Organisational Behaviour PDF

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UNIVERSITEIT VAN PRETORIA UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA YUNIBESITHI YA PRETORIA Notice warning concerning copyright restrictions The Copyright Act, 1978 (Act 98 of 1978) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries are authorized to provide a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. The DLS reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfilment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. For any copyright related queries, please contact: [email protected] R.W. G riffin J.M. Phillips S.M. Gully N.M.H. Carrim Organisational Behaviour Managing People and Organisations FIRST SOUTH AFRICAN EDITION Australia Brazil Mexico Singapore South Africa United Kingdom United States Organisational Behaviour, © 2019 (engage Learning, EMEA First South African Edition R.W. Griffin, J.M. Phillips, S.M. Gully, N.M.H. Carrim ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, without Publisher: Marinda Louw the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Marketing Manager: Tim Lees Senior Content Project Manager: Sue Povey For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Manufacturing Manager: Eyvett Davis [email protected] Typesetter: Lumina Datamatics, Inc. For permission to use material from this text or product and for permission queries, email [email protected] Text Design: Lumina Datamatics, Inc. Cover Design: Design Deluxe Ltd Cover lmage(s): © iStock.com/Eerik British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4737-5914-5 Cengage Learning EMEA Cheriton House, North Way Andover, Hampshire, SP10 5BE United Kingdom Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with employees residing in nearly 40 different countries and sales in more than 125 countries around the world. Find your local representative at: www.cengage.co.uk. Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your course and learning solutions, visit www.cengage.co.uk. Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.cengagebrain.com. Printed in China by RR Donnelley Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2019  environment. The agency undertook an in-depth the retail year. Thirdly, management's need to travel analysis of the effectiveness of the group's existing frequently undermined managers' responsibilities classroom-based training programmes, and found to provide employee support though coaching that the programmes did not meet the demands of the and on-the-job training. And finally, the training deadline-driven, high-pressure environment in which Mr programmes did not encourage employees to apply Price employees were expected to perform. what they had learnt practically in the workplace The agency identified four problem areas in once they had completed their training. the group's training programmes. Firstly, training Suppose that a leader from the Mr Price group workshops took up too much time. It was not possible asks you for the kind of advice it would receive from for Mr Price employees to be away from their jobs a performance agency such as LRMG about how to for long periods to attend training. Secondly, the imitate the training success that she has seen in other, timing of training schedule was not very flexible. similar, organisations to improve the motivation levels This meant that employees would forego training if it of Mr Price Group staff. After reading this chapter, you was scheduled to happen during the busiest times in will have some suggestions to give her. ,;;~t -:;" Identify and describe arrangements, and Discuss performance I.EARNING different approaches to identify how they can management and its OIJIGOMES job design and relate impact motivation. role in motivation. each to motivation. Describe the goal- Describe how After studying Discuss employee setting theory of organisations use this chapter, you participation, motivation and discuss various kinds of should be able to: empowerment broader perspectives rewards to motivate and flexible work on goal setting. employees. Chapter 5 described a variety of perspectives on motivation. But no single theory or model completely explains motivation - each covers only some of the factors that actually result in motivated behaviour. Moreover, even if one theory were applicable in a particular situation, a manager might still need to translate that theory into operational terms. Thus, while using the actual theories as tools or frameworks, managers need to understand various operational procedures, systems and methods for enhancing motivation and performance. Figure 6.1 illustrates a basic framework for relating various theories of motivation to potential and actual motivation and to operational methods for translating this potential and actual motivation into performance. The left side of the figure illustrates that motivated behaviour can be induced by need-based or process-based circumstances. That is, people may be motivated to satisfy various specific needs or through various processes such as perceptions of inequity, expectancy relationships and reinforcement contingencies. These need-, process- and learning-based concepts result in the situation illustrated in the centre of the figure - a certain potential exists for motivated behaviour directed at enhanced performance. For example, suppose that 203 20 4 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organ isations FIG U RE 6. 