Q51664 What are the key reasons behind the move from performance appraisal to performance management?

Answer:

The contemporary organizations are undergoing a transformation for coping against the changing needs of the environment and excelling in the business by building up their adaptive capabilities for managing change proactively. The traditional performance appraisal system did not suffice the needs of the changing scenario as it was mainly used as a tool for employee evaluation in which the managers were impelled to make subjective judgments about the performance and behavior of the employees against the predetermined job standards.

Performance appraisal is a systematic evaluation of present potential capabilities of personnel and employees by their superiors, superior’s or a professional form outside. It is a process of estimating or judging the value, excellent qualities or status of a person or thing. It is a process of collecting, analyzing, and evaluating data relative to job behavior and results of individuals.

Traditionally, the performance appraisals were organized in a bureaucratic manner and suffered from unnecessary delays in decisions and corruption. Performance appraisals were mostly narrowly focused and functioned in isolation without bearing any linkage with the overall organizational vision or goals. The side effects of the performance appraisal system was it generated skepticism amongst the managers and the employees on any new initiative of the HR.

In the present scenario, the organizations have shifted their focus from performance appraisals to performance management as a result of internationalization of human resources and globalization of business. The functions of HRM have become far more complicated as today the major focus of strategic HRM practices is on the management of talent by implementing such development programmes which enhance the competencies of the employees. The performance management approach focuses more on observed behaviors and concrete results based on the previously established smart objectives. By adopting techniques like Management by Objectives (MBO), smart objectives are established in terms of either facts and figures and in the entire process the superior plays the role of a coach or a facilitator. The objectives are mutually decided at the beginning of the performance season and serve as a standard of performance for evaluation. In this method, the employees can offer a feedback on their contributions by filling up a self appraisal form. Performance management is a much broader term in comparison with performance appraisal as it deals with a gamut of activities which performance appraisals never deal with. This system is a strategic and an integrated approach which aims at building successful organizations by developing high performance teams and individuals and improving the performance of people. This process starts when a job is defined. Performance management emphasizes on front end planning instead of looking backward unlike performance appraisals and the focus is on ongoing dialogue instead of appraisal documents and ratings. Thus, performance management may be regarded as a continuous process.

The use of performance management in the best-practice companies is not because it is a better technique than performance appraisal, but because it can form one of a number of integrated approaches to the management of performance.

ed010d383e1f191bdb025d5985cc03fc?s=120&d=mm&r=g

DistPub Team

Distance Publisher (DistPub.com) provide project writing help from year 2007 and provide writing and editing help to hundreds student every year.