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Performance Management For Dummies

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Implement best-in-class performance management systems

Performance Management For Dummies is the definitive guide to infuse performance management with your organization's strategic goals and priorities. It provides the nuts and bolts of how to define and measure performance in terms of what employees do (i.e., behaviors) and the outcome of what they do (i.e., results) --both for individual employees as well as teams.

Inside, you'll find a new multi-step, cyclical process to help you keep track of your employees' work, identify where they need to improve and how, and ensure they're growing with the organization--and helping the organization succeed. Plus, it'll show managers to C-Suites how to use performance management not just as an evaluation tool but, just as importantly, to help employees grow and improve on an ongoing basis so they are capable and motivated to support the organization's strategic objectives.

  • Understand if your performance management system is working
  • Make fixes where needed
  • Get performance evaluation forms, interview protocols, and scripts for feedback meetings
  • Grasp why people make some businesses more successful than others
  • Make performance management a useful rather than painful management tool
  • Get ready to define performance, measure it, help employees improve it, and align employee performance with the strategic goals and priorities of your organization.

    ISBN-13: 9781119557654

    Media Type: Paperback

    Publisher: Wiley

    Publication Date: 05-29-2019

    Pages: 368

    Product Dimensions: 7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

    Herman Aguinis, PhD, is the Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management at The George Washington University School of Business in Washington, DC. He's been ranked among the top 100 most prolific and influential business and economics researchers in the world.

    Table of Contents

    Introduction 1

    About This Book 2

    Foolish Assumptions 3

    Icons Used in This Book 3

    Beyond the Book 3

    Where to Go from Here 4

    Part 1: Getting Started with Performance Management 5

    Chapter 1: Introducing Performance Management 7

    Why Do You Need Performance Management? To Succeed (of Course) 8

    Why performance management is alive and well 8

    Imagining an organization without performance management 10

    Making Performance Management Work in Your Business 10

    Distinguishing performance management from performance appraisal 10

    Adapting performance management to today’s reality 11

    Adapting performance management for different generations 14

    Designing and Implementing a Performance Management System 14

    Step 1: Establishing prerequisites 15

    Step 2: Planning performance 20

    Step 3: Executing performance 22

    Step 4: Assessing performance 23

    Step 5: Reviewing performance 25

    Chapter 2: Making the Case for Performance Management 29

    Using Performance Management to Achieve Multiple Purposes 30

    Strategic objectives 30

    Administrative objectives 30

    Informational objectives 30

    Developmental objectives 31

    Organizational maintenance objectives 31

    Documentation objectives 33

    Answering the “What’s in It for Me” Question 33

    Convincing top management of performance management’s value 34

    Building support in the entire organization 34

    Realizing the awesome benefits of performance management 36

    What an Ideal Performance Management System Looks Like 39

    Contextual issues: Making everything fit 39

    Practical issues: Striving for effectiveness and fairness 41

    Technical issues: Sweating the details 42

    Taking Care of Talent Management Functions 45

    Training and development 45

    Workforce planning 46

    Compensation 46

    Chapter 3: Designing and Implementing Effective Performance Management 47

    Ensuring Performance Management Delivers Strategic Value 48

    Key ingredients of a strategic recipe 48

    Making performance management strategic 49

    Developing Performance Management Leadership Skills 50

    Becoming an effective coach 51

    Giving effective feedback 52

    Defining and Measuring Performance 54

    Measuring performance as behaviors 55

    Measuring performance as results 55

    Developing Employee Performance 56

    Creating development plans 56

    Implementing development plans 57

    Assessing Performance Management Effectiveness 57

    Using quantitative measures 58

    Using qualitative measures 58

    Chapter 4: Anticipating and Minimizing Negative Consequences 61

    Anticipating Damage Caused by Flawed Performance Management 63

    Damage caused to employees 63

    Damage caused to managers 63

    Damage caused to relationships 63

    Damage caused to the organization 64

    Learning from Flawed Performance Ratings 64

    Why Performance Ratings Are Here to Stay 65

    Setting Up an Appeals Process 66

    Dealing with judgmental and administrative issues 66

    Setting up a three-level appeals process 67

    Setting Up a Communication Plan and Dealing with Resistance to Change 70

    Questions that your communication plan should answer 70

    Dealing with cognitive biases 73

    Part 2: Designing an Effective Performance Management System 77

    Chapter 5: Delivering Strategic Business Results 79

    Linking Performance Management with Strategic Business Objectives 80

    Making sure the strategic plan does what it is supposed to do 80

    Making sure HR does what it is supposed to do 84

    Conducting an External and Internal Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats 86

