Performance Management

The fundamental goal of performance management is the working together of top to bottom management together with workers to produce excellent products or service within its organization. In any Organization structural, processes and relationships can influence management to fail or succeed. Key challengers are change, business flexibility and reorganizing. The importance of knowledge creation and sharing create more diversity by building relationships across the globe.   

Structure   

Functional Structure tend to divide responsibilities up according to the organizations role like production, sales, research and each organization into sub sections. Multidivisional structure is made of different divisions and broken up into geographic, services and products. However, it can also lead to disadvantages such as division can become to independent. Matrix structure combine several different structures simultaneously. They are effective by allowing separate knowledge to be integrated across organizational boundaries. On a negative side this leads to longer time in decision making. Transitional Structure is effective by exploiting knowledge across borders seeking to achieve the highest degree of the two extremes, international strategies and multi domestic strategy. A Project based structure is when a team is assembled to undertake the work and then dissolved when the project is finish.   

Processes   

Structures work due to formal and informal process controls that can be divided into inputs or outputs. Output controls the meeting of targets where inputs are concerned with the resources consumed such as financial and human resources. Direct entails tight supervision and watching over the process while indirect are more formal and semiautonomous. Organizations use a mixture of these controls such as direct supervision, planning cross-cultural process, performance and target marketing and market processes and some will dominate over the others ability to scope with change, internals and knowledge.   

Relationships   

As necessary as structure and processes are it is important that there are basic internal and external relationships maintained in order to reply to an uncertain change such as ascribing internally concerning the responsibility and authority for operational and strategic positions and also relating externally through outsourcing, alliances, virtually and networks.   

Relating internally to the center has continuing debates as to whether the center has to delegate decisions to unit managers and lower hierarchy leaving top managers hard to promote the organizations opportunities and resources in a fast market. This would be replacing business managers rather than instruct the necessary changes in a strategy. Strategic control lies between strategic planning and control. The parent company acts as an influencer, shaper, behavior and form the context as to how managers must perform however not much is known in grassroots level.   

Relating externally such as outsourcing occurs when product was created by the organization and was once produced in-house. There are suppliers who know the organizations cultural norms and what the company stand for can also contribute to the creative input of the product or service. Strategic alliances-is the relationship with other organizations and are much the same to outsourcing. Strategic alliances can be relationship based to the organization and here the alliance and organization bring their specialist knowledge to integrate and create an amazing product or service to the consumer. Networks: outsourcing, virtuallity and alliances rely on internal and external networks for the success of the organization. Teleworking is when people work independently but are still connected to corporate resources, colleagues, suppliers and clients through telecommunication and computing infrastructure and the internet plays a big role in the success of this information structure. Federations are specialist who voluntary meet up to share knowledge and create better products and services. One stop shops are also a solution to the problem by putting a complete package together of products and services using its own expertise in project management showing the customers’ needs. In-service network is when the customers and all the members of the networks above all require trust and respect between members. Virtual organization is where networking, outsourcing and alliances are minimized and all resources are done through virtual interaction which is also a major consideration for traveling and civil engineering who use outsourcing on a regular basis  

Knowing and having experience of people are important factors motivating the realization of the strategy and creating an environment for people to strive and achieve success. Though people do not guarantee strategic success but as a resource are managed, deployed, motivated and controlled in order to make the business a success. Much of the tough side of HR have got to do with these ever changing issues, so a set of standard activities can give an idea on how to move forward.   

Audits help HR to support and push its agenda for future based strategies. Setting up goals and performance reviews of different teams and has to be undertaken by line managers and centralizing appraisals have to be moved to an all-round/360 degree evaluations system.  

In many organizations the planning of rewards has impacted team work as with highly geared individual incentives (sales force)   

Recruitment and retention are important strategies mainly for public sectors recruiting people with IT and Marketing skills but in some strategies will have to be redundancy and redeployment planning.   

Many training and development plans have reduced the use of formal programs to coach and mentor to support self-development.   

HR professionals and Area managers will need to know that changes in the future will align with IT based systems but it is not sufficient to strengthen performance management. Mentoring and Coaching can attract creative and challenge people to improve themselves.   

People and Behaviour   

People unlike other resources influence strategy through being competent, collective and behaviour. The soft side with HR management is concerned with behaviour both collectively and individually. Organizations have to understand that a Paradigm narrative is forever changing. Seeing their people as humans not just as a number of a company will need an understanding of soft skills. Understanding relationships between strategic and behavioural choices is crucial for mangers to prioritize the organizations behaviour. Being realistic in time scales and the difficulty in achieving behavioural changes as a culture. Varying of styles with different circumstances so that a manager’s leadership internally and externally are important in moving forward. Teams must also embrace change while operating simultaneously addressing the individual team member’s personality type in order to succeed. Sometimes intended strategies and actual strategies don’t coincide so mangers will have to shape the day to day issues and change the conduct of staff. HR policies can also assist with this by building internal and external networks of personal contacts.   

