy of workers towards attainment of
organizational visions.
2. Unlocking potential: Potential is latent excellence which needs to be developed, unlocked
or unfurled. Some essentials for unlocking employee potential are mentioned in the
following table.
Table 1 Essentials for unlocking employees’ potential
Communicating The manager keeps his or her team members up-to-date and in the
picture on a regular basis
Horses for courses The manager allocates work in ways that match staff members’
capabilities and preferences
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Valuing differences The manager encourages respect, trust and understanding between
team members
Work standards The manager sets realistic and clear standards for job performance.
Participative decision
making
When it is appropriate the manager makes sure that she/he involves
team members in those decisions that would affect them and their
performance.
3. Effort: The term effort implies the using of energy to get something done, exertion of
mental strength, a try, a product or result of working or trying. Effort is related to the
action of trying, exertion of strength or endeavor. In most cases effort is linked to a series
of actions that have to be performed as indicated by grouping of tasks and the division of
work, allocation of duties, authority and responsibility without abdicating responsibility,
relationships between people, collaboration and coordination as well as forged common
objective or motive to achieve goals.
4. Equity: The Equity theory is based on the view that employees should receive their fair
share for input for the attainment of organizational outcomes. It is noted that
incongruence and imbalances between the input the output provides ground for inequity
and de-motivation. Striking a balance or maintaining a state of equilibrium between input
and output is essential for enhancing performance.
5. Performance: Performance is the realization of goals and meeting of expectations.
Performance management is also seen as a continuous cycle of improving job
performance with goal-setting, feedback, coaching, rewards and positive reinforcement.
Criteria for Motivation
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1. Effective leadership: The use of non-coercive influence to direct and co-ordinate
activities of group members towards goal accomplishment. Leadership is the set of
characteristics attributed to those who are perceived to employ such an influence
effectively. 3
2. Goal-setting and attainment of objectives: Managers are expected to set goals which are
within the employees’ performance range, and that is why the potential, aptitude, abilities,
skills, knowledge and values of employees should be considered before one is engaged to
do the work. For example, employing a traditional and conservative Catholic in an
abortion clinic may not be advisable – on moral and value-consideration – even if that
person is a highly skilled surgeon. It is also necessary to bear in mind that goal-setting
should also anticipate the outcomes to be attained. Commitment to the tasks at hand
becomes easier when one has a mental construct of what the end of the product of the
whole undertaking will be.
3. Unlocking/Unfolding of potential and effort: Multi-skilling is the buzz-word in many
organizations since it is assumed that it generates a highly developed form of work
intensification, flexibility, inter-changeability and mobility in the workforce.4 Skill
obsolescence in the face of globalization and technological advancements also increases
the need for unfolding of potential and development diverse skills in employees.
4. Equity, valences and incentives: When there is ambivalence about the conditions in an
organization, it may generate despondency and lack of motivation5 , even if an
organization has attractive incentive schemes and salary structures. One has to caution
though, while dependence on incentives schemes to enhance employees’ motivation may
3 Moorhead and Griffin (1989, p.347)4 Tomaney, 1990, p.375 Heystek, 2002
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ensure efficiency in the short-term, in the long-term one may proof to be an ineffective
mechanism for sustainability in the business. For example, in organizations that set
production targets as in mining – employees work long hours [over-time] – which may
compromise safety standards – just to reach the target and to get the bonuses. Fatalities –
in the mines – have been recorded due to this practice, and such mines were forced to
close for some time in order to upgrade their safety.
Research Methodology
An empirical study on the relevance of the expectancy theory for employee motivation was
conducted at Rustenburg Section of Anglo Platinum. Due to time constraints, the researchers
used quantitative research methods for data collection and they distributed questionnaires to
50 contractor facilitators in Part-Time ABET. The questionnaire has two sections: Section
dealing with biographical data, and Section B dealing with questions arranged in the 4 point
Linkert Scale. The data that were collected was analyzed and recorded in a Table 2 showing
rank, the mean and standard deviation
Table 2: Mean Score rating
Rank Item No Item Mean SD
2 1 Management provides strong Leadership to
employees
4.51 0.57
8 2 Management has a high expectation for employees’
performance
3.99 0.15
4 3 Employees’ productivity is continuously assessed to 4.27 0.45
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ensure quality in performance
1 4 Employees are exposed to an appraisal system in
order to identify and close gaps in performance
4.65 0.56
3 5 All employees understand the vision, values and
mission statement of the organization
4.30 0.49.
