Reflect and review
Now that you have completed your work on Managing Performance, let us review our workbook objectives.
The first objectives were:
that you should be better able to identify ways of measuring performance levels; and
that you should be better able to describe a range of methods for measuring performance.
Performance measures should always be considered in relation to something: usually past performance, desired or expected future performance or the performance of something or somebody else.
You can judge the quality of performance using terms like ‘delicious’, but this may mean different things to different people. It is far better to use quantitative measures, because these give you a clear target to aim for and hopefully beat. Quantitative measures can be subdivided into financial measures (budgets and variances) and non-financial measures (times, weights, units of product or service, and so on).
Performance might also be measured against the economy in general or against the performance of competitors. Benchmarking is a useful technique: this compares performance with ‘best in class’ competitors or other departments.
By what means is the performance of your work team measured at present? Do you have budgetary targets, or time deadlines to meet, or a target number of things to process per day/week/month? If you just cope as best you can with unpredictable daily demand, suggest some ways in which you could take control by making more effort to measure various aspects of performance.
Do you know who is regarded as ‘best in class’ at what they do? If not, find out, and make a note of ways you could discover more about how they operate (e.g. buy their products and experience their performance levels for yourself).
The next workbook objective was:
that you should be better able to identify the differing objectives of stakeholders in the organization
Stakeholders can be divided into three types: internal stakeholders (employees), connected stakeholders (customers, suppliers, financiers), and external stakeholders (the government, the community). Each of these has their own objectives and they will judge the performance of you and your work team accordingly.
Describe your own stake in your organization.
Who are your internal customers and suppliers, and what are their objectives?
The next objective was
You should be better able to identify and agree performance objectives with the members of your work team.
One way of motivating both the team and its individual members is to establish clear objectives for them. To ensure objectives are clear, make them SMART – that is, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound. Don't try to draw up objectives without the involvement of the person or people they are intended for – if the objectives are to act as motivators, they must arise out of a process of discussion. They must also relate to organizational goals and objectives.
What are the organizational goals that I must take into account when drawing up team and individual objectives?
Finally, from your reading and understanding of the workbook, you are (we hope) better informed than you were. Your head is no doubt brimming with ideas about motivating the people who report to you. You may be sceptical of some of the theory and the ideas we've discussed, but you could do worse than try to apply them.
The following are the ideas which I intend to try out, in an effort to improve the motivation of my team members.
The next workbook objective was:
that you should be better able to select the ideal performance measure.
There is no single performance measure that suits everybody: it depends on who you are describing performance to and what their stake in the organization is. So the ideal way of measuring performance is the balanced scorecard approach, which considers performance from a variety of perspectives and tries to satisfy everyone.
Note down conflicts in the objectives of the different stakeholders in your part of the organization.
Now look at the list you have made above and decide who should win, from the point of view of your organization as a whole. (For instance, if your team wants less work and more pay, will that help your organization complete a job on time and within cost, and get more work in the future?) When you've done this, you should be able to prioritize the various performance measures that are applied to your department. Write a list, in order of importance, below.
The next workbook objective was:
that you should be better able to monitor performance against agreed targets.
To monitor performance you first need to decide what ‘performance’ actually means (by asking your stakeholders) and then quantify the key measures that demonstrate whether you are performing well or badly. An initial performance ‘standard’ can be set by finding out what is the average current performance. You will then aim to achieve or beat that standard all the time, not just some of the time. Monitoring will identify ‘exceptions’ – occasions when you failed to meet the standard – and you should investigate the reasons why this happened.
Non-financial information is very useful for investigating failures, but you have to have the information in the first place. What records do you and your work team currently keep that could be used in performance measurement? Don't forget to include things that are recorded automatically, like the dates of computer files.
Make a list of items of additional information about the activities of your work team that you could record, and then go through the list deciding whether it is actually worth recording that information. In other words, decide whether the benefits of having the information outweigh the cost (probably time) of recording it and analysing it.
The final workbook objective was:
that you should be better able to make recommendations for improvement in performance, or adjustments to more realistic targets.
Targets can't always be met, often because of circumstances beyond your control. If this is the case, the most important thing is to tell the people you are going to let down as early as possible, and agree a new target that you will be able to meet.
As a general rule, however, businesses should aim to improve continuously, and many adopt organization-wide initiatives such as Total Quality Management or ISO 9000 certification to achieve this.
