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Motivation and Motivational Strategies:
Vroom’s expectancy theory suggests that a pay performance link is essential for motivating performance. 23 Among other aspects to understanding work motivation, the expectancy theory is widely accepted and has fairly strong support in applied and theoretical setting.24 As shown below the Expectancy model has three major components.
1. Expectancy: the individual’s perception of the probability that effort will lead to task accomplishment or performance.
2. Instrumentality: perceptions of the probability that performance will result in receiving rewards (such as pay or recognition).
3. Valence: the subjective value or the desirability that the employee places on the attainment of a certain reward.
The expectancy model can be summarised as:
M = E Σ (I V)
Where M = motivation, E = expectancy, I = instrumentality and V = valence.
As an example of how expectancy theory works, consider the case of an organisation announcing a contest to motivate its sales people. A trip to USA will be awarded to the salesperson with the highest sales volume in the financial year. According to expectancy theory, the motivational impact of this contest would depend on individual salespeople’s expectancy (perceived chance of being the top salesperson), instrumentality (belief that the company will actually award the prize), and valence (desirability of the trip to USA). A salesperson who thinks that he has a decent chance to win, believes that the trip will be awarded, and has a strong desire to travel to USA, should be highly motivated by this contest. A second sales person who believes that he has absolutely no chance of being the top seller, (zero expectancy) will perhaps make little efforts to win, even if he would very much enjoy going to USA. A third sales person may have a very low instrumentality, believing that the company will not really award such an expensive prize. Not believing in the contest, he will not be motivated. Also unresponsive will be a sales person who feels that the reward is not positively valent (e.g., if he is afraid of travel by aeroplanes).
23 - V.H. Vroom, “Work Motivation”, Wiley & Sons, New York, 1964)
24 - T.R. Mitchell et al. “Expectancy Theory in Work Motivation: Some Logical and Methodological Issues”, Human Relations, 1974, vol. 27, No.2, pp. 121-147.
To produce maximum motivation all the three components of the expectancy model must be high. Incentive compensation systems are designed to raise two of the three components. Instrumentality beliefs should be strengthened by making rewards contingent on good performance, and valence should be high because more money is a reward that most people find highly attractive.
Expectancy theory offers useful guidelines to diagnose possible problems in incentive schemes. First one must ask whether the employees believe that they can be good performers if they try. Are they properly selected, trained and equipped to do he job? Do they get feedback so that they know where they stand and can take corrective action as necessary? Second, one must be sure that employees perceive a link between their performance and their rewards (instrumentality) Do they truly believe that better performance will make more money, or does a higher salary seem to be more a function of luck or politics? Finally, the offered reward must be of value (valence) to the employees. They must be able to earn something they strongly desire, such as promotion or a sizeable raise. The prospect of a small merit raise may not be enough to motivate superior performance over an extended period of time.
Retention:
Linking pay to performance is likely to improve work force composition. High performers will gain a larger share of the compensation and thus be motivated to stay in the organisation. Below average performers will become discouraged and will tend to leave the organisation. Reward systems that are not linked to performance will have the opposite effect and thus result in the worst of both possibilities. Well-paid poor performers may stay with the organisation as they are well rewarded and may not be sought by other organisations. By contrast, top performers feel under-rewarded and are likely to be sought by organisations that appropriately value their contributions.
Productivity:
When performance is linked to rewards, those capable of doing what will lead to top productivity are motivated to do so.
Cost Savings:
The benefit of pay for performance is the capability to link compensation costs with productivity results. By basing payment on performance, employers can ensure that compensation costs, a major cost in business, will be tied to organisation results directly.
Individual Incentives:
When individual productivity is measurable, individual incentives are most successful in boosting performance through a fairly direct link between performance and rewards. The adoption of individual incentives has increased in recent years. Popular individual incentives are piece-rate incentive, commissions, and bonuses. Skilled based pay - a highly acclaimed recent innovation in individual incentives - and merit rates can also be explored.