8 6 Employees’ training and development programmes
are linked to the needs of employees and the
organizations
3.99 0.15
6 7 There is constant feedback on performance and the
stakeholders are informed about successes of the
organizations
4.04 0.53
4 8 The organization uses a management information
system to record employees’ performance
4.27 0.45
7 9 The organizations has a developmental plan for each
employee
4.02 0.40
8 10 The organization has a well-developed incentive
programme for recognition of performance
3.99 0.15
Main Findings
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Managers understand where the organization wants to go [vision], and they point out the
direction to their followers. As a result, managers develop communication networks and
channels for dissemination of organizational vision, values, mandates and goals to as a
strategy for mobilization of employees’ energy and enthusiasm. In addition, the empirical
investigation indicated that management provides strong leadership to employees. Strong
leadership implies that aligning diverse views towards a common vision and programme of
action. Just as organizational goals direct the actions of both the employers and employees,
the role of management is to communicate organizational goals and procedures, to strengthen
group cohesion and organizational effectiveness. On the other hand, respondents indicated
that all employees understand the vision, values and mission statement of the organization.
Employees that are skilled and trained for the jobs do not feel threatened, either by the
changes, the job itself or new entrants – who happen to be well-trained and skilled in the jobs
– into the job market. Similarly, lack of motivation from respondents may be ascribed to the
Company’s lack of planning for employees’ capacity building and empowerment. Incentives
and extrinsic rewards enhance motivation are important since employment relations are based
on transactions such as payment for services rendered which occur between employers
[providers of employment and reward] and employees [service providers]. In the same vein
respondents indicated their lack of motivation and poor response to the lack of the lack of a
well-developed incentive programme for recognition of performance.
Recommendations
1. Managers should explain the vision, values and missions/goals of the organizations to
their subordinates in order to win their confidence and commitment to organizational
goals.
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2. One should also stress the importance of communication in leadership since it dispels all
fears and misunderstandings that may develop between management and employees.
3. There is a need for intensive and expansive programmes aimed at unfolding employees’
potential. ( Learning Organizations )
Conclusion:
The success of every organization, society and country depends on the direction and
Leadership that is provided. Similarly, experience in, and knowledge of contemporary
management and Leadership approaches is necessary for upholding the notion of efficacy,
quality and motivation in organizations. In the same vein, competitive organizations are led
by people who understand that people empowerment raises productivity, operational
autonomy and innovation. However, there are economists who argue that organizations
cannot grow and expand if employees’ are poorly skilled, de-motivated and oblivious of
organizational goals. On the same note, there are indications that when people have
appropriate skills for job performance, and when they understand the rules of the globalised
and globalizing industry such as ours, their productive capacity will increase.
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
Stallion textiles is a textile spinning unit/mill. The company’s philosophy and goal is to be
the market leader in the textile spinning industry of Pakistan. They aim to do this by creating
systems, technologies and units that make their greatest challenges their strengths.
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Stallion textiles have been in business since 2004. They produce 30/single blended yarn,
which is of premium quality. At the moment they are operating 150000 spindles under one
roof. This is the largest yarn producing unit in Pakistan. Their factory is located in Nooriabad
and they have two offices. However, at the moment only one head office located in defense is
under use.
The company hires over 2000 people in their factory alone. The skilled to unskilled ratio of
workers is 60:40. They hire workers who are educated and have a good knowledge about
their production process and machinery. They also export their product through ALU
international, an exporter of fabric and their sales agent.
Recently stallion textiles has entered its growth phase after learning the ropes of business and
overcoming a large number of problems in an efficient manner by running a small scale unit.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Questionnaire based:
The primary research for our report on Stallion Textiles was based on a twenty minute
interview with the general manager of Stallion Textiles, Mr. Imran Jaka. Our questionnaire
revolved around 17 questions in total, out of which four were objective and thirteen
subjective questions. Our group made the questionnaire in light of the research article and the
topic that we selected for the report. The following show the results that we were able to
collect through the interview based on the different aspects that affect the performance of an
employee.
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Communication:
o The manager stated that there is a lot of communication that takes place
between the manager and the employees on a daily basis because their firm is
small and their hierarchy structure is flat.
o The communication medium that is used within their structure includes face to
face and email communication. On the other hand, Mr. Jaka told us that their
engineering unit is an independent structure thus, they communicate via
telephone calls and frequent visits to the office.
