Improving organisational performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Improving organisational performance - Essay Example 451) Although there is no universal definition of performance management, but still conceptually performance management can be defined as the process which is used by the supervisors or organizational managers to gain a fair understanding of the goals, work expectations and feedbacks. This also helps the mangers to recognize the training and development opportunities and evaluate performance results. In simple terms performance management is all about improving the individual and organizational performance. It is a process that links people and jobs; provides fair understanding of what is to achieved by one and how and performance management is also a process to ensure that people are doing the required things in the most effective way possible as per the individual ability. Performance management process is a medium through which the managers and the employees join forces to improve the level of work satisfaction and results. However, the performance management system is likely to b e most effective when the managers and the employees work a cohesive unit and both play an active role. Today in the middle of a highly competitive business environment one of the most critical success factors for some of the major global firms happen to be the high performance management system. Today most of the organizations are looking to make a shift from the traditional to effective high performance business models. High performance work systems or HPWS happen to be companies that tend to opt for a different approach in case of organizational management rather than going for the traditional hierarchical approach. Some prominent industrial psychologists and organizational behaviour experts suggest that the High performance work systems have the ability to provide long term sustained competitive advantages. Later in the paper through a multiple case study approach, it would discuss how two of the major multinational companies implemented the High performance work system to great effect. The organizations in focus would be GE and Toyota Motors (Armstrong and Baron, 2005, p. 301) Conceptual Frameworks Performance management is actually a process as well as a framework that companies use to communicate some important messages to the employees. The performance management process framework includes four different stages (Beardwell and Holden, 2010, p. 291) The performance planning includes the plan for the upcoming years in areas such as the standards and expectations for the job; performance and development goals. During the next step i.e. the day to day coaching and feedback the managers and employees discuss about performance on regular basis. Here it needs to say that the regular discussions go beyond the formal reviews and meetings. They share feedbacks about the success of the employees as well as the areas where the employees may need certain improvement. During the process the mangers also seek the inputs of the employees regarding results and the work process. The reviewing and the review and appraisal phase usually happen on a quarterly basis. (Holbeche, 2005, p. 299). This should ideally occur at least once in every quarter. The main focus of