Piece - rate Incentive:
It is the most common form of individual enticement for production workers. Employees are paid a fixed rate for each unit of output produced. The amount to pay per unit of output is determined as follows:
a. First, the typical pay rate for the job is determined, perhaps by wage survey.
b. Then, the typical output per day is measured. A time and motion study by industrial engineer may also provide information on the number of units that an employee should be able to make per day.
c. The average daily wage is divided by average units per day to produce the price paid per piece.
For example, if the average daily rate is Rs. 48 and each employee ought to be able to produce 96 units per day, the rate paid for each piece is 50 paise.
Some piece rate system pay only on the basis of units produced, so an employee who made only 70 units will receive Rs. 35 for the day. Many piece rate systems, however, guarantee a base wage equal to the standard output level, so that all employees making 96 units or lower will receive Rs. 48. The incentive is paid for all units in excess of the standards.
The major shortcoming of the typical piece-rate incentive is in the signal it sends. Instead of suggesting a partnership between the goals of the individual and those of the organisation, it implies that the organisation actually distrusts the individual.
The Taylor Plan:
A variation of the piece rate system was developed by Frederick W. Taylor. The Taylor Plan offers differential piece-work rates. In the example above, the Taylor Plan might specify 50 paise per unit up to 96 units per day, but reward workers producing 125 % of standard or more (120 units) with the higher rate of 65 paise for each unit over 96.
Standard Hour Plan:
This is similar to the straight piece work plan except that the standard is set in time units. Automobile repair workshops use such system.
Commissions:
Commission reward systems, which are usually found in sales jobs, allow the salesperson to receive a percentage of his gross receipts (e.g., 5% of all sales). About 70% of all salespeople are paid on commission basis – either straight commission or a base salary plus commission. Commission payments offer a clear link between pay and worker performance and therefore are an effective financial incentive.
Bonuses:
One of the most popular trends in compensation is the use of bonuses – one time lump sum payment given for meeting a performance goal. Bonuses can be based on objective goal attainment or a subjective rating. In some organisations, all employees share in the bonus awards if organisational goals are met, while in others the size of the bonus is tied to individual’s performance.
Skill-based Pay:
Skill-based pay (or pay for knowledge) is a reward system that pays employees on the bass of the work-related skills they possess rather than associating rewards with performance levels or seniority. Under a skill-based plan; an employee is hired and receives initial training on the job. He then joins a work group at the entry level rate of pay and has the opportunity to learn new job-related skills through on-the-job experience and further training. As the employee demonstrates mastery of different jobs performed by other group members, his pay is increased. A minimum of four to five years is required for employees to top out - that is master all the skills. Skill based pay is frequently used in conjunction with autonomous work groups or other job enrichment programmes.
Merit Pay:
Merit pay, because it is the standard procedure for attempting to tie pay increases to individual performance, is a major motivational device for employees at all levels - managerial, professional etc. Merit pay is an annual increment tied to the employees’ performance during the previous year. Even though merit pay continues to be widely used, in the last few years it has come under major criticism.
Merit raises represent a permanent commitment to an increased salary (salary is virtually never reduced if the performance falls), thereby creating an annuity that can be expensive fixed cost to an organisation.
Group Incentives:
Group incentives are designed to accomplish the same objectives as the individual incentives - that is to link rewards to performance. The difference is that performance is measured on the level of an organisational unit and is viewed as resulting from the combined efforts of a group rather than from individual effort.
Group incentives, like those for the individuals, have possible negative aspects. If the group is too large, employees may feel that their efforts will have little effects on total performance. Group members may also become concerned about overproduction and thus restrict output.
Profit Sharing:
It is an incentive system in which designated employees share the business profits. Profit sharing plans differ from gain sharing in two respects:
1. They are often implemented corporation-wide, whereas gain sharing is often at the unit level.
2. They use a formula based on profit rather than on productivity improvement.
The usual profit sharing programme establishes a base-level profit target. After this target is achieved, a percentage of additional profits is set aside in a bonus pool to be distributed to participants. Sometimes the bonus pool is distributed in equal rupee shares to all employees. At other times the distribution is made according to organisational level or salary / wages.