1 Enhancing Performance in Organisations Job design ----. Need-based perspectives on Employee ____. motivation participation ____. Flexible work ~ Potential for motivated arrangements Enhanced behaviour directed at performance enhanced performance Goal setting ~ Process-bas~ perspectives Performance ~ motivation management Organisational ____. rewards Managers can use avariety of methods to enhance performance in organisations. The need- and process-based perspectives on motivation explain some of the factors involved in increasing the potential for motivated behaviour directed at enhanced performance. Managers can then use such means as goal setting, job design, flexible work arrangements, performance management, rewards and organisational behaviour motivation to help translate this potential into actual enhanced performance. an employee wants more social relationships - that is, he wants to satisfy belongingness, relatedness, or affiliation needs. This means that there is potential for the employee to want to perform at a higher level if he thinks that higher performance will satisfy those social needs. Likewise, if an employee's high performance in the past was followed by strong positive reinforcement, there is again a potential for motivation directed at enhanced performance. But managers may need to take certain steps to translate the potential for motivation directed at enhanced performance into real motivation and enhanced performance. In some cases, these steps may be tied to the specific need or process that has created the existing potential. For example, providing more opportunities for social interaction contingent on improved performance might capitalise on an employee's social needs. More typically, however, a manager needs to go further to help translate potential into real performance. The right-hand side of Figure 6.1 names some of the more common methods used to enhance performance. This chapter covers these six methods: job design, employee participation and empowerment, flexible work arrangements, goal setting, performance management and organisational rewards. Job Design in Organisations Job design is an important method that managers can use to enhance employee job design performance. 2 When work design is addressed at the individual level, it is most How organisations define commonly referred to as job design; it can be defined as how organisations define and structure jobs and structure jobs. As we will see, properly designed jobs can have a positive impact  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 20S on the motivation, performance and job satisfaction of those who perform them. On the other hand, poorly designed jobs can impair motivation, performance and job satisfaction. The first widespread model of how individual work should be designed was job specialisation. For example, a worker who applies safety decals to a piece of equipment as that equipment moves down an assembly line is performing a specialised job. JOB SPECIALISATION job specialisation Frederick Taylor, the chief proponent of job specialisation, argued that jobs Breaking jobs down into should be scientifically studied, broken down into small component tasks, and small component tasks and then standardised across all workers doing those jobs. 3 Taylor's view grew from standardising them across all the historical writings about division of labour advocated by Scottish economist workers doing those jobs Adam Smith. In practice, job specialisation generally brought most, if not all, of the advantages its advocates claimed. Specialisation paved the way for large-scale assembly lines and was at least partly responsible for the dramatic gains in output that companies in the South African motor industry, such as BMW South Africa, have achieved in this country. On the surface, job specialisation appears to be a rational and efficient way to structure jobs. The jobs in many factories, for instance, are highly specialised and Job specialisation involves carefully studying jobs, breaking those jobs down into small component tasks, and then standardising how those tasks should be performed across all workers performing the jobs. These workers are following standard procedures in how they perform their specialised jobs.  206 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations are often designed to maximise productivity. In practice, however, performing those jobs can cause problems, foremost among them the extreme monotony of highly specialised tasks. Consider the job of assembling toasters. A person who does the entire assembly may find the job complex and challenging, albeit inefficient. If the job is specialised so that the worker simply inserts a heating coil into the toaster as it passes along on an assembly line, the process may be efficient, but it is unlikely to interest or challenge the worker. A worker numbed by boredom and monotony may be less motivated to work hard and more inclined to do poor- quality work or to complain about the job. For these reasons, managers began to search for job design alternatives to specialisation. BASIC ALTERNATIVES TO JOB SPECIALISATION In response to problems with job specialisation, and a general desire to explore ways to create less monotonous jobs, managers began to seek alternative ways to design jobs. Managers initially developed two alternative approaches, job rotation and job enlargement. These approaches, along with job enrichment, remain common today. Job Rotation job rotation Job rotation involves systematically shifting workers from one job to another to Systematically moving sustain their motivation and interest. Under specialisation, each task is broken workers from one job to down into small parts. For example, assembling fine writing pens such as those another in an attempt to made by Mont Blanc or Cross might involve four discrete steps: testing the ink minimise monotony and cartridge, inserting the cartridge into the barrel of the pen, screwing the cap onto boredom the barrel, and inserting the assembled pen into a box. One worker might perform step one, another step two, and so forth. When job rotation is introduced, the tasks themselves stay the same. However, the workers who perform them are systematically rotated across the various tasks. Sureshnie, for example, starts out with task 1 (testing ink cartridges). On a regular basis - perhaps weekly or monthly - she is systematically rotated to task 2, to task 3, to task 4, and back to task 1. Tebogo, who starts out on task 2 (inserting cartridges into barrels), rotates ahead of Sureshnie to tasks 3, 4, l, and back to 2. Unfortunately, job rotation does not entirely address issues of monotony and boredom, however. 