manager and the individual on expectations in relation to each of these headings.
Performance management is largely about managing such expectations.- A process – performance management is not just a system of forms and procedures.
It is about the action, which people take to achieve the day-to-day delivery of results
and manage performance improvements in themselves and others. - Shared understanding – to improve performance, individuals need to have a shared
understanding about how high levels of performance and competence look like and
how they should work towards it. - An approach to managing and developing people – performance management is
focused on three things. First, how managers and team leaders work effectively with
those around them. Second, how individuals work with their managers and with
their teams and third, how individuals can develop to improve their knowledge,
skills and expertise (their attributes) and their levels of competence and perform-
ance. - Achievement – ultimately, performance management is about the achievement of
job-related success for individuals so that they can make the best use of their abili-
ties, realise their potentials and maximise their contribution to the success of the or-
ganisation. - Owned and driven by line managers – performance management is a natural process
of management, not a procedure forced onto line managers by top management and
the personnel department.
Therefore, performance management should be seen as a collective responsibility of
employees and employers to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the tasks,
activities and jobs that are agreed upon for achieving the organisation’s vision, mission,
goals and objectives.
The environment for the evolution and development of performance
management
Performance management emerged in the late 1980s partly as a reaction to the negative
aspects of merit rating, management by objectives and performance appraisal but also
the growing knowledge on the experiences and lessons learned from strategic manage-
ment and strategic aspects of human resource management (Torrington et al. 2005;
Leopold et al. 2005; Hook & Foot 2008; Armstrong 2008). Factors that made perform-
ance management the best option for achieving individual and organisational objectives
are summarised into a number of key areas in human resource management:
- Increasing competition between businesses and the drive to cut down costs by
improving employee efficiency and effectiveness through better utilisation. - The decline of the power of trade unions noted in chapter 1 also led to the change in
working relationships. Individuals had to negotiate for a job and demonstrate how
best they could support the organisation in realising specific objectives and targets.
This formed the basis of performance agreement. - The acceptance of human resource management (HRM) as a strategic approach in
people management driven mainly by the American school. The strategic approach
to employee management brought line managers closer in developing performance
management strategies in their departments.