There are three broad based types of profit sharing plans:
1. Current distribution plans (or cash plans), which pay a share of the company’s profits in cash or company shares.
2. Deferred payout plans, in which an employee’s share of the company’s profits is placed in a trust fund to be distributed at a later date. These payoffs are usually distributed on retirement, disability, death or termination.
3. Combination plans, which provide both cash payments and deferred payments.
Gain Sharing Plan:
Gain sharing is a type of group incentive in which a portion of the gains of the organisation from group effort is shared with the group. The concept also implies that an organisational philosophy that engenders the kind of cooperativeness and trust needed to facilitate group efforts.
Scanlon Plan:
One very popular and widely used form of gain sharing is the Scanlon Plan, which was first implemented in late 1920s. Its developer, Joseph Scanlon, was a union leader who was trained in cost accounting and had a strong concern for management-labour co-operation. Scanlon believed that the average worker was a great reservoir of untapped information concerning labour-saving methods. Workers needed a mechanism permitting them to “work smarter, not harder”.
Scanlon Plan involves employee participation in reducing labour costs. The two main features are a system of departmental and plantwide screening committees to evaluate and implement employee cost-saving suggestions and the sharing of labour costs savings with the employees as an incentive. Savings are determined as the ratio of payroll to sales value of production and are usually calculated monthly and compared with baseline months to determine the bonus to be shared.25 A typical distribution of savings would be 50% to employees, 25% to the employer, and 25% retained for an emergency fund to reimburse the company for any months when the actual wage bill is larger than the baseline. Remaining emergency funds are distributed to the workers at the end of each year.
Rucker Plan:
The Rucker Plan is similar to the Scanlon Plan, but the bonus formula includes the rupee value of all materials, supplies, and services used to make the product. The resulting formula is:
Rs. Value of personnel costs
Rs. value of production (-) value of materials etc.
The resulting bonus formula is the value added to a product per labour rupee. The Rucker Plan provides an incentive to save on all inputs, both human and material.
Job Enrichment:
A popular technique that is sometimes applied to productivity and quality problems is redesigning a job in order to increase its motivating potential. This technique is known as Job enrichment or job redesign. It is based on the premise that altering certain aspects of the job to satisfy employees’ psychological needs will motivate workers to try harder to do a good job. Job enrichment is often found as part of a high involvement organisation’s approach.
Job enrichment attempts to correct the “mistakes” of the previous job-design methods. In the past jobs were designed with the principles of simplification, standardisation and specialisation. This led to the removal of many sources of satisfaction and motivation from the job. Contemporary theory attempts to expand the scope of the job to increase its variety, significance, identity, autonomy and feedback
25 A. J. Geare, “Productivity from Scanlon Type Plans”, Academy of Management Review, 1976, vol. 1, No.3, pp. 99-108.
Core Job Dimension Critical Psychological States Personal and Work Outcomes
Skill Variety
Task Identity26
Task Significance. Experienced
Meaningfulness of the work High Internal Work Motivation
Autonomy
Experienced
Responsibility for Outcomes of the Work High Quality Work Performance
Feedback
Knowledge of the Actual Results of Work Activities High Satisfaction with the Work
Low Absenteeism and Turnover
Employee Growth
Need Strength
Job Characteristics Theory
[Source:From J. R. Hackman & G. R. Oldham, “Motivation through the Design of Work : Test of a Theory”, Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance, vol. 16, 1976, pp. 250-279.]
26 - Task Identity means doing a whole identifiable piece of work, such as assembling an entire television set.
