Module 4

• Key Accountabilities


  Broad areas of a job for which the employee is responsible for producing results
• Objectives


  Statements of important and measurable outcomes that, when accomplished, will help ensure success for the accountability
• Performance standards


  Yardsticks used to evaluate how well employees have achieved each objective
• Determining accountabilities

  1. Collect information about the job from the job description

  2. Group tasks into clusters of related tasks

  3. Determine the relative importance of each accountability
• Characteristics of a Good Objectives

  • Specific and clear
  • Challenging
  • Agreed upon
  • Significant
  • Prioritized
  • Bound by time
  • Achievable
  • Fully communicated
  • Flexible
  • Limited in number
• Characteristics of a Good Performance standards

  • Related to the position
  • Concrete, specific, and measurable
  • Practical to Measure
  • Meaningful
  • Realistic and achievable
  • Reviewed regularly
• Microsoft uses SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-based, Time-specific
• Quality standards


  Answers the questing "How well the objective has been achieved?"(e.g. usefulness, responsiveness, error rate, customer feedback)
• Quantity standards


  Answers the question "How much has been produced, how many, how often, at what cost?"
• Time standards


  Due dates, adherence to schedule, cycle times, deadlines
• Competencies


  Measurable clusters of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are critical in determining how results will be achieved
• Examples of competencies

  • Customer service
  • Written or oral communication
  • Creative thinking
  • Dependability
• Differentiating competencies


  Those that allow us to distinguish between average and superior performers
• Threshold competencies


  Those that everyone needs to display to do the job to a minimally adequate standard
• Example of differentiating and threshold competencies for IT Project Manager

  • Differentiating: Process management (ability to manage project activities)
  • Threshold: Change management (knowledge of behavioral sciences, operational and relational skills, and sensitivity to motivators)
• Indicators


  Observable behaviors that give us information regarding a competency
• Components in describing a competency

  • Definition of competency
  • Description of specific behavioral indicators
  • Description of specific behaviors that are not the competency
  • List of suggestions for developing the competency
• Consideration competency


  The degree to which the leader looks after the well-being of his or her followers
• Indicators of consideration competency

  • Supports subordinates' projects
  • Asks about the well-being of employees' lives outside of work
  • Encourages subordinates to reach their established goals
  • Gets to know employees personally
  • Shows respect for employees' work and home lives
• Comparative systems


  Measurement systems that base the assessment on comparing employees with one another
• Types of comparative behavioral measurement systems

  • Simple rank order
  • Alternation rank order
  • Paired comparisons
  • Relative percentile method
  • Forced distribution
• Absolute systems


  Measurement systems that base the assessment on comparing employees with a prespecified performance standard
• Comparative systems are used by about 4% of published research on performance appraisal, while absolute systems are more common
• Comparative systems have the advantage of being easy to explain and control for certain biases, but the disadvantage of not providing specific feedback and being subject to legal challenges
• Forced distribution systems assume performance is normally distributed, but this may not hold true for all units in an organization
• Absolute systems


  Supervisors provide evaluations of an employee's performance without making direct reference to other employees
• Essay system


  • Supervisors have the potential to provide detailed feedback to employees regarding their performance
  • Essays are almost totally unstructured so that some supervisors may choose to be more detailed than others
  • Comparisons across individuals, groups, or units are virtually impossible because essays written by different supervisors, and even by the same supervisor regarding different employees, may address different aspects of an employee's performance
  • Essays do not provide any quantitative information, making it difficult to use them in some personnel decisions
• Behavior checklist


  • Consists of a form listing behavioral statements that are indicators of the various competencies to be measured
  • Supervisors are not so much evaluators as they are "reporters" of employee behavior
  • All behaviors rated are likely present to some extent
  • Response categories are weighted and an overall score for each employee is computed by adding the weights of the responses that were checked for each item
• Critical incidents


  Involves gathering reports of situations in which employees exhibited behaviors that were especially effective or ineffective in accomplishing their jobs
• Critical incidents measurement approach

  • Allows supervisors to focus on actual job behavior rather than on vaguely defined traits
  • Collecting critical incidents is very time consuming
  • Difficult to attach a score quantifying the impact of the incident (either positive or negative)
  • A revised version involves summarizing critical incidents and giving them to supervisors in the form of scales (e.g., behavior checklist)
  • Another variation involves compiling critical incidents illustrating various performance levels for each competency and having managers use this list by simply circling the behavior that best describes each of the employees in the work unit
• Graphic rating scale


  • Aims to ensure that the response categories (ratings of behavior) are clearly defined, that interpretation of the rating by an outside party is clear, and that the supervisor and the employee understand the rating
• Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) use graphic rating scales that use critical incidents as anchors
• For graphic rating scales to be most useful and accurate, they must include the following features:

  • the meaning of each response category is clear,
  • the individual who is interpreting the ratings can tell clearly what response was intended, and
  • the performance dimension being rated is defined clearly for the rater
• Practicality and usefulness are key considerations in choosing one type of measurement procedure over another
• Appraisal forms


  • Can be filled out on paper or electronically
  • Filling out forms electronically has advantages such as easy storage and sharing of information, availability of data in electronic form for analyses, and easier modification of forms as changes take place
  • Usually include basic employee information, accountabilities/objectives/standards, and competencies/indicators
• Components of appraisal forms

  • Employee basic information
  • Accountabilities, objectives, and standards
  • Competencies and indicators
  • Major achievements and contributions
  • Developmental achievements
  • Developmental needs, plans, and goals
  • Stakeholder input
  • Employee comments
  • Signatures
• There is no such thing as a universally correct appraisal form
• Desirable features of appraisal forms

  • Simplicity
  • Relevancy
  • Descriptiveness
  • Adaptability
  • Comprehensiveness
  • Definitional clarity
  • Communication
  • Time orientation
• Judgmental procedure


  Considering every aspect of performance and then arriving at a defensible summary
• Mechanical procedure


  Considering the scores assigned to each section of the appraisal form and then adding them up to obtain an overall score