Organizing People   

HR Function   

One of the most challenging questions is weather HR specialist are needed due to global companies paying workers across the scale and not much other activities taking place, then yes it would be feasible to get rid of HR specialists but on the other hand when lower level managers are too busy and no time in learning the corporate end of an organization then yes, an HR specialist would be necessary for the organization. HR would be valuable in contributing to successful business mangers though there are four roles a specialist need to abide by to take the company to new heights.   

HR must act as a provider of services by taking the task of training and recruitment to the line mangers in order to carry out the strategic responsibility. Setting rules as a regulator within which the line managers operate get incentives like higher pay or promotion. HR become advisers to Line managers with regard to ensuring best practices for policies and also a change agent with regard to the organization moving forward.   

Middle(line) Managers  

Line Mangers play an important role in the implementation of strategies to lower levels of the work force but there are also worries as to whether the strategies work and how the lower level workers adapt, therefore conveying strategies to Line Managers in a realistic approach and are key factors to HR professionals. Short Term pressures lead to strategies not being fully implemented to people related matters. Trade Unions and professional associations have resisted dispersion of HR responsibilities and from a unions point of view; these issues are much easier to deal with a central body. Managers may lack incentives and take a more formal approach in the HR responsibilities via pay grade or indirectly as to what will make them competent internally or externally. It’s important to take line mangers into consideration because top management won’t be able to bypass them in order to implement their strategies because it simply won’t work.   

Structure and Processes   

People may be held back from contributing to strategic success because traditional structures and roles don’t match future strategies. Other challenges are whether recruitment and training should be brought in from specialists though they be widely trained and broader knowledge in their field but lack detailed circumstances in the specific organization.   

Implications for Managers   

Activities must ensure the maintenance of competitiveness that people will support the strategies of an organization in the short term like training, leadership, culture, competences and objective setting. Similarly, there must be activities to provide a platform with the new strategies to be built in the long run and create opportunities for the transformation. These two cycles must be linked in the short term delivery goals at the expense of the long term investment by using reward systems, individual bonus schemes and compromise the ability to make more radical and strategic interventions like the creation of new roles and relationships to create a more creative environment. The outcome will be to gain the competitive advantage while the competition run the risk of failing due to HR strategies being out of line with the business, people competences and /or behaviours and failing to capitalize on the strengths in the organizations capabilities.   

 Diagnosing the change situation   

Change is managed by the magnitude of the challenge and the effect of the change taking place. Also to understand the usefulness of the strategic change, the wider context as to a good deal of upheaval but change is taking place, the specific blockages and the exit forces to facilitate the process. Adaption is change that can be accommodated within the culture. Reconstruction in change may rapidly improve but does not change the culture and can be a turnaround situation due to major structural changes and major cost cutting programs to deal with the financial performance or difficulties of changing markets. A Revolution is change that requires major strategic thinking but also culture change due to the same thing happening over a period of years and no sustainable growth. Evolution change in strategy requires cultural change but over time it may need a transformational change where this organization is continuously adjusting to the needs of the market   

The importance of context   

Managing change in a small corporation is much different than trying to change a big corporation, or a long established public sector. Approaches need to differ according to context. Balogun and Hope Haley build on this point to highlight important factors what need to be taken in consideration.Time available for change could differ dramatically because business facing immediate decline in turnover or profits from changing market share, a direct context where managers may seem the need for change in the future and may have time to plan it in incremental stages.   

The scope of change may happen either in breadth of change across an organization or depth of change of a culture and is likely to be a much bigger challenge   

Preservation of some aspects of an organization may be needed however if an organization followed a strategy for decades it may lead to a very homogenous role therefore gauging the nature of extent of diversity is important.   

The capability or experience in managing change is also important because it can be costly in Financial and management terms   

The readiness for change if it is felt across the organization, widespread resistance pockets or levels of resistance in some parts and readiness in others.   

The power to effect change is often assumed by the CEO but in the face of resistance from below (grassroots level) or resistance from stakeholders is one of change but in context change has to be managed in stages so the people can align their vision in the direction of the company. A force field analysis provides a view of what must be asked such as block change, what current aspects may be used to change the direction and what needs to be introduced to develop this change.   

 Change Management styles and roles   

When it comes to managing strategic change a change agent or a group helps the effect of the change.   

Strategic leaders influence the situation by being charismatic with evidence giving positive outcomes for the change where the people working see it with uncertainty. Then you get leaders who focus on the design systems and controlling activities however what is required is a tailor made strategy that will lead to the success combined with evidence, stakeholders and top management must be seen from outsiders as a strategic move for the organization.   