These dimensions satisfy the individual’s psychological needs for personal control, knowledge of results, and meaningfulness of work. Because the job satisfies the individual’s psychological needs, the employee enjoys the job more and may strive to do higher quality work of which he can be proud. Redesigning a job to be more interesting and satisfying, however, does not guarantee that productivity will improve. The interesting way to do a job is not always the most streamlined and efficient way. The research results are mixed, with some job redesign efforts resulting in increased performance and others not having this effect. Nevertheless, under the right conditions, job enrichment can pay off.27
Motivation & Job Satisfaction:
One of the most widely discussed theory of motivation is that of Maslow which looks at motivation in terms of a series of relatively separate and distinct drives. Maslow identified five basic needs:
1. The psychological needs such as hunger, thirst, sex, etc.
2. The safety needs for protection against danger, threat and deprivation.
3. The needs for love, belonging to groups, friendship and affection.
4. The esteem needs for self respect and respect of others (ego or status needs).
5. The self actualisation or self-fulfilment needs to achieve maximum inner potential, for maximum self-development and for creativity.
Maslow proposed that these needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Once a basic need is satisfied, another higher level need is likely to be activated. And that a need is never satisfied completely except for a short time. Therefore, people are in a continuous motivational state but the nature of motivation is complex and keeps fluctuating. As experiences show, no need is completely satisfied and they recur periodically. If the satisfaction of the need is denied for any duration, they become more important. But they do not assume significance until lower needs are well satisfied. When people feel deprived of lower level needs all their energies get diverted towards the satisfaction of that need and the need for self-actualisation remains dormant. Hence:
a. Higher level needs are a later evolutionary development.
b. The higher the need and less it is essential for sheer survival, the gratification can be postponed longer and it is easier fir the need, then, to disappear permanently.
c. Living at higher need level means that the lower level needs are satisfied - that is greater biological efficiency, better sleep, better health etc.
d. Higher level needs are less urgent.
e. Higher level needs satisfaction produce as happiness, serenity etc.
f. Pursuit and gratification of higher needs indicate good health.
g. Higher needs require better environmental conditions (education, better economy etc.) to achieve them.
h. Satisfaction of higher needs is means getting closer to self actualisation.
Though subsequent theorists questioned the clear differentiation between need levels (i.e. lower level need has to be satisfied before the higher need), the theory enunciated by Maslow contributes significantly to the insight in to the complexity of human emotion.
27 - Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, “Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity”, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol.76, 1991, pp.322-336.
Motivation-hygiene Concept:
Herzberg and his colleagues attempted, successfully, to operationalise the platform provided by Maslow in work situations. This has been postulated as two-factor theory of motivation and satisfaction.
The theory proposes that the primary determinants of employees’ satisfaction are intrinsic to the work that employees do i.e. recognition, achievement, responsibility, advancement, personal growth in competence. These factors are called motivators as they encourage employees to derive satisfaction of these needs through better job performance. The motivators are also called job-content factors. Absence of these needs in one’s job will not lead to dissatisfaction but to lesser degree of satisfaction or even to apathy and indifference. Dissatisfaction is seen as being determined by a separate set of factors which are extrinsic to the work itself. These aspects of the work environment are called hygiene factors and they include:
company policies, supervisory practices, working conditions, salaries and wages and interpersonal relationships on the job.
The hygiene factors are also called job-context factors. Herzberg theory suggests that a job should enhance positive work motivation and employees’ satisfaction to the extent that it provides opportunities for employees to achieve, gain recognition and responsibility, advance in the organisation, and growth in competence. The presence of hygiene factors will lead to less dissatisfaction among employees but will not provide sufficient conditions for them to experience satisfaction on the job. Therefore employees, in the absence of motivators will not be able to give their best to their organisation.
The theory has gained acceptance universally and has been used in many organisations to enrich the job contents by incorporating motivators in work situations. However, experimental evidence do not support Herzberg’s two-factors all the time. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been found to be related to both satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
There is certain similarity between the two theoretical postulates discussed above. Let us attempt to establish relationship between the two sets of motives and their effect on harnessing human resource potential in organisations.
