Performance Management Commons^™

Understanding The Effectiveness Of Performance Management Practices, Ross T. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Effective employee management is an essential element for achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. Through a variety of performance management practices organizations can translate competitive strategies into individual performance expectations and transform employee potential into desired organizational outcomes. Despite the promise of robust performance management practices, a significant research gap exists between the scientific research in Organizational Behavior (OB) and the performance management practices espoused by the “practitioners.” The purpose of this thesis research is to explore a set of performance management practices as an initial step toward providing direct, empirical support for the linkages between performance management practices, the …

Strategic Segmentation In Frontline Services: Matching Customers, Employees, And Human Resource Systems, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

This paper examines variation in the use of high involvement work practices in service and sales operations. I argue that the relationship between the customer and frontline service provider is a central feature that distinguishes production-level service activities from manufacturing. In particular, through strategic segmentation, firms are able to segment customers by their demand characteristics and to match the complexity and potential revenue stream of the customer to the skills of employees and the human resource system that shapes the customer-employee interface. Unlike manufacturing, where high involvement systems have emerged in a wide variety of product markets, therefore, service organizations …

Who Benefits From Teams? Comparing Workers, Supervisors, And Managers, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

This paper offers a political explanation for the diffusion and sustainability of team-based work systems by examining the differential outcomes of team structures for 1200 workers, supervisors, and middle managers in a large unionized telecommunications company. Regression analyses show that participation in self-managed teams is associated with significantly higher levels of perceived discretion, employment security, and satisfaction for workers and the opposite for supervisors. Middle managers who initiate team innovations report higher employment security, but otherwise are not significantly different from their counterparts who are not involved in innovations. By contrast, there are no significant outcomes for employees associated with …

Cultural Diversity In The Hotel Industry: A Study Of Performance Management Systems, Deirdre O'Donovan

Theses

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the numbers of people immigrating to Ireland, making Irish society much more culturally diverse than in previous decades. At present, there are approximately 420,000 migrants living in Ireland, of whom approximately 350,000 individuals are of an age to work (Central Statistics Office 2006). Consequently, Irish workforces are now more culturally diverse.

This thesis focuses on the implications of cultural diversity on performance management practices in a number of Irish hotels. Due to the large number of culturally diverse employees in the hospitality industry, the hotel sector was chosen as the focus of …

Evaluating Pay-For-Performance Systems: Critical Issues For Implementation, Myron Glassman, Aaron Glassman, Paul Champagne, Mike Zugelder

Aaron Glassman

Most organizations use a merit pay or pay-for-performance system (PFP) to improve employee performance. Despite its popularity, a PFP system can be difficult to implement. Success depends on several issues. These include adequate funding, suitable job characteristics, and appropriate performance feedback. Moreover, even under the best circumstances, PFP systems may cause unintended consequences such as dysfunctional behavior, unethical conduct and even employment discrimination. Still, when the critical issues for proper implementation are appropriately addressed, a PFP system is and should continue to be a successful management tool to enhance employee performance in the workplace.