Successful Performance Appraisal Management - Research Paper Example

? Design of an Optimal Performance Appraisal System Company] [Publish Introduction Performance appraisal systems are widely deployed by various forms of organizations in order to measure up employee performance, alignment with overall organizational objectives and to assess room for improvement. The essence of any performance appraisal system is to ensure that employees are cultivated for their optimal levels of performance by continuously assessing performance and augmenting it accordingly (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, 2009). There is no dearth of research that proves that successful performance appraisal management is directly linked to achieving organizational goals and increasing productivity (Cokins, 2009). The typical methodology geared to dealing with performance appraisal systems relies on using a generalized approach where one performance appraisal system is used for a number of different hierarchical positions in an organization (Cascio, 2013). However, it would only make sense to design a performance appraisal system that is attuned to the needs of a particular position being appraised. This paper attempts to design an optimal performance appraisal system for the position of a medical supervisor based on current research findings. Description of Position The performance appraisal system under design is for the position of a medical supervisor. Essentially the position requires a large amount of daily interaction with patients as well as members of staff and occasionally contact with members of regulatory agencies. Additionally, the medical supervisor represents a senior position at any medical institution and is responsible for overseeing the training and skill development of his subordinates. The medical supervisor needs to keep tabs on the budgeting of resources and scheduling of staff members to ensure uninterrupted medical service to patients. The multifaceted nature of the job of a medical supervisor means that the incumbent medical supervisor needs to be ready on all fronts to deliver in order to be relevant to the organization’s overall objectives. Proposed Optimal Appraisal Performance System The proposed appraisal performance system for the position of a medical supervisor is divided into sections based on the major responsibilities for the position. The responsibilities are segregated through broad overviews since the current paper is not intended to dissect all of the responsibilities in complete detail. The primary responsibility of a medical supervisor is to the patients under treatment. Patients can be seen as the customers for any medical system so delivering to the customers is of the utmost importance. The medical supervisor is supported by his staff at various levels and positions in order to service the patients so dealing with staff is a secondary responsibility to ensure satisfactory service provision at least. Moreover, the medical supervisor is responsible to his immediate superiors and members of regulatory agencies such as the American Medical Association (AMA) who require consistent feedback for continuous performance assessment. Performance Appraisal for Patients The basic contention behind performance appraisals is to provide employees with feedback regarding their performance (Broady-Preston & Steel, 2002). In the case of medical institutions, the customers are patients under treatment. Performance appraisal needs to emanate from patients and their relatives who judge the quality of services being delivered by a medical supervisor. Essentially such a grass roots level performance appraisal system bases itself on the 360 degrees appraisal system proposed by Milliman (1994). The idea behind such an appraisal system is to ensure that all people interacting with an employee especially customers provide their effective feedback in relation to the employee’s attitude and behavior (Cascio, 2013). This provides the medical supervisor with a more goal oriented performance appraisal system that encourages a quantitative method to evaluate job performance. It is proposed that patients and their relatives be provided with surveys that they take at the end of the patient’s stay at the hospital. These surveys should be brief yet comprehensive enough to cover areas such as medical care provision, overall environment, cooperation by staff members etc. to elucidate the system’s overall efficacy. Responses from these surveys can be tabulated in order to keep a running tab on performance. A number of performance appraisal systems suffer since they do not offer real time feedback to the employee (DeNisi & Pritchard, 2006). Consequently, the employee is reprimanded at the end of the performance appraisal cycle by a superior that represents highly delayed feedback. Delayed feedback represents a twofold loss for the overall system – the employee is demoralized even if performance in other areas is exceptional and the customers keep suffering until the employee’s direction is not renewed. In the current case, the medical supervisor could be reprimanded for poor performance in the outdoor patients department (OPD) at year end even if other wards performed well. Moreover, patients in the OPD system would continue to suffer poor service provision till the end of one performance appraisal cycle when the medical supervisor is reprimanded. Instead, the better approach here would be to allow the medical supervisor and his superiors’ real time feedback so that performance appraisal is not as highly delayed. Performance Appraisal for Staff Members Another major responsibility of the medical supervisor is to keep the subordinate staff in working order. The medical supervisor is responsible for both short term problem management as well as long term skill development in members of his staff while keeping employees motivated (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, 2009). Again keeping in line with Milliman’s (1994) 360 degrees appraisal system, it would only make sense if members of the staff provide candid feedback in regards to the medical supervisor. A critical indicator to a healthy relationship between a medical supervisor and his staff is the retention rate of the staff especially the more experienced members of staff. Medical professionals are in constant demand across the nation. In case that working conditions become unfavorable for medical professionals, it is