___________________________________________________________________
Relationship of Motivation to Individual Performance
Systems Need-hierarchy Hygiene Dissatisfiers Motivaor
Dissatisfiers Capacity
Psychological Self-actualisation
Esteem social Achievement
Recognition
Work itself
Responsibility
Advancement
(Job-content
factors) Latent human
capacity
Physical Safety and
Security Company policy
and administration
Supervision
Salary & wages
Interpersonal
relations
(Job-context
factors) Normal
Output
[ B.K. Srivatsava : “Personnel Management Human Resources.” ]
_____________________________________________________________________
In the table above, two basic systems are involved: physical system, which include physiological and anatomical functions and psychosocial systems, which include the individual in organisational context and social context. If we apply the need hierarchy to these systems, we find that physiological and safety needs are related to physical system while higher level needs to psychosocial system. Safety need partly relates to psychosocial system.
Hygiene and motivator factors also relate to the need hierarchy. The two systems overlap some. The dissatisfiers include love, safety and physiological needs, while satisfiers reflect self-actualisation, esteem and love needs. In applying these to individual performance we see that both satisfiers and dissatisfiers are involved in motivating the individual to normal performance. In tapping human capability and moving beyond the normal range of output, the satisfiers become relatively more important.
Motivational Strategies:
With the complexities of human behaviour, existence of multiple needs and gals among employees, differences in the priorities of individual goals and different expectations, it is necessary that multipronged strategies are to be adopted for motivating employees.
1. Performance-based Reward System :
The reward system must be equitable. Employees always compare themselves with others both in the organisation and outside it and if he perceives that his colleagues with identical / similar qualification and experience are receiving more rewards then he perceives the reward as inequitable. If the contribution is perceived to be more than the inducement, the principle of equity is disturbed and an imbalance is created in his mind. In order to return to a balanced state, wither the employee will reduce his contribution or will pressurise the management to increase the inducement. And maintaining the balance is a necessary condition for achieving the purpose for which reward system is developed. Such a balance can be perceived (by the employees) and equity can be maintained if the reward system is based on predetermined, open and transparent performance criteria.
2. Enriching job content :
Herzberg’s two-factor theory (discussed above) provides the basis for enrichment and this is another strategy of motivating employees. Recently, organisations have moved away from job context factors to enriching the job content by providing higher responsibility, enough challenge, advancement and learning (development) opportunities, etc.
Performance Appraisal: M.B.O. Approach:
A very popular individualised method of evaluating the performance of managers is management by objectives (MBO). In several surveys of performance appraisal techniques, more than half the organisations responding used some kind of MBO procedure to evaluate managers’ performance28. The MBO process involves three stages.
1. The employee meets with his superior and agrees on a set of goals to achieve during a specified period of time. Goals should be quantifiable and should include an agreed - on target. Thus, instead of a vague goal of improving customer satisfaction, the goal might be to reduce customer return to no more than 3% of the rupee amount of sales, i.e. not more than Rs. 300 in returns for every Rs. 10,000 in sales.
2. Throughout this period, progress toward the goal is monitored, though the employee is left generally free to determine how to go about meeting them.
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28 - George S. Odiorne, Management by Objectives II (Belmont, Calif.: David S. Lake, 1979).
3. At the end of the period, the employee and the superior again meet to evaluate whether the goals were achieved and to decide together on a new set of goals.
MBO has several advantages. Observable, result oriented goals replace the difficult to observe, subjective traits that are sometimes used in other measures of performance. MBO can encourage innovation and creativity, since employees are free to determine how they will meet their goals. This approach can also lead to performance improvement, particularly if goals are specific, moderately difficult, and accepted by the employees. A “considerable advantage” can also result - top managers set goals with those immediately below them in the hierarchy, who in turn help set the goals of those below them. This cascading effect may help co-ordinate the activities of the entire organisation, with all employees engaged in activities related to the organisation’s overall objectives and strategy.
No all MBO programmes are successful. Some major reasons for failure are presented below:
• Lack of management support
• Inadequate training of managers in how to use MBO
• Easy goals
• Setting unrealistically difficult goals
• Lack of flexibility in setting goals for different units
• Not altering goals to meet changes in circumstances
• Pseudo-participation
• Overemphasising goal attainment
• Excessive paperwork
MBO is a difficult activity, requiring training and a large commitment of time and effort by top management and all other parts of the organisation. A recent summary of studies of MBO results showed considerable differences in productivity gains as a function of top management.29
When top management commitment was high the average gain productivity was 56%. When commitment was low, the average gain in
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29 - Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, “Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity,” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 76, 1991, pp. 322 -336.
productivity was only 6%.30.Even when the method is used successfully, it is difficult to compare performance of employees, since each has different goals and levels of goal accomplishment. Employees who have easy goals may seem to be better employees than those who have more difficult goals, since the first group is more likely to achieve its goals.