4 That is, if a rotation cycle takes workers through the same old jobs, the workers simply experience several routine and boring jobs instead of just one. Although a worker may begin each job shift with a bit of renewed interest, the effect usually is short-lived. Rotation may also decrease efficiency. For example, it sacrifices the proficiency and expertise that grow from specialisation. At the same time, job rotation is an effective training technique because a worker rotated through a variety of related jobs acquires a larger set of job skills. Thus, there is increased flexibility in transferring workers to new jobs. Standard Bank, for example, has established a programme in which it rotates graduates to different business areas such as corporate investment banking, personal and business banking, and group finance. This gives employees exposure to the areas they need to build a career, and increases the bank's overall quantitative analysis capacity. 5 Vodacom South Africa also rotates its employees regularly to encourage learning sharing and broaden employee knowledge. 6 job enlargement Job Enlargement Involves giving workers Job enlargement, or horizontal job loading, is expanding a worker's job to include more tasks to perform tasks previously performed by other workers. For instance, if job enlargement were  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 207 introduced at a Cross pen plant, the four tasks noted above might be combined into two 'larger' ones. Hence, one set of workers might each test cartridges and then insert them into barrels (old steps 1 and 2); another set of workers might then attach caps to the barrels and put the pens into boxes (old steps 3 and 4). The logic behind this change is that the increased number of tasks in each job reduces monotony and boredom. Municipalities, for example, practise job enlargement. For example, a meter reader records information from water meters, capturing the information on his or her hand-held terminal and uploading it to the system. This reduces the need for the municipality to hire many data capturers to capture meter data. So, the meter reader's job involves reading water meters, checking meters to determine whether they need repairing or servicing, checking for leaks and keeping records of water use. 7 Job Enrichment Job rotation and job enlargement seemed promising but eventually disappointed managers seeking to counter the ill effects of extreme specialisation. They failed partly because they were intuitive, narrow approaches rather than fully developed, theory-driven methods. Consequently, a new, more complex job enrichment approach to task design - job enrichment - was developed. Job enrichment is Entails giving workers more based on the two-factor theory of motivation, which is discussed in Chapter 5. tasks to perform and more That theory contends that employees can be motivated by positive job-related control over how to perform experiences such as feelings of achievement, responsibility and recognition. To them achieve these, job enrichment relies on vertical job loading - not only adding more tasks to a job, as in horizontal loading, but also giving the employee more control over those tasks. 8 AT&T, Texas Instruments, IBM and General Foods have all used job enrichment. For example, AT&T utilised job enrichment in a group of eight people who were responsible for preparing service orders. Managers believed turnover in the group was too high and performance too low. Analysis revealed several deficiencies in the work. The group worked in relative isolation, and any service representative could ask them to prepare work orders. As a result, they had little client contact or responsibility, and they received scant feedback on their job performance. The job enrichment programme focused on creating a process team. Each member of the team was paired with a service representative, and the tasks were restructured: Ten discrete steps were replaced with three more complex ones. In addition, the group members began to get specific feedback on performance, and their job titles were changed to reflect their greater responsibility and status. As a result of these changes, the number of orders delivered on time increased from 27 per cent to 90 per cent, accuracy improved, and turnover decreased significantly. 9 At the same time, we should note that many job enrichment programmes have failed. Some companies have found job enrichment to be cost ineffective, and others believe that it simply did not produce the expected results. 10 Some of the criticism is associated with flaws in the two-factor theory of motivation on which job enrichment is based. Because of these and other problems, job enrichment is not as popular as it was a few years ago. Yet some valuable aspects of the concept can be salvaged. The efforts of managers and academic theorists ultimately have led to more complex and sophisticated viewpoints. Many of these advances are evident in the job characteristics theory, which we consider next. 208 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations Job enrichment involves both giving workers more tasks to perform and more control over how to perform them. This clothing designer, for example, gets to select fabrics, develop new designs and then tailor the designs into new clothing. job characteristics theory Uses five motivational THE JOB CHARACTERISTICS THEORY properties of tasks and three The job characteristics theory focuses on the specific motivational properties of jobs. critical psychological states The theory, diagrammed in Figure 6.2, was developed by Hackman and Oldham. 