Performance Management of O'Meara - Case Study Example

Performance Management: A Case Study of O’Meara Name Institution Course Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction Performance management is an area that is increasingly becoming the point of attention in businesses (Ochurub et al., 2012; Moynihan & Pandey, 2010). As organizations experience pressure to achieve results, most businesses are realizing that the only way to succeed is to manage the performance of their employees. Performance management is a continuous process that seeks to ensure that the goals, objectives and outcomes of employees are in tandem with organizational goals (Shields, 2012; Kyriakopoulos, 2012; Boswell & Boudreau, 2000). According to the case study, O’Meara, an Australian multinational electronics company that has been in operation for more than two decades has of late been experiencing declining performance as its profitability and market position has been declining. The declining performance of the company has been traced to performance management challenges that the company faces. This report begins with diagnosis of the current performance management system in the O’Meara case study. It will identify the performance management issues in the case study and provide an understanding of such issues as they relate to the staff and the organisation. The second part of the report will compare at least two performance management systems and relative elements/practices/processes. Finally, the report will conclude with a brief summary and recommendation on the right performance management system and practice that should be implemented at O’Meara to ensure its success and competitiveness. 2.0 Performance Management Practices and Issues in the Case Performance management in any organization ought to be a routine activity that is conducted on a continuous basis to ensure that the goals and objectives of the staff are matched with those of the organization. However, O’Meara’s case indicates a number of performance management issues that need to be addressed. First, the case indicates that the company lacks a performance evaluation system for measuring individual performance. Mughal and Akram (2014) argue that, for any company to succeed, it is important that the company understands how individual employees are performing. A company needs to have a an evaluation system in place that measures the productivity of employees so as to be able to understand the challenges they face, skill shortage and other human and organizational factors that might be affecting their productivity that needs to be addressed to ensure optimal productivity is achieved from every individual employee (Reading–Gruman, & Saks, 2011). Unfortunately, this is not the case at O’Meara as the case clearly shows that there is no system in place for measuring the individual staff performance. The other performance management issue presented in the case has to do with self-management of work teams. According to the case, the work teams at O’Meara are not self-managed. A self-managed work teams are a group of employees that have discretion over what they do and are accountable and responsible for the results achieved. Jabeen (2011) suggest that the businesses for the future require self-managed work teams. This is attributed to the fact that self-managed teams take responsibility for what they achieve, which ensures accountability and hard work (Kang, & Shen, 2016; De Waal, & van der Heijden, 2015). However, in the case study, it emerged that teams are not self-managed. This is to suggest that employees at O’Meara work under the direction of the supervisors with little room allowed for creativity and this is counterproductive to the company. Supporters of self-managed teams argue that this is a positive approach to performance management because self-managed teams tend to make effective decisions because the decisions are made by people who know the job best (Gharakhani et al., 2013; Simpson, 2009). Therefore, considering that the company has teams drawn from different departments, which include engineers, production and marketing experts with different perspectives and opinion, promoting self-management for these teams will be of great benefit for the company as it would allows for creativity and effective decision making that would have a positive impact on the firm’s bottom line (Lindberg & Wilson, 2011). The other performance management issue highlighted in the case has to do with lack of goal setting. A good performance management should link individual goals with the organizational goals. Unfortunately, at O’Meara, there is no system for setting goals as this is demonstrated when one of the engineering technicians, Nick commented that ‘We don’t know what a performance goal is....why don’t you tell us’. This indicates that the employees have no goals that they are supposed to achieve. Lack of goals setting for employees is also indicated when one of the employees commented that the company has no system for supporting the employees, supervisors and managers at the company. Instead, it is all about just working everyday with the company not bothered about how well the employees do their job. This is a serious issue of performance management that the company must address if it hopes to compete favourably in the electronics market (Gerrish, 2016; Gruman & Saks, 2011). For this reason, the company could have ensured that SMART goals are set for every individual employee that they are supposed to achieve within a given time frame. Setting SMART goals for individual employees and linking them to the organizational goals will ensure that every individual employee of the company has a goal that they are expected to achieve, which effectively trigger increased efforts from every worker as they know that their performance would be measured based on the goals set within a specific time period. In addition to setting SMART goals for individual employees, O’Meara needs to support its staff. To enable them achieve greater results. Some of the support needed include the provision of the necessary resources, and skill development