When looking for areas of improvement, it is helpful to think in terms of inputs, processes and outputs. Think especially about whether things you currently do need to be done at all, whether you can integrate processes (combine them into one) or automate them somehow, and whether you can address people issues such as training and relationships with other departments.
What improvements have you made since you took charge of your work team? Make a note below, and concentrate on things that are quantified.
What improvements do the stakeholders in your part of the organization want to see in the future – over the next six months say? If you don't know, ask them (your staff, your own manager, your colleagues in other departments) and make a note of their responses below.
Use this plan to further develop for yourself a course of action you want to take. Make a note in the left-hand column of the issues or problems you want to tackle, and then decide what you intend to do, and make a note in column 2.
The resources you need might include time, materials, information or money. You may need to negotiate for some of them, but they could be something easily acquired, like half an hour of somebody's time, or a chapter of a book. Put whatever you need in column 3. No plan means anything without a timescale, so put a realistic target completion date in column 4.
Finally, describe the outcome you want to achieve as a result of this plan, whether it is for your own benefit or advancement, or a more efficient way of doing things.
Extension 1
| Book | Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results |
| Authors | Paul R Niven and Robert S Kaplan |
| Edition | 2002 |
| Publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
This book explains how an organization can measure and manage performance with the balanced scorecard methodology. It provides extensive background on performance management and the balanced scorecard, and focuses on guiding a team through the step-by-step development and ongoing implementation of a balanced scorecard system. It's also available as an e-book.
Extension 2
| Book | 101 Ways to Improve Business Performance |
| Author | Donald Waters |
| Edition | 1999 |
| Publisher | Kogan Page |
This book describes ideas for improving business performance, taking the view that the purpose of every organization is to make a product that satisfies customer needs. The text examines management support, product design, quality management, planning, equipment and logistics.
Extension 3
| Book | Understanding Organizations |
| Author | Charles B. Handy |
| Edition | 4th edition, 1999 |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
A general book on organizations, written by the famous Professor Handy, who has vast experience in the management field. The chapter called ‘On the motivation to work’ is the most relevant to our subject.
These Extensions can be taken up via your ILM Centre. They will either have them or will arrange that you have access to them. However, it may be more convenient to check out the materials with your personnel or training people at work – they may well give you access. There are other good reasons for approaching your own people; for example, they will become aware of your interest and you can involve them in your development.
Self-assessment 1
on pages 32–3
1 Here is an analysis that shows the total production and how much each factory contributes to the total, as a percentage.
| Quarter 1 | Quarter 2 | Quarter 3 | Quarter 4 | |
| Factory A | 31,200 63% | 31,000 62% | 34,300 68% | 29,800 48% |
| Factory B | 18,500 37% | 19,300 38% | 16,200 32% | 31,700 52% |
| 49,700 | 50,300 | 50,500 | 61,500 | |
From this you can see that the overall production is reasonably consistent for the first three quarters (about 50,000 units), with Factory A doing most of the work.
In the fourth quarter, production shoots up by about 10,000 units and the two factories do an almost equal amount of work, although in fact it is only Factory B which increases production by a significant amount.
The most likely reason for this is that we are not comparing like with like for the first three quarters. Factory B was probably smaller or less well-equipped, or had some other problems that affected its ability to produce more than 20,000 units. By the time we get to the fourth quarter, Factory B seems to have been brought up to the standard of Factory A.
2 If people keep leaving your organization to go to another job that may be an indication that morale is not very good.
Staff turnover is calculated by dividing the number of leavers by the total number of staff. For instance, if you have a team of 12 people and three leave during the year and are replaced, you have a staff turnover of 3/12 × 100% = 25%.
If people don't like coming to work that may be because of low morale. Absenteeism is measured by comparing the number of days or hours lost in the year compared with the total number of hours that people should have worked.
Your own management activity can also be used as a measure. You could keep a record of the number of times you have to step in to resolve conflicts between members of your team.
Your team members will have their own views and you could ask them to rate morale on a scale of 1 to 10, say.
You may have had other valid ideas.
3 Benchmarking is a good way of avoiding COMPLACENCY and it may give rise to NEW IDEAS.
The main interest of shareholders is to get a RETURN on their INVESTMENT, so PROFITABILITY is usually thought of as a commercial organization's prime objective.
The balanced scorecard looks at an organization from four different points of view.
a CUSTOMER
b INTERNAL
c INNOVATION AND LEARNING
d FINANCIAL
Self-assessment 2
on page 58
1 Your internal customers are the people, or groups of people, in your organization who need the work that you do to enable them to do their job.
