1JM11: Performance Enhancement
Topic 1: Performance Management, Murphy vs. Pulakos
Paper 1: “Performance Management can be fixed: an on-the-job experiential learning approach for complex behavior
change.” (Pulakos, Hanson, Arad & Moye, 2015)
Paper 2: “Performance evaluation will not die, but it should.” (Murphy, 2020)
Things Murphy and Pulakos agree on
Frustration with PM systems
- Managers: 95% are dissatisfied with their PM systems.
- Employees: 59% feel PM reviews are not worth the time invested.
- 56% did not receive feedback on what to improve.
- Almost 90% of human resources (HR) heads: their PM systems do not yield accurate information.
Common problems
- Cascading goals
- SMART goals difficult (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely)
- Demotivating to have one rating on performance
- Administrative load
PM systems measure poorly performance
- Jobs are complex
- Politics
- Subjective
- 2/3 of variance in performance ratings explained by irrelevant factors such as unique rater biases
- Poor reliability between ratings .50 (need at least .70)
Assessing performance and training needs at the same time
- Both at the same time: bad idea. When evaluating performance people get defensive and focus only on rating.
- All employees get above average ratings.
- Different needs:
o Performance evaluation: averageness in profiles
o Training need: variance in profiles
More coaching, less evaluation
Leaders should…
- Murphy: consideration (inspire) and structure (goals)
- Pulakos: inspire, adapt, align, grow, career conversations
,Things Murphy and Pulakos do not agree on
Feedback:
- Both agree this is bad.
- Pulakos (see Figure): more recognition.
- Murphy: feedforward, past positive experiences, not more feedback
What to do with PM systems?
- Pulakos: PM systems should be reformed, 5 steps
- Murphy: PM systems should be removed completely, use energy for coaching
Take home message: management of the future
- Be very careful when using PM systems: Rating useful?
- Think outside the box: How to use PM forms?
- Make up your own mind: What works in your job?
,Topic 2: Organizational Conflict
Profit
Market share
Satisfaction
Turnover
Effectiveness
Production speed
Production quality
Sales
New products
Innovativeness
Creativity
Customer satisfaction
Conflict: Conflict occurs between two parties when at least one party perceives that the other opposes or frustrates
her/him. Team conflict: Perceived or observed incompatibilities among team members.
Types of conflict
Task
- Disagreements between team members regarding the content of the task.
- “The discussion was about how to correctly calculate relative capacity utilization. We couldn’t agree. Everyone
had his or her own viewpoint and argued for it.”
Relationship
- Interpersonal incompatibilities between team members about issues not related to the task/work.
- Deal with political views, what to wear or not, food preferences.
- “I simply cannot stand that woman!” (personality clashes)
Process
- About the means to accomplish the specific tasks, not about the content or substance of the task itself, but about
strategies for approaching the task (team logistics).
- Disagreements about the composite of a team and who should do what, debates about resources, and fights
about how to schedule tasks efficiently.
Consequences of team conflict
Individual
- Satisfaction
- Well-being
- Turnover intentions
Group
- Performance
- Cooperation
- Trust
Team conflict outcomes
Negative
- Ego-threat (“what do you mean X is better at Y than me?”) -> trust
- Cognitive processing perspective
- Distraction
Positive
- Increased task understanding, critical evaluation of ideas
- Increased clarity of roles and responsibilities
Teams may overcome negative consequences or teams may reap benefits of (some) conflict, if conflict is effectively
resolved or managed.
, Leadership & conflict
Leaders can manage team conflicts by intervening. There are just a few obstacles:
1. Power paradox (Peterson & Harvey, 2009)
a. Using power to manage conflict in groups for better rather than for worse.
b. Sources & types of conflict
i. Informational differences --> Task conflict
ii. Interests differences --> Process conflict
iii. Value differences --> Relationship conflict
c. Leaders need to adjust conflict management to different types
Power paradox
- Use of direct power may exacerbate conflict
o Conflict may shift towards leader
o Team members temporarily hide true opinions
o Disrupts team cohesion
- Use indirect power
o Conflict has a chance of resolution
o Team decision making & higher quality of team interaction
Strategies to leverage potential benefits (& minimizing risks of conflict)
- Structuring the group
- Directing inclusive group process
- Managing external boundaries
2. When and how to act (Nugent, 2002)
a. Managing conflict, third-party interventions for managers
b. Faced with conflict, managers may make errors:
i. Unnecessary intervention
ii. Inappropriate way of intervening
iii. Avoid action
c. Third-party roles (figure →)
d. Other variables to consider
i. Relationship between
conflicting parties
ii. Conflict issue (content or
emotional)
iii. Managers’ characteristics
iv. Managers’ relationship
with conflicting parties
e. Possible pitfalls
3. Perceptual distance (Gibson et al., 2009)
a. Differences between a leader and a team in perceptions of the same social stimulus
b. General hypothesis: the larger the agreement between leader-team the higher team performance
c. Collective cognition (CC) framework
i. CC = processes involved in gaining shared knowledge and comprehension as a team.
d. Perceptual leader-team differences negatively affect team effectiveness:
i. Are detrimental to collective cognition
ii. It inhibits team utilizing these catalysts: performance feedback, recognition of (constructive)
conflict, clarification of decision-making roles
e. Constructive conflict: belief that team is able to deal with conflict constructively
f. Leader: low ; Team: high. Unnecessary intervention (compare with Nugent, 2002 and Peterson, 2009)
CC Cycle
o Accumulation: acquisition, perception, filtering and storage of info
o Interaction: retrieving, exchanging, and structuring info
o Examination: negotiating, interpreting, and evaluating info
o Accommodation: integrating, deciding and acting on info