11 to improve outcomes At the core of the theory is the idea of critical psychological states. These states are FIG U RE 6. 2 The Job Characteristics Theory Core job dimensions Personal and work outcomes I 1 High-quality Experienced work performance Autonomy _ _ _ _ _ _ _ responsibility for outcomes of the work High satisfaction with the work Knowledge of the Feedback - - - - - - - actual results of ---~ Low absenteeism and turnover work activities The job characteristics theory is an important contemporary model of how to design jobs. By using five core job characteristics, managers can enhance three critical psychological states. These states, in turn, can improve a variety of personal and work outcomes. Individual differences also affect how the job characteristics affect people.  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 209 presumed to determine the extent to which characteristics of the job enhance employee responses to the task. The three critical psychological states are: 1. Experienced meaningfulness of the work: The degree to which the individual experiences the job as generally meaningful, valuable and worthwhile 2. Experienced responsibility for work outcomes: The degree to which individuals feel personally accountable and responsible for the results of their work 3. Knowledge of results: the degree to which individuals continuously understand how effectively they are performing the job. If employees experience these states at a sufficiently high level, they are likely to feel good about themselves and to respond favourably to their jobs. Hackman and Oldham suggest that the three critical psychological states are triggered by the following five characteristics of the job, or core job dimensions: 1. Skill variety: The degree to which the job requires a variety of activities that involve different skills and talents 2. Task identity: The degree to which the job requires completion of a 'whole' and an identifiable piece of work; that is, the extent to which a job has a beginning and an end with a tangible outcome 3. Task significance: The degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people, both in the immediate organisation and in the external environment 4. Autonomy: The degree to which the job allows the individual substantial freedom, independence and discretion to schedule the work and determine the procedures for carrying it out S. Feedback: The degree to which the job activities give the individual direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance Figure 6.2 shows that these five job characteristics, operating through the critical psychological states, affect a variety of personal and work outcomes: high internal work motivation (that is, intrinsic motivation), high-quality work performance, high satisfaction with the work and low absenteeism and turnover. The figure also suggests that individual differences play a role in job design. People with strong needs for personal growth and development will be especially motivated by the five core job characteristics. On the other hand, people with weaker needs for personal growth and development are less likely to be motivated by the core job characteristics. Several companies, including Volvo South Africa, Triomf and Motorola South Africa, have successfully implemented job design changes using this theory. The Improve your skills feature will help you develop stronger insights into the complexities of how jobs can be redesigned. Much research has been devoted to this approach to job design. 12 This research has generally supported the theory, although performance has seldom been found to correlate with job characteristics. 13 Several apparent weaknesses in the theory have also come to light. First, the measures used to test the theory are not always as valid and reliable as they should be. Further, the role of individual differences frequently has not been supported by research. Finally, guidelines for implementation are not specific, so managers usually tailor them to their own particular circumstances. Still, the theory remains a popular perspective on studying and changing jobs. 14 21 0 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations This exercise will help you assess the processes Use this formula to calculate the MPS for each involved in designing jobs to make them more job in step l. motivating. To start, your lecturer will divide the class 3. Your lecturer will now assign your group one into groups of three or four people each. In assessing of the jobs from the list. Discuss how you might the characteristics of jobs, use a scale value of l ('very reasonably go about enriching the job. little') to 7 ('very high'). 4. Calculate the new MPS score for the redesigned 1. Using the scale values above, assign scores job and check its new position in the rank on each core job dimension used in the job ordering. characteristics theory (see below) to the following S. Discuss the feasibility of your redesign jobs: administrative assistant, professor, food suggestions. In particular, look at how your server, car mechanic, lawyer, cook, department recommended changes might necessitate store employee, construction worker, newspaper changes in other jobs, in the reward system, and reporter and call centre operator. in the selection criteria used to hire people for 2. Researchers often assess the motivational the job. properties of jobs by calculating their motivating 6. Briefly discuss your observations with the rest of potential score (MPS). The usual formula for MPS is the class. (Variety + Identity + Significance) A