Another problem could occur when managers, in an attempt to please their superiors, persuade employees to take on goals that are virtually impossible to achieve. Similarly, top management may set unrealistically high goals for a particular department. Management must set goals that are consistent with a unit’s particular abilities and its importance to overall organisational success. Managers also need to guard against viewing agreed-upon goals as “set-in-stone.” Circumstances in any organisation can change, and a certain amount of adaptability and flexibility in MBO is both legitimate and necessary.
Employees’ participation in the goal setting process is generally seen as an advantage of MBO. Sometimes, however, employees are accepting the goals desired by their supervisor, who simply goes through the motion of letting employees help set goals.31 This problem is especially likely to occur when an organisation has traditionally had an authoritarian managerial culture, and supervisors have not been adequately trained to adopt a more participative management style. Problems also arise when MBO goal attainment becomes the sole criterion on which merit pay and other reward decisions are made. Finally, many managers resent the extra paperwork generated by MBO programmes, a reaction that might reduce their commitment to ensuring the success of the effort.
Raters of Employee Performance:
In most organisations, subjective ratings of employee performance are provided by superiors. However, there are several other potential sources for performance ratings, including employees themselves, peers and subordinates. Each of these sources has its own advantages and disadvantages.
30 - Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, “Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity,” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 76, 1991, pp. 322 - 336.
31 - J. S. Kane and K. A. Freeman, “MBO and Performance Appraisal: A Mixture That’s Not a Solution, Part Two,” Personnel, February 1987, pp. 26 - 32.
Self-Evaluation:
Employees are sometimes asked to evaluate themselves. It seems logical that individuals would be the best judges of their own performance, particularly if supervisors cannot observe them on a regular basis. If employees are asked to evaluate themselves, they may respond by becoming more motivated and involved in the evaluation process.
Self-ratings tend to show more leniency error than supervisor ratings, although halo errors are lower.32 Self-evaluation have become popular as a part of the management by objective process, when the superior and the subordinate jointly evaluate goal attainment. Self-evaluation seems most appropriate when it is used as an employee development tool rather than to make administrative decisions.32 It may also serve as an important input into a supervisory appraisal. An employee’s self-appraisal may provide important of which the superior was not aware. The supervisor can then factor this information into his performance ratings of the employee
Peer Evaluation:
Peer or co-worker evaluations are more stable over time, are better able to distinguish effort from performance, and focus more on task-relevant abilities. One study has concluded that peer ratings may be the most accurate evaluations of employee performance.32 Peer evaluations can be particularly useful when supervisors do not have the opportunity to observe an individual’s performance, but fellow employees do.
Peers sometimes resist evaluating one another. An individual may not want to give a fellow employee a favourable evaluation for fear of looking inferior in comparison. On the other hand, an individual may not want to jeopardise a good working relationship by giving an unfavourable rating to a colleague. Friendship bias may lead an employee to rate his friends higher than other employees.
A survey of 218 industrial employees which had used a peer evaluation system for more than a year found a high degree of user acceptance.33 However, peer evaluations, like self-evaluations, are best used for employee development rather than for administrative decisions. The same survey found that users were more favourable in their attitudes toward peer appraisals that were used for developmental rather than evaluative processes.
32 - Kenneth N. Wexley and Richmond Klimoski, “Performance Appraisal: An Update,” in Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, ed. Kendrith M. Rowland and Gerald R. Ferris (Greenwich, Conn. : JAI Press, 1984, II,35-80
33 - “Companies where employees Rate Executives,” Fortune, December 17, 1993,p. 128. Joyce E. Santora, “Rating the Boss at Chrysler,” Personnel Journal, May 1992, pp. 41-45.