Middle Managers   

These are the implementers of strategy, having multiple roles and they have five most important roles to play. Implementation and control by making sure resources are allocated, controlled, monitoring performance and staff behavior where it’s necessary explaining the strategy and reporting back to top management. Sense making where top management set down the strategic direction and middle managers implement it into context with great understanding of the product or service. Reinterpretation and adjustment of strategic responses as the event folds out in terms of relationships with suppliers, customers, workforce etc. where the middle managers have to use their unique skill set. A crucial relevance bridge between top management and members of the grassroots level need to translate the change initiatives that is most relevant. Advisers to senior management on what could prevent the change from taking place. Therefore, the middle manager is the bridge between top and grassroots level.   

 Outsiders   

While mangers have an important role to play outsiders can also be important for example A new CEO may be introduced to enhance the change, new management can increase diversity, consultants can be used to help formulate strategy and stakeholders may be key figures in the change.   

Styles of managing change   

There are different styles that can be considered and can be summarized into education, intervention, direction and coercion. Some of the overall observations are different styles for different stages, time and scope, power in organizations, personality types and styles managing change. In the end strategies are based on the day to day process of planning and control, challenging operation challenges, operation led change, bottom up changes to routines and the overall lesson here changes may be mundane but they can surely have a significant impact .Symbolic processes can also help by having symbols surrounding them engraving it in there DNA by many Ritual, changing the physical aspects of the work environment, the behaviour of change agents and the language used by the change agents. These levers can be a powerful source for the change in the organization. There is also the need to consider the political context as this may be the CEO or Board Member or HR outsider to influence the situation from a political stance by gaining resources or being presented with resources, association with powerful stakeholder groups, building alliances, networks and symbolic change, however political aspects of change management can also be hazardous. There can also be specialized tactics to formulate change. Timing is often not a priority in thinking about change but plays an important role by building on actual or perceived crises can lead to windows of opportunity and symbolic signalling of time frames. Visible short term wins may require detailed action and galvanize commitment to strategy and to identify hot spots, focus on resources, efforts and success leading to a rollout in other divisions and gaining the resources to achieve the goal.   

Strategy Reconstruction and Turnaround Strategy   

Due to fast cost reduction and revenue managers have to improves situations that give quick improvement and this is known as Turnaround strategy due to a situation where a direct approach is needed in order to change but using some of the elements as follows. Crisis stabilization is to control the situation by short term focuses on cost or revenue, Simple good management and attention to focusing on reducing costs and productivity. A less effective approach will be to concentrate more on reducing overheads.   

Even though turnaround can be seen as simply cost cutting where the business is undergoing rapid changes, outside factors might think this will lead to growth therefore other elements of turnaround strategies are also important.   Management changes especially at the top includes a new chairman or women, chief execs, board changes and changes in finance and marketing strictly for three factors which are old managers in charge created this problem and was witnessed by the stakeholders, second because it was necessary to bring in new management to handle the turnaround times and thirdly due to new management bringing in new specialist skills which is a different approach as to what was happening in the past. Gaining steak holder support are key factors to the success of the turnaround because keeping them informed is an important factor in the transition. Clarifying target markets or segments to generate cash and grow profits involves getting closer to customers and improving marketing information especially to senior management to focus on generating revenue and seeing where the organization went wrong. Refocusing on clarity to the target market and discontinue to outsource products or services to unintended targets due to not making a significant financial contribution. Financial reconstruction of the organization must change and existing capital structure, raising finance or renegotiation deals with creditors especially banks. Prioritize on critical improvements and make quick significant changes.   

  Managing the Revolutionary Change   This can be a very challenging task not only for a speedy change but also a cultural one. It may not be the peoples fault rather a result of dropping market share and leading it to not being important to customers. People couldn’t see a way forward therefore clear strategic circumstances and the need for articulation with a strategic direction is important. Combining economic symbols levers such as portfolio changes, top management changes, financial restructuring and market focus. An outside perspective is a fresh approach to provide a logic approach than an emotional one. Multiple styles of change management are evident accompanied by other styles in which expertise will be needed to carry the task in hand. Working with existing culture rather than an attempt of drastic changes but concentrating on the aspects on the culture and build to develop it in order to create the change. Lastly monitoring the change and setting targets that people have to achieve linked to financial targets and improving returns to shareholders. Managing the evolutionary strategic change can be the creation of capable continual change and insights on how it can be achieved by empowering the organization, having a clear vision, continual change and commitment to experimentation, stages of transition, irreversible changes, sustainable top management commitment and winning hearts and minds of the people. Overall changes on management are lessons from understanding the program overload, hijacking process, reinvention, disconnectedness, behavioural compliance. Also four key factors that will make the change increase with consistency is Milestones for reviewing the progress, a high integrity change team, a visible commitment to change and lastly time and effort managing.