This article aims to provide a perspective on some approaches to performance management. Some of these approaches are specifically meant to enable the design of an effective Performance Management System (PMS). A few approaches provide a basis for analyzing performance. Other approaches are not solely aimed at enhancing employee performance, but include employee performance management as an integrated goal in the overall scheme of things. The consideration of these approaches in the design of a PMS will serve several objectives in congruence with organizational needs.
Individuals are bundles of energy, which when not aligned in a common direction, can spill over in several directions and get wasted. Similarly, an organization, which is not focused and does not have a well-articulated mission, vision and goal statement, will be unable to align the performance of its members in the desired direction. Hence, an effective Performance Management System (PMS) should flow from the organizational goals and should be clear, achievable, and measurable.
A well-designed PMS can play a key integrating role within an organization's HR processes. It can enable the effective integration of processes such as recruitment, monitoring and evaluating employee performance, and rewarding them. When the organizational goals are clearly understood by all employees in the organization, it increases the effectiveness of the decisions undertaken by its managers. What is challenging though, and which has also slowed the development of effective tools to measure appropriate behavior and design organizationally relevant policies, is defining what is good performance in a given organizational context.
Most performance measurement tools, by themselves are based on a significant amount of research. However, their effectiveness is dependent on the way the PMS is designed and the way the measurement tool is integrated with the overall PMS, which in turn should be integrated with the organizational goals. Hence, at the very outset, a PMS should be designed after a thorough research of the organization-specific goals and issues. |
