Performance Management in the Business Arena
Human Resource Managers (HRM) are constantly concerned with change, and two broad categories of change have been identified as impacting upon organizations and their members. These categories are: 1) planned or forced modifications of corporate objectives and policies, location, organizational/corporate structure, management philosophies, product lines, or methods of doing business; and 2) changes in or to human behavior to enhance enterprise efficiency (Koontz and O'Donnell, 1986). The need for constant change in the evolving contemporary corporate entity poses specific problems. Among these problems are inflexible material or physical environments which may not be suited to new processes or functions, subordinate and managerial attitudes (which also offer resistance to change), deficient means for implementing needed change, fears associated with change and its demands (another source of resistance to change), lack of confidence regarding capacity to adapt to change, and uncertainty as to what changes are needed or most likely to be effective in a given situation. Additionally, as Schneier, Beatty, and Baird (1987) reported, the current positioning of organizational transformations (and management of change) within the general concept of "performance management" has created new strategies, tools, and techniques that are being used by human resource managers (HRMs) and other to facilitate organization-wide improvements in quality and productivity.
Performance Management, abbreviated as "PM," is based on an identification of and response to four basic conditions described by Schneier, et al (1987):
. Identify performance required of each person;
. Redefine the role of managers to include PM;
. Hold managers accountable for PM by linking PM
. Assist managers to develop PM skills.
Clearly, these conditions fall within the general purview of the HRM departm...