When teamwork, participation, and cohesiveness are part of the organisation’s culture, peer evaluation can work well. In organisations that are competitive and have a low level of trust among the employees, peer evaluations may be little more than a way for employees to enhance themselves by belittling their fellow employees.
Subordinate Evaluation:
Evaluation by subordinates may provide valuable information. They know how well a supervisor performs with respect to leading, organising, planning, delegating, and communicating. In fact, evaluating the boss has become a popular mechanism in many organisations.34
Subordinates may, however, inflate their ratings of a supervisor, especially if they think that the supervisor will be able to make out who has given a particular rating. Complete anonymity is essential if this technique is to provide valid ratings.35 Like self-and peer evaluations, subordinate evaluation is useful for development but has historically not been widely used for making administrative decisions.
Customer Evaluation:
Another source of appraisal information comes from customers or clients. Such appraisals are popular in the context of service, delivery, where there is a high degree of client involvement and when the service employee is relatively removed from other employees or supervisors.34
360-Degree Appraisals:
Many companies have implemented 360-degree appraisals, where performance ratings are collected simultaneously from subordinates, peers, supervisors and employees themselves. Typically 360-degree appraisals are used for development and feedback purposes.36 The focus is on evaluation of competencies that are relevant for job performance in useful behavioural terms. Although 360-degree appraisals are being used
34 - David Antonioni, “The Effects of Feedback Accountability on Upward Appraisal Ratings,” Personnel Psychology, vol. 47, pp. 349 -356.
35 - Joan S. Lubin, “Turning the Tables : Underlings Evaluate Bosses,” Wall Street Journal, October 4, 1994, pp. B1,B14. & Oren Harai, “How Am I Doing?” Management Review November 1992, pp. 55-57.
36 - Brian O’Reilly, “360 Feedback Can Change Your Life,” Fortune, October 17, 1994, pp. 93 - 100.
many firms, they are most successful in organisations that offer open and participative climates, along with active career development systems.37
Performance Counselling:
Counselling is a professional form of interpersonal communication whose purpose is to assist the employee with which eventually to question the knowledge store. It is a planned systematic intervention in the life of an individual who is capable of choosing the goal and the direction of his own development. Counselling is therefore, aimed at maximising human freedom by increasing one’s long term control over his environment and responses which are evoked by it. It develops responsible independence, increases autonomy and assists an individual to help himself.
The capacity of an individual to adapt to different situations depends on his behaviour repertoire which is made up of three elements – experience, perceptions and generalisations. If the behaviour repertoire of an individual is broad and rich, he has within himself to access a variety of response patterns and depending on the demands of the situation he can choose a response which is appropriate, realistic and adaptive for that situation. He has the flexibility to respond to varying situational demands.
The behaviour repertoire is said to be broad based when an individual has had access to variety of experiences, his perceptions are in tune with existing realities and the generalisations that he had made or conclusions that he has arrived at regarding himself, the other people around him and the situation are based on validated information and interpretations. In case a person does not have the opportunity to get exposed to varied experiences, his response pattern will be limited and his behaviour repertoire will be inadequate. Such a person with inadequate behavioural repertoire will not have the flexibility to choose appropriate response to meet the demand of the situation. As a matter of fact, his responses are likely to be repetitive, routine and rigid regardless of the situation (demands).
The behaviour repertoire may be inadequate for any of the following three reasons:
a) lack of experience
b) distortion in perception OR
c) erroneous generalisations
Then his adaptive ability will be considerably reduced. The objective of counselling is to discover and correct inadequacies in behaviour repertoire. These discoveries can be made by the person himself, the organisation or the counsellor. The counselling methods can be grouped, therefore, in to two types:
37 - Bob Cardy and Greg Dobbins, “The Changing Face of Performance Appraisal : Customer Evaluation and 360 Appraisals,” Human Resources Division News, Spring 1993, vol.16, pp. 17-18
1. Directive Counselling in which the counsellor discovers and provides interpretations of the inadequacies &
2. Non-directive counselling in which the client discovers his own inadequacies and develops a plan of action to deal with them. The counsellor only facilitates the self-discovery on the part of the client.