far easier to move between jobs than for other professions since medical institutions are present all across the country. Senior management could gauge the medical supervisor’s performance by monitoring the retention rates though this metric would need to be changed if the dynamics of the labor market were to change. In addition, immediate subordinates of the medical supervisor should provide their feedback on the performance appraisal of the medical supervisor to express their confidence in his abilities and leadership. It is often the case that performance appraisals for employees emanate from superiors but not from inferiors. This tends to bias the system in favor of higher management since the stand points of the subordinate staff are not being considered (Sudarsan, 2009). In order to provide effective feedback for improvement, it would be advisable for immediate subordinates to appraise the medical supervisor at the end of each performance appraisal cycle. Performance Appraisal for Superiors The traditional view of performance appraisal dictates that the appraisal should be carried out by an immediate superior only. However, this view has been refuted in the current model of performance appraisal that looks to include subordinates and customers to performance appraisal too. In addition, the performance appraisals often filed by immediate seniors lack the quantification or efficacy of performance for senior positions such as the medical supervisor. Instead, such performance appraisals are often dictated by quantitative reasoning on the part of the immediate superior (Cascio, 2013). In order to deal with this dilemma, it is proposed that performance appraisals for the medical supervisor should be quantified using feedback from customers that the immediate superior needs to take into account. Another alternative solution would be to divide the performance appraisal cycle into three different portions whose overall performance evaluation is added to provide the overall performance appraisal. In the current case, the three different portions would originate from the customer, the staff and the immediate superior. The immediate superior would be responsible for tabulating the required three portions of the performance appraisal with the medical supervisor’s consent before it is filed with the human resources department. Training and Development Performance appraisals for senior positions often assume that the professional is already experienced enough to deal with most challenges thrown his way. Consequently, performance appraisals often fail to identify potent areas for growth especially if the performance appraisal is driven top to bottom (Mayer & Gavin, 2005). Another major area that remains unidentified for senior positions under performance appraisals is personal development through the enhancement of skills such as stress management, budget control, resource allocation etc. Typical performance appraisals tend to eclipse such areas of personal growth since it is assumed that the evaluated professional is capable enough to deal with these pressures. Professionals in such situations may often resort to seeking help in order to fulfill their functions while it would be pertinent to train these professionals to deliver on such functions. For example, it is common to find senior managers who rely on subordinate staff to perform budgetary balancing since they are not as well versed with computer applications such as spreadsheets. Given these issues, it would be advisable to allow the employee to assess where he lacks the necessary skills to keep his responsibilities on track. The more mature performance appraisal models advocate the employee to assess his personal training needs so that they can be addressed better (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, 2009). Keeping in line with these findings, it would be advisable to allow the medical supervisor to choose the particular areas of training that he deems necessary. Another advantage offered by this training needs analysis (TNA) model is that it tends to cater to individual needs. For example, two medical supervisors working in the same facility are bound to have different training needs but are often bundled together after a ritualistic TNA has been performed. Contribution of Performance Appraisal System to Career Goals Performance appraisal systems tend to serve the employee just as they serve the employer’s objectives. Only a well attuned professional has the necessary capabilities and qualifications to progress through his career and performance appraisal systems provide a strong platform for skill development. The current model for performance appraisal finds little relevance for segregation of interests as per functional outcomes or management based objectives since these have been performed earlier in the career of a medical supervisor. Given that the career direction has been settled for a medical supervisor, the next important thing is to have the right tools for progression. Performance appraisal, especially real time feedback based appraisal, allows the medical supervisor to balance priorities as per requirements and not as per visceral ideas. This in turn allows greater productivity and hence greater value addition to the medical supervisor’s portfolio banking on which future promotions could be aspired for. References Broady-Preston, J., & Steel, L. (2002). Employees, customers, and internal marketing strategies in LIS. Library Management 23 , 384-393. Cascio, W. F. (2013). Managing human resources: Productivity, quality of work life, profits (9th edition). The University of Michigan: McGraw-Hill. Cokins, G. (2009). Performance Management - Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2009). Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace. Boston: McGraw-Hill. DeNisi, A., & Pritchard, R. (2006). Performance appraisal, performance management, and improving individual performance: A motivational framework. Management and Organization Review 2(2) , 253-277. Mayer, C. M., & Gavin, M. B. (2005). Trust in management and performance: Who minds the shop while the employees watch the boss. Academy of Management Journal 48(5) , 874-888. Milliman, J. Z. (1994). Companies evaluate employees from all perspectives. Pers. Journal 73(11) , 99-103. Sudarsan, A. (2009). Performance appraisal systems: A survey of organizational views. The Icfai University Journal of Organizational Behavior 3(1) , 54-69. Read More