    Analyzing the external environment 86

    Analyzing the internal environment 88

    Conducting a gap analysis 89

    Creating and Understanding Your Organization’s Mission and Vision 91

    Creating your mission 91

    Creating your vision 91

    Setting Up Objectives and Strategies Based on Your Mission and Vision 94

    Setting up objectives 95

    Setting up strategies 96

    Linking Your Organization’s and Unit’s Strategic Plans with Job Descriptions 96

    Linking the strategy of the organization and its units 97

    Linking the organization and units with job descriptions 98

    Chapter 6: Becoming a Performance Management Leader 101

    Becoming an Effective Coach 101

    Four guiding principles of effective coaches 102

    Seven behaviors of effective coaches 103

    Understanding your coaching style 105

    Observing and Documenting Performance 106

    Why documenting performance is so important 108

    Documenting performance accurately 109

    Giving Feedback Effectively 110

    Making sure feedback serves a purpose 110

    Avoiding the very high cost of NOT providing feedback 111

    Making sure feedback is beneficial 112

    An example of effective feedback 113

    Giving praise 115

    An example of effective praise 115

    Giving constructive feedback 116

    Giving feedback to Millennials, Post Millennials, and Baby Boomers 118

    Chapter 7: Defining Performance 121

    Performance is All about Behaviors and Results 121

    Defining performance as behaviors 122

    Defining performance as results 123

    Causes for Excellent and Poor Performance 123

    How individual differences affect performance 124

    How knowledge and skills affect performance 126

    How context affects performance 127

    Anticipating performance problems 129

    Focusing on Four Different Performance Dimensions 130

    Task and contextual performance 131

    Key differences between task and contextual performance 133

    Counterproductive performance 134

    Adaptive performance 136

    When to Define Performance as Behaviors or Results and Why 137

    When to define performance as behaviors 137

    When to define performance as results 138

    Chapter 8: Measuring Performance as Results 143

    Measuring Performance as Results 143

    Determining accountabilities and their importance 144

    Determining objectives 146

    Choosing a Measurement System Congruent with Context 149

    Considering the role of organizational culture 149

    Considering the role of industry trends 150

    Considering the role of leadership 150

    Chapter 9: Measuring Performance as Behaviors 151

    Measuring Competencies 151

    Measuring two types of competencies 152

    Describing competencies 154

    Measuring Behaviors Using Comparative Systems 155

    Rank order 155

    Alternation rank order 155

    Paired comparisons 156

    Relative percentile 156

    Forced distribution 156

    Considering Advantages and Disadvantages of Comparative Systems 158

    Anticipating problems caused by forced distributions 159

    Understanding the shape of the performance distribution and producing star performers 161

    Measuring Behaviors Using Absolute Systems 163

    Essays 163

    Behavior checklists 164

    Using a graphic rating scale system 169

    Chapter 10: Using Performance Management Analytics 173

    The Jury is Out: All Firms Collect Performance Data 174

    Why all organizations collect performance data 174

    Setting the evaluation period 176

    Including Critical Components in Effective Performance Appraisal Forms 177

    Saying goodbye to paper performance evaluation forms 177

    Nine critical components of effective evaluation forms 177

    Evaluating the components of a sample evaluation form 179

    Including Critical Characteristics to Make Evaluation Forms Effective 182

    Eight critical characteristics of effective evaluation forms 183

    Evaluating the characteristics of a sample evaluation form 184

    Computing Overall Performance Score 185

    Using judgmental and mechanical procedures to compute overall score 185

    Using Multiple Performance Touchpoints 189

    Using supervisors 189

    Using peers 190

    Using direct reports 191

    Using employees themselves 192

    Using customers 193

    Using electronic performance monitoring 193

    Chapter 11: Minimizing Rating Distortion 197

    Dealing with Disagreements across Performance Touchpoints 197

    Why disagreements across performance touchpoints is not always a problem 198

    Dealing with disagreements when giving feedback 198

    Minimizing Intentional Rating Distortion 199

    Understanding rater motivation 199

    Why raters inflate ratings 200

    Why raters deflate ratings 201

    Increasing accountability in performance ratings 202

    Minimizing Unintentional Rating Distortion 203

    Designing rater error training 203

    Designing frame of reference training 206

    Designing behavioral observation training 208

    Part 3: Implementing Performance Management Effectively 209

    Chapter 12: Creating and Implementing Personal Development Plans 211

    Creating Personal Development Plans 211

    Using development plans to answer four key career questions 212

    Using development plans to improve your short- and long-term career goals 212

    Using development plans for succession planning 214

    Setting your development plan objectives 214

    Setting the content of your development plan 216

    Setting the activities of a development plan 218

    Facilitating Employee Development 221

    Performing five functions in the development process 223

    Using the feedforward interview 223

    Motivating supervisors to facilitate employee development 225

    Using Multisource Feedback Systems in Implementing Development Plans 227

    Maximizing benefits of multisource feedback systems 228

    Minimizing risks of multisource feedback systems 229

    Deciding whether a multisource feedback systems will work in your organization 230