F db k - ~ - - ~ ~ ~ - - - x utonomy x ee ac 3 Employee Participation and Involvement Employee motivation can also be enhanced in some cases through the use of participation and empowerment. In a sense, participation and empowerment are extensions of job design because each fundamentally alters how employees in an participation organisation perform their jobs. Participation occurs when employees have a voice Entails giving employees a in decisions about their own work. (One important model that can help managers voice in making decisions determine the optimal level of employee participation, Vroom's decision-tree about their own work approach, is discussed in Chapter 11.) Empowerment is the process of enabling empowerment workers to set their own work goals, make decisions and solve problems within The process of enabling their spheres of responsibility and authority. Thus, empowerment is a somewhat workers to set their own broader concept that promotes participation in a wide variety of areas, including work goals, make decisions but not limited to work itself, work context and work environment. 15 and solve problems within The role of participation and empowerment in motivation can be expressed in their sphere of responsibility terms of both the need-based perspectives and the expectancy theory discussed and authority in Chapter 5. Employees who participate in decision making may be more committed to executing decisions properly. Furthermore, successfully making a decision, executing it and then seeing the positive consequences can help satisfy one's need for achievement, provide recognition and responsibility, and enhance self-esteem. Simply being asked to participate in organisational decision making may also enhance an employee's self-esteem. In addition, participation should help clarify expectancies (as a component of expectancy theory, as discussed in Chapter 5). That is, by participating in decision making, employees may better understand the linkage (instrumentality) between their performance and the rewards they want most.  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 211 AREAS OF EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION At one level, employees can participate in addressing questions and making decisions about their own jobs. Instead of just telling them how to do their jobs, for example, managers can ask employees to make their own decisions about how to do them. Based on their own expertise and experience with their tasks, workers might be able to improve their own productivity. In many situations, they might also be well qualified to make decisions about which materials to use, which tools to use, and so forth. According to Themba Nyathi, the group human resources executive for MTN South Africa, MTN is less formally and hierarchically structured than many other companies, making it a working environment that has less managerial control - as Nyathi says, "MTN's culture is that of high innovation, ideas incubator and great personal freedom to generate the best processes and ideas. We established such a culture out of feedback from staff members. MTN is a leader in the ICT sector and in order to survive one has to embrace a culture that promotes less structures to facilitate the flow of ideas': 16 It might also help to let workers make decisions about administrative matters, such as work schedules. If jobs are relatively independent of one another, employees might decide when to change shifts, take breaks, go to lunch, and so forth. A workgroup or team might also be able to schedule vacations and days off for all of its members. Furthermore, employees are getting increasing opportunities to participate in broader issues of product quality. Involvement of this type has become a hallmark of successful Japanese and other international companies, and many South African companies have followed suit. APPROACHES TO PARTICIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT In recent years, many organisations have actively sought ways to extend employee participation and empowerment beyond the traditional areas. Simple techniques such as suggestion boxes and question-and-answer meetings allow a certain degree of participation, for example. The basic motive has been to better capitalise on the assets and capabilities inherent in all employees. Thus, many managers today prefer the term 'empowerment' to 'participation' because it implies a more comprehensive level of involvement. One method some companies use to empower their workers is work teams. This method grew out of early attempts to use what Japanese companies call 'quality circles: A quality circle is a group of employees who voluntarily meet regularly to identify and propose solutions to problems related to quality. Quality circles quickly evolved into a broader and more comprehensive array of workgroups, now generally called 'work teams: These teams are collections of employees empowered to plan, organise, direct and control their own work. Their supervisor, rather than being a traditional 'boss: plays more the role of a coach. We discuss work teams more fully in Chapter 7. The other method some organisations use to facilitate employee involvement is to change their overall method of organising. The basic pattern is for an organisation to eliminate layers from its hierarchy, thereby becoming much more decentralised. Power, responsibility and authority are delegated as far down the organisation as possible, so control of work is squarely in the hands of those who actually do it. In the US, Netflix has high performance standards for its employees as it competes with Amazon and Apple in the video streaming and rental market. The company hires talented employees, pays them generously, focuses employees on clear goals, and empowers them to do what they need to do to reach their