Allocation of work:
o The preferences and capabilities of the employees are kept in mind when
allocating tasks.
o Their job description and role description along with the experience and
expertise of the employees guides them of how the work distribution should be
done.
o Job rotation, especially within the department takes place at times so that
employees can fill up for each other if required.
Teamwork Versus Individual assignments:
o Stallion textiles does believe in team work to a certain extent.
o However, they believe that they need to allocate specific responsibilities to
the individuals so there is accountability. If all work is done as a team, some
of the individuals may not perform, affecting the others.
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o Moreover, Mr. Jaka said that there is not much bonding and maturity at the
middle level right now that they can address an issue on their own.
o In addition to that, he said that the departments where team work takes place
cannot really be specified because some jobs are inter departmental, some are
intra departmental and some are individual jobs and how it will be decided of
how the work will be carried out depends on however the task can be
performed best.
o Traits that Mr. Jaka believed are required in an employee for effective
teamwork included his ability to coordinate, allocating responsibilities within
the team and planning and executing the task.
We then asked him to rate the following options, depending on which factor is the
most effective when it comes to motivating employees in their firm and the results
showed:
1. Goals
2. Positive reinforcement
3. Feedback
4. Rewards
The specific standards that they have for work performance as well as for the
evaluation of employees:
o Personality
o How well the employee performs under various situations
o Integration with others
o Strength and weaknesses
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o Understanding the organization’s culture
When evaluating employees on the above given criteria, they use a full evaluation
system and then analyze the results to make decisions.
Empowering employees:
o Employees are asked for their feedback while making decisions
o Moreover, the employees are given certain parameters within which they are
able to make decisions themselves. If in case their decision requires going
beyond those parameters, then they consult their seniors.
In his view, he believed that the effort of employees is based on:
1. Allocation of duties
2. Level of authority and responsibility
3. Grouping of tasks and division of work
Moreover, he also rated the factors that affect employee performance as the
following:
1. Capacity to perform
2. Commitment to performance
3. Motivating environment
The external factor that affects employee performance the most is:
o Technological acceleration, this is because it enables their employees to speed
up their processes and complete the same task in less time and less effort
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which can then be put in other tasks that the employee is responsible for
completing, therefore, productivity and performance are enhanced.
Goals:
o The methods used to convey the goals of the organization clearly are similar to
those of the communication methods mentioned previously, which includes
face to face and email methods.
o Moreover, employees are not provided with any sort of incentives to
accomplish their goals. This is because he said that their firm does not contain
the culture of rewarding their employees and do not believe in giving rewards.
Reason being, giving rewards to employees creates reward expectancy and
then employees expect to receive rewards even when their work is not up to
the mark.
Positive reinforcement:
o Knowing that Stallion textiles does not have a culture of giving rewards, it is
evident that they do not use positive reinforcement in through explicit rewards.
However, there is reinforcement on doing a good job implicitly for example,
acknowledging the employee in front of everyone, clapping for him, patting
on his back and so on.
What techniques are adopted by the company to motivate employees when they fail to
do their job?
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o As a first step, they conduct counselling sessions, open debates, discussions in
order to know why exactly the employee failed to do his job and then provide
feedback to him.
o If talking their way out does not help improving the employees work, then
they may using methods restructuring, complimenting their weaknesses with
additional resources, training and so on.
o Mr. Jaka notified that there are different kinds of employees that they come
across and they have to deal with them differently and so no one technique can
be quoted to be the best. Where some employees may be competent, some
may be competent but do not have the right kind of attitude to perform their
job and some may have the competency skills and the attitude to work but may
not be able to perform and in that case they may use restructuring, for
example.
Employee survey based:
Rank Number Item Mean Standard
Deviation
4 1 Management provides strong Leadership to employees 4.27 0.45
6 2 Management has a high expectation for employees’
performance
4.04 0.53
3 3 Employees’ productivity is continuously assessed to ensure
quality in performance
4.30 0.49
8 4 Employees are exposed to an appraisal system in order to
identify and close gaps in performance
3.99 0.15
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1 5 All employees understand the vision, values and mission
statement of the organization
4.65 0.56
4 6 Employees’ training and development programmes are linked
to the needs of employees and the organization
4.27 0.45
2 7 There is constant feedback on performance and the
stakeholders are informed about successes of the organizations
4.51 0.57
7 8 The organization uses a management information system to
record employees’ performance
4.02 0.40
8 9 The organizations has a developmental plan for each employee 3.99 0.15
8 10 The organization has a well-developed incentive programme
for recognition of performance
3.99 0.15
The results of the questionnaire have been summarized in the table. The employees rated item
5 at 1 with a mean of 4.65 and standard deviation of 0.56. This shows that the employees feel
they share the same vision as the management and hence are able to understand values and
mission statement of the organization. This helps the company achieve its goal with little
correction and motivational activities to bring the employees on path and the items which
relate to these management tactics are also highlighted by the employees ranking them at
highly.
