Secrets of Performance Management - Assignment Example

Performance management affiliation Introduction Human resource is management of people based on the belief that human resource is uniquely vital to sustaining business success. Organization gains competitive advantage by using its people effectively drawing on their expertise and their ingenuity to meet clearly defined objectives. Therefore, human resource aim at recruiting capable, flexible and committed people managing and rewarding their performance as well as developing critical competence. It also aims at improving productive contribution of individual and team to enhance organizational performance (Truss, Mankin, & Kelliher, 2010). Job Description Job description is a statement of the overall purpose and scope of a job together with its details of a task and duties. It is a written statement of what the employee does how he does it and what the job working conditions are. In general, a job description sets out the purpose of the job where it fits into the organization structure, the context in which the job holds a function and the principles of the job accountability of the jobholder. The content includes Job identification, job summary, responsibilities, standard of performance and job specification (Said & Munap, 2010). GALAXY RETAIL STORE Job Title: Retail sale representative Job status: Retail staff Salary scale: Job group K Job Code: RSF/2015 Location: Louisiana Department: Retailing Approved: Job Summary The retail staff shall achieve optimum sales profitability, business growth and accounts penetration within a market segment or territory by selling the products of the retail shop effectively. The retail sale staff shall secure as well as contact customers and new business accounts in the market. Core functions/ responsibilities Establishes and maintains business relations with the current retail customers as well as the prospective clients in the market segment to generate new areas of business for the products. Contact the esteemed customers and occasionally visits the existing and prospective customers. Perform research for developing prospective customers and obtain the necessary information to determine their potential Expedites the resolution of customers complaints and problems encountered Coordinates sales efforts with marketing, logistics, accounting and technical service groups Identifies advantages of the business and compare the products with other competitors. Keeps abreast of product applications, market conditions, technical services, advertising trends as well as consulting technical service areas Plans and organise sale strategy and maximising the return on investments for the market territory. Reporting Reports directly to the manager of sales department Qualifications Must possess two years experience working as a sale representative in a busy retail organization Possess a post-secondary certificate in sales and marketing Must demonstrate an aptitude for problem solving and ability to identify a problem as well as determine solutions for customer’s problems. Must be result oriented and able to work independently within the team Must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills for internal and external customer interaction Must possess proficiency in using Microsoft office suite application The organizational behaviour management The organizational behaviour management (OBM) involves the application of the science of human behaviour. OBM relates to the behaviour of people in a workplace, in addition, OBM is guided by a theory of human behaviour that is emphasised on identification and modification of environmental factors that affect employees performance. OBM is anchored in the work of B.F Skinner who postulated that an employee’s behaviour is inferred by his needs. In that, an employee may perform poorly in work because of poor job satisfaction or reduced rewards when he makes much profit to a company. Therefore, the OBM process identifies behaviours related to performance, study their instances and occurrences, identifies the major triggers, come up with interventions strategy, applies the postulated strategy and maintains the optimal performance through appropriate rewards to the employees. OBM embraces a three contingency model that is antecedent-behaviour-consequence. An antecedent is the stimulus that precedes behaviour and encourages the practice of that behaviour. These can take several forms such as reminder prompts, signs and noise that direct behaviour. An example of an antecedent strategy is the goal setting. A consequence is an event that follows a particular behaviour and increases the chance of the behaviour repeating itself. Just like the antecedents, consequence can take several forms, and they include a monetary reward, supportive supervision and behavioural feedback. It is for this reason it can be stated that consequences motivate behaviour because an individual will tend to act in response to the consequence (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 2009). In my OBM plan, I shall utilize the following methods to increase successful job performance. Behaviour-based feedback Feedback intervention involves measuring of target behaviour and then delivering information regarding the behaviour that is relevant to an individual or a group. This approach has been seen to be very successful and increase safe behaviours in the business set up. During the execution of the sale staff duties, a regular check up shall be done to monitor interaction with the customers as well as how many products they sale. A comprehensive feedback shall be provided to them and corrections made where necessary, this way the desired behaviours shall be reinforced while bad behaviours shun down. The retail staff shall also provide feedback where necessary to improve the quality of services we offer to the customers and increase the overall production of the business enterprise (Crommelinck & Anseel, 2013). Behavioural maintenance The long-term objectives of OBM are the institutionalization of contingencies that is needed to support the desired behaviour in the absence of an intervention agent. In essence, interventions techniques usually become part of the organizations daily activities. There are factors, which are significant for maintenance of behaviour and they include educating and training, involvement of indigenous personnel in customizing and executing intervention process, providing ongoing social and organizational support and