Week 4

Question 1

What is performance management?

Answer 1

Performance management encompasses all activities a firm undertakes to improve an employee’s performance

Question 2

What are the steps to performance management/

Answer 2

1. Goal setting
2. Evaluation of performance
3. Feedback
4. Decision on rewards or punishments

Question 3

What is workplace inclusion?

Answer 3

The feeling of feeling valued and that they belong to the organisation

Question 4

What are the 3 purposes of performance managemnet

Answer 4

1. Strategic purpose - organisation can grow if employee actions align with organisational goals
2. Developmental purpose - provides employees with information on how to grow
3. Administrative purpose - provides managers with information on how to reward, promote, and retain employees

Question 5

What is performance appraisal?

Answer 5

It is the evaluation of employee performance along a set of dimensions, assigning a score, and informing employee’s of their rating

Question 6

What is the traditional performance management cycle?

Answer 6

1. Making a performance plan - organisation goals are translated into individual goals for employees
2. Feedback - provide feedback on performance
3. Mid-year evaluation - discuss incremental goal attainment
4. Year-end evaluation - formal performance rating

Question 7

what is goal-setting theory?

Answer 7

Setting specific, clear, and challenging goals can result in motivation to increase performance. It can direct direction, intensity, and duration of motivated action.

Question 8

What are the 5 principles of goal-setting theory?

Answer 8

1. Clarity - The goal is to be clear and specific
2. Challenge - goals that are too easy may feel unimportant
3. Commitment - be commited to the goal
4. Feedback
5. Task Complexity - break down general goal into smaller

Question 9

What is the SMART Principle?

Answer 9

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable
4. Realistic
5. Timely

Question 10

What is diversity

Answer 10

The differences among employees in an organisation or group.
These may be:
Underlying characteristics - vlaues, beliefs
Demographic differences

Question 11

What is inclusion?

Answer 11

Inclusion is a state where all employees are treated fairly, valued for who they are, and feel like they belong

Question 12

What are the 2 key elements of creating Inclusion?

Answer 12

1. Belongingness - idea that the employee has a rightful place in the group
2. Uniqueness - idea that employees are valued as an individual

Question 13

Reasons for inclusivity

Answer 13

1. firm wants to do what is right
2. firm whats to show viable career paths
3. firm wants to ensure business success

Question 14

What is the key variable for inclusion?

Answer 14

A climate for inclusion. This is the employee’s perception of the employer’s policies focused on creating a sense of belongingness while valuing the uniqueness

Question 15

What are formal policies/practices in increasing diversity?

Answer 15

1, Recruit and selection of targeted demographic categories. - This may be controversial and delegitimise the individual
2. Targeted leadership programs for demographics. Also has risk of deligitimisation

Question 16

What are formal policies/practices to enhance inclsuion?

Answer 16

1. Diversity and anti-bias training : risk of backfiring when employees perceive it as fake or don’t feel the need
2. Making minority employees feel like they belong using mentoryships
3. Creating accountability - make performance evaluation contingent on conclusion statistics

Question 17

What are some biases on performance evaluation?

Answer 17

1. Leniency error
2. Severity error
3. Central tendency error
4. Halo error
5. Primacy error
6. Recency error
7. Contrast error
8. Similar-to-me error

Question 18

What is leniency error

Answer 18

Raters rate employees at the high end of the scale. an easy grader

Question 19

What is severity error

Answer 19

Raters rate employees at the low end of the scale. a hard grader

Question 20

what is central tendency error

Answer 20

Raters rate employees at the midpoint

Question 21

What is the halo error

Answer 21

Rater’s evaluation of an employee on one performance dimension creates an overall positive or negative impression that drives ratings on other dimensions

Question 22

What is primacy error

Answer 22

Rater’s evaluation is influenced by first performance

Question 23

What is recency error

Answer 23

A rater’s evaluation is influenced by the employee’s last performance

Question 24

What is contrast error

Answer 24

A rater’s evaluation of an average employee is boosted after rating a poor employee, or lowered after rating an excellent employee

Question 25

what is similar-to-me error

Answer 25

A rater’s evaluation of an employee is inflated because the rater feels a personal connection resulting from shared demographics, values, or experiences

Question 26

What are 3 methods of reducing errors and biases

Answer 26

1. Training - help raters recognise levels of performance . Frame of reference helps
2. Memory aids - records information
3. Accountability - accountability makes raters feel expected to justify their evaluations to others

Question 27

What is the ranking or comparative rating method to evaluation performance?

Answer 27

This method ranks employees relative to each other.
example is Forced Distribution

Question 28

What is forced distribution

Answer 28

Employees are assigned to certain categories based on their scores.
Issue is unpopular with employees, and promotes internal compeititon, leading to higher likelihoods of aggressive culture and unethical practices. Also reduces innovation.
It has to be linked to clear objective criteria

Question 29

What is absolute rating method?

Answer 29

Method rates employees based on specific performance dimensions using a graphic rating scale

Question 30

What are methods of rating?

Answer 30

1. Graphic rating scale or Likert scale - requires raters to evaluate employee on a series of performance dimensions using a rating system. Advantage is that it is versatile, but the standard against which performance is evaluated differs for each rater
2. Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS) - uses behavior examples as anchors which are assigned scores. It has a behavioural frequency description. Issue is that it is not versatile and unqiue to jobs. However, employees perceive as more fair

Question 31

What is a way/method to improve performance measurement?

Answer 31

Critical incident techniue is used to make the approval process more accurate. It collects concerte behavioural examples of employee performance.
Requires supervisors to record effective or ineffective behaviours - AKA critical incidents

Question 32

What is 360-degree feedback?

Answer 32

A multi-sourced review, where reviews come from managers, clients, etc

Question 33

Besides measuring results, what is another thing to measure for performance?

Answer 33

Competencies need to be measured. They are the observable skills, behaviors, and attitudes that employee needs to be successful in. this helps as only measuring results may lead to disregarding actions that don’t contribute to results.
Measure “WHAT” (results) employees deliver and “HOW” (competencies) they do it

Question 34

What is strength-based feedback?

Answer 34

Relies on employee affirmation and encouragement. Strengths are the true opportunity for growth, so the feedback focuses on strengths for future behaviour and personal development.

Question 35

What is feedforward?

Answer 35

Feedforward is a way of giving strength-based feedback. 3 steps:
step 1: Identify a personal success story for employee
step 2: discover their personal success code
step 3: align future with their personal success code - ask the feedforward question

Question 36

What are 2 types of evaluations to define performance?

Answer 36

1. Objective evaluation focuses on job outputs or goal achievements
2. Subjective evaluations relies on a rater’s judgement

Question 37

what is organisaitonal citizenship behavior

Answer 37

activities that are valued by the organisation but are outside the scope of the employee’s formal job requirements, which can make organisations more productive. They can also be used to indicate performance

Question 38

What does a balanced feedback mean?

Answer 38

meaning positive feedback about what the employee is doing right, and constructive feedback about how they can improve;
The most effective feedback focuses on both positive and negative aspects of performance.

Question 39

3 tips to make feedback effective

Answer 39

1. check your own assumptions - reflect on own belief about job performance
2. invite a self-appraisal - so kind of like a self check for employees
3. Encourage employee-generated solutions - it is vital that they agree on how to improve performance. best strategy is often the one the employee is motivated to act on.