goals.17 21 2 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations It even lets employees take as much leave as they want, as long as it does not interfere with their work. 18 Technology also helps organisations empower workers by making better and timelier information available to everyone in the organisation. Although some employees are likely to feel more motivated when empowered, other employees may not react positively. Increased responsibility does not motivate everyone. Nonetheless, empowerment can be an important management tool to increase the motivation of many employees. Practical ways to empower others include: 19 articulating a clear vision and goals fostering personal mastery experiences to enhance self-efficacy and build skills modelling successful behaviours sending positive messages and arousing positive emotions in employees connecting employees with the outcomes of their work and giving them feedback building employee confidence by showing competence, honesty and fairness. Regardless of the specific technique used, however, empowerment only enhances organisational effectiveness if certain conditions exist. Firstly, the organisation must be sincere in its efforts to spread power and autonomy to lower levels of the organisation. Token efforts to promote participation in just a few areas are unlikely to succeed. Secondly, the organisation must be committed to maintaining participation and empowerment. Workers will be resentful if they are given more control only to have it reduced or taken away altogether later. Thirdly, the organisation must be systematic and patient in its efforts to empower workers. Turning over too much control too quickly can spell disaster. Finally, the organisation must be prepared to increase its commitment to training. Employees who are given more freedom concerning how they work are likely to need additional training to help them exercise that freedom most effectively. The Global issues feature provides some insights into participation and empowerment in other countries. GLOBAL ISSUES Participation Around the World Some people think that it was U.S. business that direct supervision, set its own work pace, and even pioneered the use of work teams. Not true. One of the took breaks in its own private break area complete first firms to use work teams was the Swedish (at the with shower and locker facilities. Volvo's logic for time) automaker Volvo. Back in the mid: 1970s Volvo this approach was that by empowering its employees designed and built a totally different kind of factory and allowing them to participate in making decisions in the town of Kalmar, Sweden. Rather than relying about their work, those employees would be more on traditional assembly lines, where workers stood motivated and produce higher-quality products. along a moving conveyor built and performed simple Japanese automakers like Toyota, Nissan, and individual assembly tasks to partially assembled cars Honda also used teams long before their U.S. moving along the belt, the Kalmar factory moved counterparts. The Japanese plants more closely platforms with partially assembled cars from one resemble a traditional assembly line arrangement, team area to another. As a platform entered a team's but workers still function in teams and are not area, the team members worked together as a team restricted to staying within a defined space and not in completing a long list of tasks assigned to that required to perform a specialized task. Instead, the team. For the most part, each team worked without workers -within each team are allowed to move from  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 21 3 one work space to another, to help one another A key reason these approaches have worked so well out, to work on tasks together, and to cover for a in Sweden and Japan is the close connection between team member who needs a quick break. Another performance and rewards. Most U.S. work systems hallmark of the Japanese system is that any worker are built around individua l contributions, individual is empowered to stop the assembly line on his or performance and individual rewards. But at Kalmar and own authority if a problem is detected. This team- in Japan, work is centered around teams. So, too, are or iented approach, based on participation and rewards. That is, rewards and recognition are provided empowerment, is often cited as a factor in the global based on team performance, rather than individual dominance of Japanese automobile companies, performance. As a result, it is in the best interest of all team especially related to product quality. members to work together as productively as possible. Flexible Work Arrangements Beyond the actual redesigning of jobs and the use of employee involvement, many organisations today are experimenting with a variety of flexible work arrangements. These arrangements are generally intended to enhance employee motivation and performance by giving workers more flexibility about how and when they work. Among the more popular flexible work arrangements are variable work schedules, flexible work schedules, extended work schedules, job sharing and telecommuting. 20 VARIABLE WORK SCHEDULES There are many exceptions, of course, but the traditional professional work schedule in South Africa, as provided by the Department of Labour, is nine hours per day (45 hours per week), five days a week (and, of course, managers and other professionals often work many additional hours outside of these times). Although the exact starting and ending times vary, most companies in other countries have also used a well-defined work schedule. But such a schedule makes it difficult for workers to attend to routine personal business - going to the bank, seeing a doctor or dentist for a check-up, having a parent-teacher conference, getting a car serviced, and so forth. Employees locked into this work schedule may find it necessary to take a sick leave or leave day to handle these activities. On a more psychological level, some people may feel so powerless and constrained by their job schedules that they grow resentful and frustrated. To help counter these problems, one alternative some businesses use is a compressed work schedule compressed work schedule. 