    Implementing a state-of-the-science multisource feedback system 231

    Chapter 13: Conducting Effective Review, Disciplinary, and Termination Meetings 233

    Conducting Effective Review Meetings 234

    Setting up review meetings 234

    Implementing an optimal sequence for review meetings 236

    Dealing with employee defensiveness 238

    Making the Tough Calls: Disciplinary Process and Organizational Exit 241

    Offering decision-making leave 241

    Avoiding five common pitfalls in the disciplinary process 243

    Dealing with terminations 244

    Chapter 14: Implementing Team Performance Management 247

    Not All Teams Are Created Equal 248

    Reasons why teams exist in all organizations 248

    Designing a State-of-the Science System 249

    Anticipating dangers of poorly designed systems 250

    Setting necessary conditions for an effective system 251

    Implementing a system for virtual teams 251

    Accountability as a key purpose of team performance management 254

    Implementing a State-of-the-Science System 255

    Step 1: Establishing prerequisites 257

    Step 2: Performance planning 259

    Step 3: Performance execution 260

    Step 4: Performance assessment 261

    Step 5: Performance review 263

    Connecting team performance management with team rewards 265

    Chapter 15: Evaluating Your System 269

    Pilot Testing the Performance Management System 269

    Reasons for doing a pilot test 270

    Selecting the pilot test group 270

    Ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performance Management System 271

    What to measure 272

    How to measure 273

    Part 4: Connecting Performance Management with Rewards and the Law 275

    Chapter 16: Offering Financial and Nonfinancial Rewards 277

    Not All Rewards are Created Equal 278

    Financial rewards 278

    Nonfinancial rewards 278

    Different Types of Financial Rewards 278

    Base pay 278

    Cost-of-living adjustments and contingent pay 279

    Short-term incentives 279

    Long-term incentives 280

    Income protection 281

    Allowances 281

    Different Types of Nonfinancial Rewards 282

    Relational 282

    Work-life focus 283

    Linking Performance Management with Different Types of Rewards 283

    Rewards with low dependency on performance management 284

    Rewards with high dependency on performance management 284

    Rewards with moderate dependency on performance management 285

    Chapter 17: Setting Up an Effective Pay System 287

    Setting Up Traditional and Contingent Pay Plans 287

    Traditional pay plans 288

    Contingent pay plans 289

    Implementing Contingent Pay Plans 289

    The benefits of CP plans 290

    Reasons why contingent pay plans fail 291

    Selecting a Contingent Pay Plan 294

    Traditional versus involvement cultures 295

    Strategic direction 296

    What pay can and cannot do about improving performance 297

    Turning recognition and other nonfinancial incentives into rewards 301

    Chapter 18: Staying on the Right Side of the Law 305

    Implementing the Golden Rule 306

    Implementing the golden rule around the world 306

    When the golden rule breaks down 306

    Six Legal Principles Affecting Performance Management 307

    Employment at will 307

    Negligence 308

    Defamation 309

    Misrepresentation 310

    Adverse impact/unintentional discrimination 311

    Illegal discrimination/disparate treatment 311

    Laws Affecting Performance Management 313

    Laws affecting performance management around the world 314

    Lawful performance management in global organizations 315

    Putting it all together: A legally defensible performance management system 315

    Part 5: The Part of Tens 317

    Chapter 19: Ten Reasons for Implementing Effective Performance Management 319

    Six Useful Purposes 319

    Self-Insights, Development, Motivation, and Self-Esteem 320

    Better Understanding of Job Requirement 320

    More Employee Engagement and Voice Behavior 321

    Improved Commitment and Decreased Turnover 321

    Early Detection of Performance Declines and Less Employee Misconduct 321

    Differentiation between Good and Poor Performers 322

    Common Understanding of What is Good Performance 322

    More Fair and Legally Defensible Administrative Decisions 322

    Easier Organizational Change 323

    Chapter 20: Ten Key Factors for Delivering Outstanding Results 325

    Congruence with Strategy and Context 325

    Thoroughness and Inclusiveness 326

    Meaningfulness 326

    Practicality 327

    Reliability, Validity, and Specificity 327

    Identification of Effective and Ineffective Performance 327

    Standardization and Thoroughness 328

    Openness 328

    Correctability 328

    Acceptability, Fairness, and Ethicality 329

    Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Becoming a Great Performance Management Leader 331

    Become an Effective Coach 331

    Develop a Good Coaching Relationship and Facilitate Employee Growth 332

    Understand Your Own Coaching Style 332

    Make the Employee the Director of Change 333

    Learn How to Evaluate Performance Accurately 333

    Document Performance Accurately 333

    Give Feedback Effectively 334

    Conduct Effective Performance Review Meetings 334

    Be Fair and Direct in the Disciplinary Process 335

    Be Fair and Direct in the Termination Process 335

    Index 337