HRIR 3021 - Final
Ch. 10 - Performance Management (25) - correct answer ✔✔
What is the definition of performance management and what is its purpose? (pgs 302-305) - correct
answer ✔✔- the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and outputs
contribute to the org's goals
- to meet 3 broad purposes: Strategic (help the org achieve business objectives), Administrative (ways in
which orgs use the system to provide info for day-to-day decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition
programs), Developmental (a basis for developing employees' knowledge and skills)
What are the steps in the performance management process? How is this different from the traditional
model? (pgs 302-303) - correct answer ✔✔1. Define performance outcomes for company division and
department
2. Develop employee goals, behavior, and actions to achieve outcomes
3. Provide support and ongoing performance discussions
4. Evaluate performance
5. Identify improvements needed
6. Provide consequences for performance results.
- TRADITIONAL = few goals, may be vague, might have job description -> little feedback from supervisor -
> annual appraisal
,Compare and contrast types of performance measures, subjective and objective. For instance: What's
wrong with rating traits and attributes vs behaviors? - correct answer ✔✔Absolute:
- essays: written account of performance
- behavior checklists: 1-7 where you fall
- critical incidents: something excellent, something that didn't do well
- graphic rating scales: similar to checklist, excellent to poor and points along the scale
Results:
- MBO: objectives and review goals
Be able to identify the five criteria to evaluate an effective performance evaluation system. - correct
answer ✔✔COMPARATIVE:
-simple ranking: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place
-alternating: top, second, third, bottom
-forced distribution:10% exceed, 10% unsatisfactory
-paired comparison.
-PROS: easy to explain, simple, results are clear to employees, easier to determine rewards, identifies
top, mediocre, poor and under-performers, forcers managers to evaluate performance
-CONS: may not be specific enough, no info on relative difference, may be difficult to rank similar
performance levels, can be time consuming, specific issues
ATTRIBUTE: graphic rating scale, mixed-standards scale.
BEHAVIORAL: critical-incident method, behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS), organizational
behavior modifications (OBM).
RESULTS: sales, costs, productivity.
QUALITY: MBO, goals/specific
, STRATEGY?
Know the types of performance information (i.e. trait/attribute-based) - correct answer ✔✔TRAIT-BASED
INFORMATION: attitude, teamwork, initiative, creativity, values, dispositions.
BEHAVIOR-BASED INFORMATION: customer satisfaction, verbal persuasion, timeliness of response,
citizenship/ethics, effective communication.
RESULTS-BASED INFORMATION: sales volume, cost reduction, units produced, improved quality.
Understand the different evaluation methods (simple ranking, forced distribution, graphic rating scales,
BARS, MBO, 360 reviews) and their benefits and disadvantages and how they fit with strategy (don't
worry too much about the criteria of validity, reliability, acceptability and specificity) (pgs 305-316) -
correct answer ✔✔SIMPLE RANKING: requires managers to rank employees in their group from the
highest performer to the poorest performer (con-doesn't define what exactly is good or bad about the
person).
FORCED DISTRIBUTION: assigns a certain percentage of employees to each category in a set of categories
(overcomes the temptation to rate everyone high in order to avoid conflict, can be difficult to assigning
employees to the bottom categories).
- pros: easier to determine pay increases, good if competition is a desired value, forces managers to
make distinctions between top, average, and poor performers
- cons: assumes employee performance is normally distributed, may discourage teamwork and increase
competition, unpopular, if you have only top performers, it's problematic.
GRAPHIC RATING SCALE: lists traits and provides a rating scale for each trait (con-it leaves to the
particular manager the decisions about what is "excellent knowledge" or "commendable judgement" or
"poor interpersonal skills").
BARS: rates behavior in terms of a scale showing specific statements of behavior that describe different
levels of performance (con-can bias the manager's memory).
MBO: people at each level of the org set goals in a process that flows from top to bottom, so employees
at all levels are contributing to the orgs overall goals; these goals become the standards for evaluating