program through training to enable them acquire the skills to do their job (Heinrich & Marschke, 2009). Besides, it is expressly stated in the case that O’Meara’s Performance Management System is based on customer relations, as employees of the company strive to develop innovative products that meet the needs of customers. It became evident that most staff believes that the systems and practices in place at O’Meara Electronics is lacking in terms of processes and activities to manage performance. This is also related to lack of systematic performance management approaches, because they only care about customer relations. It is acknowledgeable that customer is important and that companies should strive to ensure high customer satisfaction all the time. Nevertheless, performance management includes many other important aspects as well such as meeting the needs of investors and suppliers as well. Additionally, in the case study, it emerges that the employees and supervisors are not in good working terms as made clear by one of the staff members. It is stated in the case that supervisors are too afraid of criticisms from long-serving employees. At the same time, the company also faces a lot of resistance from employees who have been with the company since it was founded as demonstrated by Roberto an engineer who has been with the firm for more than 15 years. These issues present a challenge in the implementation of a performance system; thus needs to be addressed. It emerges from the case that the company is not concerned about how hardworking and well some of the employees do their jobs. This is counterproductive as it has an effect on the motivational level of employees. Having highly motivated workforce has been linked to greater productivity and organizational success (Hayes, 2014; Reb et al., 2014). In this respect, it has been found that, when employees are motivated in their job, they tend to increase their commitments and efforts towards ensuring the realization of organizational goals and objectives (Kim, 2009). According to Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory, there are two factors that affect employee motivation in the workplace, which he calls motivators and hygiene factors. Motivators are work factors whose provision increases the satisfaction level or a worker while hygiene factors are those factors that when lacking can produce dissatisfaction (Špalková et al., 2015). In the case of O’Meara performance management, it emerges that the company does not recognize the efforts put by some of the employees. Besides, the company does not provide incentives for higher result and this is likely to cause dissatisfaction among its employees in line with Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Consequently, lack of motivation to work hard to achieve higher result would result in poor performance of the company. 3.0 Comparing Two Performance Management Systems and Practices The case study presents a variety of performance management systems and practices as they pertain to managing the performance of O’Meara staff. The first performance management system in the case is the All Day performance management system. The All day forum performance management system brings together the members of O’Meara staff are given a chance to discuss performance issues. The other performance management system is the All Staff forum. This performance management system gives staff of the company to discuss their performance goal (Demartini, 2013). The All Staff system is an effective performance management system that O’Meara as it gives the employees a chance to discuss their performance issues that they feel needs to be addressed to ensure productivity and success of the company. For instance, the All Staff forum gave the staff of the opportunity to discuss their goals and those of the company and this helped highlight performance areas that needs to be improved to get the best from the employees (Özgen et al., 2010). However, considering that both All Day and All Staff perform management systems are effective in managing the performance of employees; O’Meara should consider using a hybrid of the two for optimum benefits. Using a hybrid would also ensure that any shortcoming associated with either or the performance management systems are compensated with another. 4.0 Conclusion Performance management is an important practice that any company that hopes to succeed in the 21st century complex and fast changing business environment must embrace. Performance management ensures that employees perform to standards and that organizational objectives are achieved. However, the case study O’Meara is experiencing declining profitability and market position a situation that is caused mainly by poor performance management. Therefore, to improve the company’s performance, the management should consider improving with regards to its performance management systems and practices. In particular, it would be beneficial for the company to implement a hybrid of MBO, performance appraisal and 360 degree feedback methods. 5.0. Recommendations The following are recommended based on the case analysis. First, to effectively manage the performance of its staff, O’Meara should consider adopting performance appraisal, management by objective and 360 degree feedback method to assess how staff are performing and to identity any skill gap that needs to be addressed through training (Basu, 2015; Gallagher, 2008; Kanaslan & Iyem, 2016). Second, the company needs to ensure that SMART goals are set for the employees as this would promote had work from the employees. 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Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press. Simpson, M. R. (2009). Engagement at work: A review of the literature. International Journal of Nursing Studies 46, 1012-1024. Špalková, D., Špaček, D., & Nemec, J. (2015). Performance management and performance appraisal: Czech self-governments. NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, 8(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2015-0009 Appendix Performance Management Systems Read More