Choice of a particular method of counselling depends on the nature of the problem. If lack of experience can be most effectively handled by directive counselling; distortions in perceptions or erroneous generalisation is most effectively handled by non-directive counselling, or client self discovery.
Nature of Counselling:
Non-directive counselling is being more widely used in dealing with problem employees who exhibit maladaptive behaviour in organisations. Counselling has been described as a helping relationship between the person seeking help (client) and the person providing help (counsellor). It uses a positive approach. Underlying assumptions of counselling are:
1. People can grow, they can improve. The counsellor must believe in the worth of the individual and in that person’s ability to do better.
2. Counselling is an investment in the individual which will result in future payoffs for both the parties.
3. Counselling is learning process. The client is encouraged to diagnose his own shortcomings and to become aware of the need for corrective steps. The change achieved thus is more lasting than any change that is imposed.
4. Counselling involves confrontation. The client must learn to confront his own inadequacies and problems. The problems therefore will have to be brought out. Confrontation can cause stress, which is a necessary condition for change.
5. Acceptance of an individual as he is by the counsellor is important. The client must be accepted as a worthy human being capable of growth and development.
6. Counselling is a continuous and time consuming process that is likely to involve several sessions.
7. The effectiveness of counselling is determined by specific change in behaviour taking place in the client.
Career Planning:
Top management candidates are not the only employees in need of career planning attention from the organisation. Lower managers, professionals and other employees also desire satisfying careers and may leave the organisation that are not seen as offering appropriate opportunities. Having defined career goals and being aware of other job opportunities within the firm may also motivate employees to work harder at developing their skills because they understand how effort now will pay off later. Realising this, many organisations engage in formal career planning activities with their employees.
Career planning involves several steps. The first is self assessment by the employee i.e. understand who one is, what one values, what one is good at and enjoys, and what one wants to accomplish over the long term. The second step is gathering information about different job opportunities and potential career paths either inside or outside the present organisation. The third step is formulating career goals and a plan for achieving them. Plans may include on or off the job training, special assignment, changes in job, occupation or employer.
Individuals can, and traditionally have, engaged in career planning on their own, with little assistance from their employer. However, employer involvement is desirable because better information on internal career paths can be made available, a large percentage of employees can be induced to plan, and plans can be more realistic in view of future organisational needs and development opportunities.
Given below is the many tools that organisation may utilise to facilitate employee career planning:
A. Self assessment tools
1. Career planning workshops
2. Career workbooks
3. Preretirement workshops
B. Individual counselling
1. Personnel staff
2. Professional counsellor
a) Internal
b) External
3. Outplacement
4. Supervisor or line manager
C. Internal labour market information / placement exchanges
1. Job posting
2. Skills inventories
3. Career ladders / career path planning
4. Career resource centre
5. Other career communication formats
D. Organisational potential assessment processes
1. Assessment centres
2. Promotability forecasts
3. Replacement / succession planning
4. Psychological testing
E. Developmental Programmes
1. Job rotation
2. In-house human resource development programmes
3. External seminars / workshops
4. Tuition reimbursement / educational assistance
5. Supervisor training in career counselling
6. Dual career programmes
7. Mentoring systems
Dual-Career and Family Issues in Career Planning:
Career planning has historically targeted one employee at a time. Now however, an increasing number of employees have spouses who are active in the work force and whose career and employment prospects must also be considered in career decisions. Each partner has a strong commitment to building a continuous and challenging career and the needs of each must be carefully balanced in career planning activities.
The need to consider a spouse’s employment prospects has made many employees less willing to accept relocation offers from their employers and it is affecting the way the organisations deploy and develop human resources. Organisations are paying more attention to the career needs of spouses employed by other firms when geographic transfers are necessary, and they are becoming more open to employing both partners in a dual career marriage. Attempts are made to transfer both the parties to the same location at the same time whenever possible. Paying attention to spousal career issues is one way to retain valued professionals.
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