However the employees have a rated three of the items poorly and have ranked these items at
8, which is the lowest rank that the employees have used. The items that have been ranked at
8 are 4 ‘Employees are exposed to an appraisal system in order to identify and close gaps in
performance’, 9 ‘The organizations has a developmental plan for each employee’ and 10 ‘The
organization has a well-developed incentive programme for recognition of performance’.
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This shows that the employees are not being judged on the basis of their contributions to the
company, with no appraisal or incentive program designed for them. They feel as though
their work is going un-noticed.
CONCLUSION
Questionnaire based:
After interviewing Mr. Imran Jaka, the impression that we have got of employee performance
and how it is improved in Stallion Textiles, from the point of view of the General Manager is
that the goals are believed to be the most important in motivating employees and getting them
to work. These goals are communicated through effective methods of virtual and personal
communication; however, more emphasis is placed on personal communication such as face
to face instructions, feedback and appraisal. This is because the company itself is small and
so, they believe it is to their benefit to take advantage of the small size and directly
communicate with employees. The second and third most important techniques to improve
employee performance is to positively reinforce employee behaviour but only through
implicit rewards such as acknowledging their effort and feedback, respectively. The least
important factor in improving employee performance in this company is rewards, as they tend
to create reward expectancy.
Employee survey based:
This seems as a start of dissatisfaction which may lead to a decrease in job performance, as
the employees may start lazing off and not working to their potential. If this happens, it will
result in a decrease in productivity and possible financial consequences for the company. The
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company should realize the importance of having an appraisal and recognition system to
applaud the employees who have performed well and encourage others to follow suit.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Employee performance is an important building block of an organization and factors which
lay the foundation for high performance must be analyzed by organizations. The findings of
our research vary considerably from the findings of the research article. Although the
organizations in our country appear to be Western outwardly, if one focuses on them
internally they are quite different from the Western ways of management practices and thus
in dealing with employee performance. Moreover Stallion Textiles is a relatively small firm
with a flat hierarchical structure. Therefore, this difference in business culture and structure
of the organization means that the management must take a different set of measures to
improve employees’ job performance to enhance their productivity and successfully attain
strategic goals of the organization. Businesses these days are focusing on job enrichment to
enhance employee performance by means of job rotation. This enables employees to perform
a variety of tasks and gives the firms more flexibility in covering tasks when employees are
absent. However, job rotation can also hinder job performance of employees. Having to know
several different jobs in order to rotate can prevent employees from becoming proficient at
any particular job. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of job rotation as an
enrichment strategy have to be carefully weighed. The absence of an effective strategy
execution process can lead to a reinforcing loop between teamwork and accountability. This
reinforcing loop can only be eliminated through translating the organization’s strategic plans
into concisely defined tasks assigned to each employee. Managers must also focus on
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effective feedback as part of a comprehensive performance management program. Therefore,
feedback should be given to coach improvement, and not just for final results. Also feedback
should be paired with explicit expectations for improvement in the future. An organization’s
performance management system will benefit considerably if specific performance standards
for each job group are clearly defined and communicated to employees on an individual
basis. Evaluating management staff’s understanding of performance standards is essential to
ensure an effective performance management system. The management must ensure that job
descriptions and specifications are reviewed to develop performance standards. Moreover
levels that delineate excellent to satisfactory to poor performance must be established. Each
job function must be looked into in order to determine what must be done to meet, exceed or
fail to meet expectations. Finally, these performance standards must be transferred to
performance appraisal forms and explained in detail to the employees. The root of a
performance problem must be determined before the management can fully address it. Ability
and motivation go together to impact performance, and the most successful performance
improvement efforts combine strategies for improving each. This creates a positive
environment where employees feel supported to reach their performance potential; and feel
valued, knowing that the organization wants to find a good fit for their abilities.
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APPENDIX
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