New Directions in Performance Management

A Written Report
Presented to Dr. Ernesto B. Arpon
Angeles University Foundation
Graduate School

By:
JHANSSEN T. TAN
D.B.A./Ph.D.

August 2019
New Directions in Performance Management by Stephen Bach

Comprehensive Summary of the Text

In the first part of the chapter, there was a discussion regarding the evolution of

practices in the human performance appraisal issues and that there was a rising

concern when it comes to the ideas of human resource management and organizational

performance coming together. The evolutions in this field of study is showing nothing

but a continuous improvement when it comes to managing performance of people, and

that it is not just a mere “order from top management must be followed by subordinates,

nothing more, nothing less” type of organizing anymore. These evolutions have also

rendered the study of performance management as a broader and multifaceted field.

Basically saying that organizations have now transferred to the idea of performance

management instead of mere performance appraisal, wherein appraisal, although the

pivotal one, is just one of the contributing factors to the overall spectrum of performance

management.

Nowadays, performance appraisal has become one of the key motivators for

employers to their employees to achieve the overall goals of various organizations, and

it is not anymore a one time, big time thing. People are now expecting more than just

being paid semi-monthly and long to experience being valued by the organization that

they stand for. People want development and growth and are not anymore merely

satisfied with monetary benefits. This idea has its roots from the fact that organizations

today operate on levels of environment that are far more competitive than before and
are rapidly changing. Furthermore, there is also the different external pressures such as

the government which firms all over the world must abide by.

Responsibilities of different lower level managers have grown immensely and

performance management is a tool being used by the many managers all over the world

to align the individual objectives of each subordinate with the main goals of the

organization as a whole. Basically, there must be a systematic way wherein the

individual doings of each employee would be linked with the overall performance of the

organization, with this way being dominated by line managers instead of the human

resource managers. Further, it is through this way wherein the most effective forms of

communication with the subordinates are being exercised.

Researchers Armstrong and Baron posited five ideas, which are said to be the

main values of the study and application of performance management. The first one

being a proper form of communication wherein there is a shared idea among all of the

employees of the organization regarding its values and purpose. Secondly, there must

be an exact and clear parameter in place wherein the expectations of how things must

be done and what outputs are to be expected. Further, and complementing the

aforementioned idea, employers must ensure that their people are fully aware of what

high performance is and what constitutes to it. Next, employers must be dedicated in

the process of enhancing factors such as engagement, participation, motivation, and

commitment by simply recognizing the different endeavors that people within the

organization are facing and giving them the proper feedback. Finally, there must be the
ability for people for personal monitoring, with the encouragement of conversations and

brainstorming as to how things can be done to improve the individual performances of

people, contributing to the organizational performance as a whole.

In the contemporary times, a premium is placed on the measurement of

behaviors that are in accordance with the emotional intelligence. The idea behind this is

hanging on the assumption that managers are more effective when they are people who

bear characteristics such as enthusiasm, self-assurance, honesty, and even empathy.

Further, there is an inclination to ownership of the process of performance management

by employees. What this means is that employees are now more active than ever when

it comes to performance goal establishment and would not want to be merely passive

receivers of feedback from the upper ranks. Although today, there is still a dilemma

regarding the effectivity of performance management, with various researches

throughout the years showing reluctance among employees as to its overall effectivity,

and surprisingly, even many employers have the perception that their own performance

management systems are overly trustworthy.

A factor coming into play with this is the fact that the transitioning from mere

performance appraisal to performance management carries with it an intricate system

that are sometimes burdened by objectives that are conflicting with each other. Instead

of performance management systems being able to encourage openness, it becomes

counter productive in the sense that it tries to enforce patronage rather than the idea of

meritocracy. Thus, it would be safe to say that performance management in itself is not
an exact science and cannot be the answer to everything. As a result, performance

management systems do not necessarily deliver expected results and are being

revamped more often than not, basically diminishing its credibility. Although it is still

highly believed that performance management systems would help managers create

clear and valid goals that can be specified into smaller objectives that would be for the

perusal of the employees within the organization.

On the matter of appraisal, it has been established that this is an age old issue

and has only been during the contemporary times wherein retaliation have been

imminent and employees and many scholarly critics have now voiced out their concerns

and criticisms regarding this practice. Some were saying that it was counterproductive

in the sense that it demotivated people, with one even calling performance appraisal a

disease. Despite these criticisms, performance appraisal remains to be one of the

biggest factors in performance management and it still has flourished even until today.

In fact, there were researches saying that performance appraisal was able to determine

how hard employees work. This then makes the purpose of appraisal apparent: to have

a fair allocation when it comes to increases in payment for performance and for the

management to have, at the very least, control over their people. This is important,

especially for the human resource, because the appraisal system validates information

that they have about employees.