2 An ideal standard is based on perfect operating conditions: no inefficiencies, no lost or wasted time, no machine breakdowns or computer crashes, no wasted or spoiled materials.
The disadvantage of an ideal standard is that it's almost impossible to achieve because not everything can be controlled. Staff will not be motivated to perform well if they can never reach the standard required.
3 a Monitoring performance is a way of keeping CONTROL over the
activities you are responsible for.
b When there is a variance from expected performance you should use measures to see where ERRORS, FAILURES AND DEFECTS occurred.
4 The most important thing is to be totally open about it. You should tell everyone who relies on your department's performance at the earliest opportunity that you won't meet your targets. This gives them the opportunity to make alternative arrangements.
5 Improvement should be continuous because:
if you just stand still your competitors will come out with a better product and take your share of the market;
technology is changing and advancing faster than ever before, creating new opportunities and making old ways of doing things obsolete;
customers have come to expect higher and higher quality.
6 Here are three possible ways to improve processes (other answers may be equally valid).
Integrate with other processes.
Automate routine tasks.
Consider whether they can be eliminated completely.
Self-assessment 3
on page 71
1 The principle behind the MICRO-DIVISION OF LABOUR is that jobs are broken down into the SMALLEST possible elements.
2 Job enrichment means designing jobs so that people have more SKILL VARIETY, TASK IDENTITY, AUTONOMY, TASK SIGNIFICANCE, and FEEDBACK FROM THE JOB. (In no particular order.)
3 JOB ROTATION involves switching people between a number of different jobs of relatively similar COMPLEXITY.
4 JOB ENLARGEMENT involves adding more TASKS of similar complexity to the job.
5 When jobs are broken down into very simple tasks that anyone can learn, the problem of staff turnover becomes unimportant: you ‘just recruit more people off the street’. This is TRUE – if the organization is prepared to live with high levels of staff turnover.
6 Job enrichment is very hard to implement, because it entails lots of training to do more complex tasks. This is SOMETIMES TRUE: the amount of training required depends on the people doing the job. Often, job enrichment involves no training.
7 Job enrichment programmes should be presented as opportunities, not demands. This is TRUE.
8 Small organizations can't implement job enrichment programmes, as they do not have the resources of large companies. This is FALSE.
9 The following ideas support the concept of job enrichment:
a Herzberg's theory that job interest is a motivator.
d McGregor's Theory Y: that people prefer to control themselves than be controlled from above.
e Hackman and Oldham's theories about the prerequisites for internal motivation.
Self-assessment 4
on pages 98–9
1 a ‘Get to know your team members well.’ is GOOD advice, because no two people are the same – we all have our little quirks.
b ‘Try to improve their working conditions.’ is GOOD advice only if working conditions are so bad that morale has deteriorated.
c ‘Give them more scope and more involvement.’ is GOOD advice because the opportunity to develop is often one of the major attractions of the job.
d ‘Watch them more closely, so they know you care about them.’ is generally bad advice; this is the opposite of increasing autonomy.
2 a This statement is FALSE. A SMART objective is specific rather than short.
b This statement is TRUE. One-to-one meetings are by far the best way of maintaining ongoing communication.
c This statement is FALSE. It is in fact best to give feedback immediately after a particular piece of work has been completed rather than wait for any length of time.
d This statement is TRUE. Feedback is more useful and better received if it focuses on specific situations rather than being general and vague.
3 ALL these can be said to be dangers involved in delegation, to some extent:
a That jobs will be delegated for things which the team leader must retain personal responsibility for – such as safety. This is a danger, because there are some jobs which the team leader can't afford to delegate.
b That jobs will be delegated which everyone finds boring and unrewarding. This is a danger, because it won't enrich anyone's work.
c That team members will not carry out the jobs correctly. This is a danger, if the leader doesn't give proper instruction, or doesn't monitor performance.
d That a team member will find the new job so rewarding that he or she will lose interest in other work. – This is a danger, and one which, in a sense is a danger of all job enrichment. Obviously, if people are to develop, they will want to progress to more interesting work.
4 You may have included:
controlling the pace of the work;
determining the order or sequence in which the work is done;
deciding how the work is done;
deciding when the work is done;
choosing the tools, equipment or materials used for the job;
influencing the quality of work produced;
deciding where the work is done.
