Employee Performance Research Proposal

Developmental organizations embrace performance management processes that enable employees to become their greatest asset. When managers function as performance coaches, they become trainers, confronters, mentors, and counselors, providing positive feedback and reinforcement to improve skills and competencies that ultimately enhance overall employee performance. Performance management functions as an integral part of a comprehensive development strategy, although too few organizations subscribe to this philosophy (Gilley & Maycunich 2000). . Hence, the business world overflows with mediocre, stagnant, or failing organizations that stubbornly or ignorantly overlook their employees' potential. We believe that well-designed and well-executed performance management provides an excellent vehicle for promoting continuous employee and organizational growth and development (Gilley & Maycunich 2000).   Developmental leaders rely on performance-oriented principles to help their organizations achieve the business results needed and to improve employee performance and productivity through continuous growth and development. These three principles performance partnership, organizational performance improvement, and effective communication provide a foundation for excellence by allowing leaders to communicate their expectations in a clear, motivating, and inspirational manner. Developmental leaders possess effective communication skills that enhance their ability to deliver performance feedback, conduct performance appraisals, confront poor performance, and provide career counseling and mentoring. As a result, their communication skills improve employee performance, productivity, and willingness to participate in growth and development activities that enable the organization to achieve desired business results (Gilley & Maycunich 2000).   Development aims to improve employee knowledge, skills, and competencies for current or future jobs. Since employee performance and organizational productivity are impacted by developmental activities, it makes sense to hold the same people responsible for all three areas. Human resource professionals are not held accountable for employee performance and productivity because the organization does not ask them to explain why performance, productivity, or quality decline. Logically, then, development should be managers' responsibility since they are the only organizational members held accountable for employee performance and firm productivity (Gilley & Maycunich 2000).  Managers judge their subordinates during formal performance appraisals, evaluating quality, measuring performance, and discussing strategies for improvement and development. Given these responsibilities, it makes sense that managers are held responsible for development (Gilley & Maycunich 2000).  The employee performance is measured by various people in a company through different means. Every employee's performance should be monitored and evaluated so that the weak spots they have can be analyzed and given proper solutions. Hr Practices Human resources play a critical role in developing and implementing organizational strategies and structures. Successful HR professionals will be those who can align their organizational HR practices with the unique demands of team-based organizational structures. In addition to recognizing and adapting the assumptions on which they base their practices, HR professionals must also modify those practices to support teams. The practices to be modified cluster in five areas: recruitment and selection; task design; training; evaluation; and compensation. Working effectively in a team requires a particular set of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that were not as critical in traditional organizations. During recruitment, organizations aspiring to create a workforce of effective team members should clearly communicate the importance of these proficiencies (Korman & Kraut 1999).   The second set of practices that must be modified relate to task design. Effective teams are designed around the tasks they perform. Two key considerations are that teams should be relatively self contained and handle many aspects of their own functioning. First, teams should be collectively responsible for an identifiable and substantial part of the work of the organization. To the extent possible, support services should be included in the team so that it has the resources necessary to accomplish its goals (Korman & Kraut 1999).  Training constitutes a third set of practice modifications for effective team implementation. There is often a mistaken belief that people who are highly educated have the basic skills to work effectively in team settings. In fact, highly specialized individuals are often used to working alone and may lack some of the basic interpersonal skills necessary for collaboration. Training programs designed for interpersonal skills in teams take one of two approaches that includes traditional classroom instruction in which a lecturer delivers material about techniques or strategies for working in teams and creative off-site team-building sessions in which teams participate in athletic, artistic, or competitive activities unrelated to their actual day-to-day responsibilities (Korman & Kraut 1999).   A fourth set of practices that must be modified involves evaluation. If organizations wish to motivate teamwork, they must incorporate teamwork KSAs into their appraisal systems. It is important that the appraisal system not only reward good team players but also discourage behaviors that are not conducive to team effectiveness. An organization-specific job analysis should be conducted to determine the precise nature of the behavioral and performance measures to be included in the appraisal form for each individual team member. A final set of HR practices that should be examined when implementing teams pertains to compensation. Good practices for rewarding team performance require good processes for defining what the performance should be and for measuring and evaluating the performance (Korman & Kraut 1999). The HR practices dictate the performance of the employees.  An HR practice that is based on proper governance provides good employees that any company can rely upon. Changes in workforce Organizations are downsizing, restructuring, merging, and reinventing themselves. Mid-level management layers are diminishing. Functions are being eliminated and replaced by online automation and networked infrastructures. Knowledge workers with technological and people skills must manage processes and themselves in cyberspace with speed, efficiency, and accuracy. These and other changes continue to impact the relationships, rights, and obligations between employee stakeholders and organizations. Organizations saw their workforce as permanent, and tried to build loyalty among employees by making financial investments in training and by providing guaranteed long-term employment (Sims 2003). Employees were committed to the organization and expected steady advancement up the corporate ladder. The seeds of change are taking root, and with these changes new social contracts are developing between organizations and their members. No longer is the traditional social contract that once existed between the organization and the employee valid. Changes like those cited thus far have profoundly changed the ways in which organizations and their employees relate (Sims 2003).    Three decades ago, employees stayed in the same company for years, and those companies rewarded that loyalty by offering job stability, a decent wage, and good benefits. Today's typical worker has had nine jobs by the age of 30. The workforce of today is more mobile, less loyal, and more diverse. Their trust in their employers has eroded over the past twenty years to the point where only 38 percent of employees surveyed felt their employer was committed to them. Today's employees aren't looking for a promise of lifetime employment. Instead, they are seeking competitive pay and benefits coupled with opportunities for professional growth (Sims 2003). They want employers who provide them with opportunities, recognize their accomplishments, and communicate openly and honestly. These workforce changes have contributed to a newly emerging social contract between employers and employees. Employee stakeholders today are more sensitive about employee rights Issues because of experiences like those of the new hires and the new social contract. Employee rights may be afforded on the basis of economic, legal, or ethical sources of justification. Failure to understand and effectively manage the rights of employees can create many ethical dilemmas for organizations and further strain the social contract with employees (Sims 2003).   Many social investors are concerned about the ethics, social responsibility, and reputation of organizations in which they invest; and a growing corps of brokers, financial planners, portfolio managers, asset management, and mutual funds have made themselves available to help investors evaluate investments and purchase stock in ethical organizations for their social impacts (Sims 2003). As the world changes so thus the situation in the workplace changes particularly the attitudes of personnel. Personnel of this generation have changed the way they beliefs with regard to employment and opportunities. The personnel of this generation is more peculiar on opportunities rather than loyalty. References Gilley, JW & Maycunich, A 2000, Beyond the learning organization: creating a culture of continuous growth and development through state of the art Human Resource Practices, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA.   Korman, AK & Kraut, AI (eds.) 1999, Evolving practices in Human Resource Management: responses to a changing world of work, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.   Sims, RR 2003 Ethics and corporate social responsibility: why giants fall, Praeger, Westport, CT.