The question then stands, who is being appraised? The answer to this simply are

the employees. The appraisers? The managers. Although the scope of the people who
are covered by performance appraisals have remarkably grown overtime, and this is

due mainly to the changes that are happening rapidly in the workforce composition. This

now begs for the question, what is being appraised? Historically speaking, performance

appraisals were mainly based on what is said to be an assumption that is heavily

associated with common sense; common sense in what is said to be the skills that are

needed to have effective and efficient performance. Although this kind of approach was

criticized heavily and has resulted to many alterations that have been inculcated with

the appraisal system all throughout the years. In more modern times, what is mainly

being appraised are employee factors that are in accordance with the objectives and

their behavior, which is said to be more quantifiable, and this approach has become

dominant among many companies all over the world. Although this approach was also

never short of different criticisms.

One of the greatest criticisms about the appraisal system is it basically creates a

paradox since many appraisal systems being applied are conflicting and are defeating

the very purpose of why they are there in the first place. Another sustained criticism is

that managers may have the reluctance to rate employees poorly because it could be

deemed as “playing god” and there is always the natural feeling that managers want to

maintain collegial treatment and camaraderie among their people and adding bias, thus

diminishing the process’ credibility. Another overlooked factor that undermines the

appraisal process is the organizational sociology, primarily the demographics of race,

culture, and gender. These factors always result into doubts about the system and the

very idea that the whole topic stands for. Although different trainings are being given by
many employers to their managers to reduce the probability of biases being an

underlying factor to the performance appraisal system.

Further into criticisms, there are reports stating that a good number of employees

do not even know how appraisals are done. Employers thus have adapted many

measures that can be used to diminish the valid effect of subjectivity on this matter.

A premium has been placed, especially in modern times, on the idea of owning

the appraisal system—that is giving the employees the opportunity to evaluate

themselves. This ideology adds a fresher and more unique perspective on the whole

system and even contributes to having greater activity from both the reviewers and the

reviewees.

On the matter of what is said to be the radical criticism, many critique that the

problems emerging from the performance appraisals are rooted from improper

management control. One radical criticism about performance appraisal is that instead

of it being actually able to gauge employee performance within the workplace, what it

actually does is give out glaring examples as to what the management is doing wrong.

Another radical perspective is that performance appraisal is actually a manipulation tool

by the management to have full control of how the employees behave within the

workplace. Another is that this tool is used by the management mainly to legitimize

favoring a specific employee. All these radicalized views of the system have inclinations
towards the study of Foucault wherein he posited his ideas regarding appraisal and it

being complementary to electronic and personal surveillance systems.

To end, these criticisms about the appraisal system are nothing more but

criticisms. Although these critiques have been a way to actually validate claims and

become corrective actions for the existing norms of the appraisal systems that are being

applied by various companies all over the world.

Due to the different criticisms of performance appraisal being a top-to-bottom

thing wherein only the managers are being able to give their critiques to their

subordinates, there have been many developments such as the 360-degree feedback

wherein it performance appraisal is now being done in a more well-rounded manner

with the inclusion of appraisals by an employee’s peers, subordinates, internal

customers, and even the employee himself or herself. This kind of evolution is rooted

from the rapidly changing environments in the workplace and the belief that this kind of

system can be used to overcome many of the aforementioned lapses of the traditional

appraisal systems. Furthermore, this kind of appraisal system is dominantly being

utilized in the service sector because the output that they are able to produce are

almost always innately intangible. This kind of overall view is able to supplement the

traditional way of appraising and it enables the managers to see more of what is

happening, their strengths and weaknesses and that of their subordinates. Although of

course, this revolutionary way of appraising is not devoid of many criticisms, with the

most prominent of it being the question on the degree of anonymity. But it must be taken
into consideration that this kind of system is relatively more effective when utilized in the

so-called high trust organizations. But it must be mentioned that most of the

commentaries regarding this kind of system are mostly positive.

How is it applied in my industry?

What is being applied in my industry mostly is what was said in the latter part of

the text regarding the 360-degree feedback. It is true that this kind of feedback is more

useful in the service industry since the outputs that we are able to provide to our

stakeholders are almost always intangible. In our company, Tai Woo Chinese

Restaurant, aside from the traditional way of the appraisal system, the peer reviewing

and customer feedback is and had been done in the past. This enables the

management to have a basic but comprehensive quantifiable view on how employees

are being appraised.

I do agree with many of the criticisms but the problem is that these criticisms are

not able to provide better solutions and just merely criticize. Although this is not to say

that the criticisms posited are without merit. What I am trying to point out is that there

are not many more effective ways as to how the appraisal process could be done and

this evolution to the 360-feedback is one of the more effective ways on how appraisal is

to be done, especially in our organization which is operating in the service industry.