A possible set of answers is given in the following table. You may have included some that are more relevant to your own organization.
| Canteen facilities |
Drinking fountains |
| Sleeping bags and tents |
Rest rooms |
| Survival packs |
Coffee breaks |
Safety
| Safe working conditions |
Pension and sick pay schemes |
| Protective clothing |
Agreements on work procedures |
| First aid kits |
|
Love
| The chance to work in a group |
Rest rooms and canteen facilities |
| Social clubs, etc. |
where people can meet |
| The opportunity to help others |
|
Esteem
| Praise for work done |
Job title and its associated |
| Status symbols |
authority |
| Recognition as a valued employee |
Self-respect from achieving success at work |
Self-actualization
| Interesting work |
Challenging work |
| The chance to be creative |
The chance to develop skills and talents |
Answer 1 Measure the number of defective products: for instance three out of every 100 produced are not of the required quality.
Answer 2 Shareholders, suppliers, customers, financiers.
Answer 3 Stakeholders decide, especially customers.
Answer 4 If you have a numerical measure you have a very clear target to aim for and, if possible, beat.
Answer 5 When changes of a permanent nature occur, but not in response to temporary ‘blips’. For example, the standard time for doing a task using a certain piece of equipment might change when a new version of the equipment is acquired.
Answer 6 Job enlargement means giving more tasks of similar complexity.
Answer 7 Job rotation is giving people a variety of jobs of the same complexity.
Answer 8 A SMART objective is one that is specific, measurable, achievable, and time bound.
Answer 9 Jobs where job satisfaction is low; maintenance factors are costly; changes would not be expensive; lack of motivation is affecting performance.
Answer 10 Ways of having ongoing communication with staff include regular written reports, team meetings, one-to-one meetings, and informal conversations with staff as part of ‘management by walking around’.
Answer 11 The most basic principle about giving negative feedback is to balance it with some positive feedback.
Answer 12 Autonomy is ‘self-government’: the authority to do your job as you see fit.
Answer 13 You could have mentioned quite a number of things, including: following the principles of job enrichment; aiming to get the right kind of atmosphere; valuing effort and personal contribution; promoting the intrinsic worth of the job; making work fun.
Completion of this certificate by an authorized person shows that you have worked through all the parts of this workbook and satisfactorily completed the assessments. The certificate provides a record of what you have done that may be used for exemptions or as evidence of prior learning against other nationally certificated qualifications.
superseries
FIFTH EDITION
Workbooks in the series:
| Achieving Objectives Through Time Management | 978-0-08-046415-2 |
| Building the Team | 978-0-08-046412-1 |
| Coaching and Training your Work Team | 978-0-08-046418-3 |
| Communicating One-to-One at Work | 978-0-08-046438-1 |
| Developing Yourself and Others | 978-0-08-046414-5 |
| Effective Meetings for Managers | 978-0-08-046439-8 |
| Giving Briefings and Making Presentations in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046436-7 |
| Influencing Others at Work | 978-0-08-046435-0 |
| Introduction to Leadership | 978-0-08-046411-4 |
| Managing Conflict in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046416-9 |
| Managing Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046441-1 |
| Managing Customer Service | 978-0-08-046419-0 |
| Managing Health and Safety at Work | 978-0-08-046426-8 |
| Managing Performance | 978-0-08-046429-9 |
| Managing Projects | 978-0-08-046425-1 |
| Managing Stress in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046417-6 |
| Managing the Effective Use of Equipment | 978-0-08-046432-9 |
| Managing the Efficient Use of Materials | 978-0-08-046431-2 |
| Managing the Employment Relationship | 978-0-08-046443-5 |
| Marketing for Managers | 978-0-08-046974-4 |
| Motivating to Perform in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046413-8 |
| Obtaining Information for Effective Management | 978-0-08-046434-3 |
| Organizing and Delegating | 978-0-08-046422-0 |
| Planning Change in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046444-2 |
| Planning to Work Efficiently | 978-0-08-046421-3 |
| Providing Quality to Customers | 978-0-08-046420-6 |
| Recruiting, Selecting and Inducting New Staff in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046442-8 |
| Solving Problems and Making Decisions | 978-0-08-046423-7 |
| Understanding Change in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046424-4 |
| Understanding Culture and Ethics in Organizations | 978-0-08-046428-2 |
| Understanding Organizations in their Context | 978-0-08-046427-5 |
| Understanding the Communication Process in the Workplace | 978-0-08-046433-6 |
| Understanding Workplace Information Systems | 978-0-08-046440-4 |
| Working with Costs and Budgets | 978-0-08-046430-5 |
| Writing for Business | 978-0-08-046437-4 |
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