finally generating self-rules that individual use to motivate their relevant behaviours. Positive working environment Working environment plays a lot in influencing the behaviour among employees, and a stressful working environment can discourage employees. When employees feels that they are not treated well, micromanaged or being treated unfairly about their jobs they can develop negative behaviours thus leading to low output. In this respect, establishing an excellent working environment is very useful by providing a precise handbook that contains the specific instructions of interactions and unacceptable behaviours among employees. The instructions shall include legal considerations of such behaviours like discriminations or harassments. This shall enhance respectful communication among the employees and make a nice working environment. Methods of measuring job performance behaviour Performance appraisal Managing the performance of people is a fundamental organizational strategy to gain competitive advantage through mobilization of the human resource. Therefore, the essential part of the managers job is to define performance in advance and state the desired results. Appraisal provides the analysis of a person overall capabilities, behaviours and potentials allowing informed decision during the process of engaging and managing of an employee. Performance appraisal is the process of assessing an employee performance in his/her job. In essence, it is a means of evaluating employee’s current and past performance to the expected standards. The manager will do performance appraisal to an employee to check whether the required behaviours are adhered to or there is a deviation from the requirement. After the appraisal, the manager shall provide feedback to the employee for further improvement (Prowse & Prowse, 2010). Graphic rating scale This is a more appropriate method of measuring the job performance behaviours since it incorporates behaviour statements or traits that are rated on a continuum, which can be quantitative or qualitative. The rating scale is a 3-point means of measuring performance in that it measures the magnitude of a characteristic or the dimension of performance. It lists the traits and arrange of performance values, and the supervisor or the appraiser is supposed to rate the trait that best describe his/her behaviours. This tool is therefore very efficient in measuring the job performance behaviour of the employee since it provides a dynamic view of the employees characteristics, behaviour and performance . Before performing performance appraisal to an employee, the employee must be informed of the standards required. This can be achieved by formally furnishing the employee with a letter that describes his/her job and the standards that are expected to be met. This will make the employee understand his job specification that is required of him/her. Another aspect is through job training and staff development; this will make the employees keep at breast with the latest requirements in the job market thus maintaining standards to meet those requirements. Feedback Feedback is necessary for any organization since it helps in improving and developing organizational strategy to fit in the competitive market. There are two main methods in which feedback can be provided, which is through oral and written method. When providing feedback it is good to note the following; the manager should know whom, when and how to approach the employee, it is good to choose a neutral position, should be direct and specific as well as offering solutions rather than criticise. Feedback should be given in regular intervals after an appraisal; this can be done on a daily basis after sales or weekly basis. It will help in monitoring how the business is fairing and can trigger SWOT analysis. To reinforce the positive employee’s behaviour, the manager can offer rewards in the form of materials or taking the best performing employee to a picnic to visit scenery places. Another method is through increasing the rank of an employee for his/her constant outstanding performance. This will mean that the employee will enjoy some benefits thus encourage others to work harder to achieve what their colleague has achieved. Through this, the companies output shall increase to higher levels (Petzold et al., 2010). Legal ethical issues encountered in performance management There are legal and ethical issues that can affect the performance of the management system, and this can be in performance appraisal. It should be noted that performance appraisal affect pay rise, promotions and lay off, if not properly done it can lead to an employee losing his/her job that can ultimately result in a legal proceeding. Therefore, it requires that a manager should tell an employee the standards required during job description. During a misconduct of an employee, the manager should follow the due channel to punish the employee; any breach of the channel can lead to a legal battle between the company and the employee. Therefore, it is imperative for the employers to be abreast with the employment acts. Businesses and organizations are required to comply with the government regulations while they execute their business. These include statutes and all civil rights laws where applicable. When a company breach the rights of an individual or does not comply with federal laws, it may risk facing legal suite. For example, a company must ensure that environmental safety and safety of his workers are maintained throughout its lifetime. Reference Crommelinck, M., & Anseel, F. (2013). Understanding and encouraging feedback-seeking behaviour: A literature review. Medical Education. Langton, N., Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies, Applications. Development. Petzold, A., Plessow, F., Goschke, T., & Kirschbaum, C. (2010). Stress reduces use of negative feedback in a feedback-based learning task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 124, 248–255. Prowse, P., & Prowse, J. (2010). The dilemma of performance appraisal. In Business Performance Measurement and Management: New Contexts, Themes and Challenges (pp. 195–206). Said, N. A., & Munap, R. (2010). Job characteristics and job satisfaction: A relationship study on supervisors performance. In 5th IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology, ICMIT2010 (pp. 714–719). Truss, C., Mankin, D., & Kelliher, C. (2010). Strategic Human Resource Management. Human Resource Management, 14, 365 – 382. Read More