From and To

In our organization, I would say that we are more on the newer side of the

performance management spectrum, and I could say that the two companies that I am

working with are both applying the newer models. The systems that are being used

today in both organizations that I am with are mostly inclined with peer reviewal and the

360-degree feedback. Although I am of the opinion that many of the newer programs

are actually results of the collegial way of the contemporary performance management

systems, and all of those idea that are presented under the “to” column are actually

inherent with the collegial way.

Current Developments in the Field of Performance Management

On the matter of new trends in the performance management schemes being

employed by many organizations all over the world, one of the topics that are

prominently rising is the wellbeing of employees. This kind of scheme places value on

factors such as workloads, different stresses, and anxiety problems that may reside

within the minds of the employees. (Hearn, 2018) I would personally say that this kind of

appraisal scheme would be a morally upright and noble way of performance

management, but it would be difficult in the sense that many of the managers anywhere

in the world are not actually trained when it comes to dealing with employees that are

suffering from many psychological problems such as depression, stress, and anxiety

and it would be difficult to have quantifiable variables that would accurately depict what

is expected of this new system.

 Another factor that is being looked at by many human resource managers all

over the world is people analytics. This is said to become an indispensable trait when it

comes to management since the workplace scenario is adding more in to itself when it

comes to complexity. (Mizne, 2019) I agree that because of the many intricacies that

modern jobs are calling for, it must also be taken into consideration that newer systems

must be implemented. This of course is for modern performance management schemes

to have a hold over the many demands that are appealed for by the employees. The

more competitive the employees are, the more competitive the performance

management systems must be.

According to Pollock (2018), in the more modern times, a call for what is termed

as “agile performance management” is on the rise. What this calls for is agility in the

process in the sense that the system becomes more efficient and lighter than the

traditional performance management systems. This kind of agility has resulted in many

positive turnouts for many globally known companies such as Adobe. Basically, what

this agile system calls for is for management to create a personalized solution that

would be flexible and could meet specified demands. It would seem difficult but it works.

A way that is being promoted by this agile system is revisiting the goals that has been

set by the company more than once a year. It helps renew the mindset of employees.

Another is that there must be coaching and feedback conversations instead of the

strictly followed yearly feedback giving. Performance discussions is a must and should

be ongoing all throughout the year.

 Wholley (2018) supports the aforementioned idea. Management is a living and a

breathing subject and it is eternally changing. The traditional ways, even if they are still

the basis, may not work as effectively as they did back in the day. Agile performance

management—a system wherein there is increased flexibility, innate adaptability, and

inherent ease of change—must already be implemented. This kind of ideology was

mentioned in the latter part of the text that was posited by Stephen Bach: a modernized

system wherein there is increased interaction and the employees basically having a say

to the overall performance management process. This highlights the idea of a 360-

degree system wherein it is not only the managers having a say to the appraisal.

So what lies ahead in the inevitable practice of performance management

systems? According to Ewenstein et al. (2016), the corporate culture’s absurdities are

being epitomized by the annual performance evaluation and appraisal schemes. This is

not a new issue. What happens is that a perception of demotivation, eternal subjectivity,

and unnecessary time consumption is instilled within the minds of people and this surely

is unhelpful. Even if the concepts of performance management did not fundamentally

change, a continuous evolution is happening. Approaches are now becoming more and

more macro than micro. This may be the thing for the many years that lie ahead. Every

new generation of employees would have different needs and wants and it would be

foolish to not evolve with the times. As company culture and intricacy of the playing field

becomes more and more apparent, a change in the system is also needed.
 A more employee-friendly measure is being the go-to when it comes to the brand

new performance management systems. What this means is that companies have long

veered away from the subjective annual performance judgment and have engaged

themselves with the wellbeing of their employees in the sense that a performance

check-up is being done every once in a while and employees now have bigger say as

self-evaluation practices are being expanded. A current trend now is that employees are

able to have an opportunity to determine what their best contributions are to the overall

goal of the company. Micro management metrics are being voided because they are not

employee-friendly and are eternally subjective, with the different contentions that many

behaviors portrayed by employees while at work are not even quantifiable in the first

place.

Performance management systems must be able to adapt with the changing

times. Companies must adapt to the current trends and must learn from the different

criticisms and mistakes of the past. It would be very difficult, and might even border the

impossible, to actually design a system that would be a one-size-fits-all. Each and every

individual employee differs with each other in many aspects and this would be key

factors in the outputs that they are able to produce. To conclude, many researches done

in more recent times have shown that increased employee engagement has been a key

for better performing employees and a more effective performance management

system. Increasing opportunities for growth have been great drivers for manager-

employee relational success. In a landscape that is ever changing, one key is being

adaptable and reluctance to change is an old adage that must be trashed.


 Bibliography

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