21 An employee following a compressed work Work schedule in which schedule works a full 45-hour week in fewer than the traditional five days. Another employees work a full alternative is for employees to complete the week's hours by lunchtime on Friday. 45-hour week in fewer than Companies that have used these forms of compressed workweeks include tax the traditional five days advisory company Grant Thornton and Old Mutual. 22 One problem with this schedule is that if everyone in the organisation is off at the same time, the company may have no one on duty to handle problems or deal with outsiders on the off day. On the other hand, if a company staggers days off across the workforce, people who don't get the more desirable days off (Monday and Friday, for most people) may be jealous or resentful. Another problem is that when employees put in too much time in a single day, they tend to get tired and perform at a lower level later in the day. A popular schedule some organisations are beginning to use is an arrangement in which an employee works a traditional schedule one week and a compressed schedule the next, getting every other Friday off. That is, they work 90 hours (the equivalent of two weeks of full-time work) in nine days. By alternating the regular 2 14 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations and compressed schedules across half of its workforce, the organisation is staffed at all times but still gives employees two additional full days off each month. Barloworld South Africa and Sanlam are two of the businesses that currently use this schedule. job sharing Finally, a special form of compressed work schedule is job sharing. In job sharing, Two or more part-time two part-time employees share one full-time job. Job sharing may be desirable for employees sharing one people who only want to work part time or when job markets are tight. For its part, full-time job the organisation can accommodate the preferences of a broader range of employees and may benefit from the talents of more people. Perhaps the simplest job-sharing arrangement to visualise is that of a receptionist. To share this job, one worker would staff the receptionist's desk from, say, 8:00 a.m. to noon each day; the office might close from noon to 1:00 p.m., and a second worker would staff the desk from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. To the casual observer or visitor to the office, the fact that two people serve in one job is essentially irrelevant. The responsibilities of the job in the morning and responsibilities in the afternoon are not likely to be interdependent. Thus, the position can easily be broken down into two or perhaps even more components. EXTENDED WORK SCHEDULES In certain cases, some organisations use another type of work scheduling called an extended work schedule extended work schedule. An extended work schedule is one that requires relatively Work schedule that requires long periods of work followed by relatively long periods of paid time off. These relatively long periods of schedules are most often used when the cost of transitioning from one worker to work followed by relatively another is high and there are efficiencies associated with having a small workforce. long periods of paid time off For example, Doctors without Borders provides emergency medical help to people affected by conflict, epidemics and disasters such as natural disasters. All doctors, including South African doctors, who work with the organisation work compressed hours. Their hours depend on the health-care needs in the areas in which they are working. Some organisations find it useful to use extended work hours.- work schedules with relatively long periods of work followed by relatively long periods of paid time off. Firms that operate off-shore drilling platforms like this one, for example, shuttle workers back and forth between the work site and shore by helicopter. Workers on the platform may work 10 or even 12 hours a day, every day, for several weeks straight. They then get an extended period of leave.  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 21 S FLEXIBLE WORK SCHEDULES flexible work schedules Another popular alternative work arrangement is flexible work schedules, {or flexitime) sometimes called flexitime. The compressed work schedules previously discussed Give employees more give employees time off during 'normal' working hours, but they must still follow a personal control over the regular and defined schedule on the days when they do work. Flexitime, however, hours they work each day usually gives employees less say about which days they work but more personal control over the times when they work on those days. 23 Figure 6.3 illustrates how flexitime works. The workday is broken down into two categories: flexible time and core time. All employees must be at their workstations during core time, but they can choose their own schedules during flexible time. Thus, one employee may choose to start work early in the morning and finish by mid- afternoon, another to start in the late morning and work until late afternoon, and a third to start early in the morning, take a long lunch break, and work until late afternoon. The major advantage of this approach, as already noted, is that workers get to tailor their workday to fit their personal needs. A person who needs to visit the dentist in the late afternoon can just start work early. A person who stays out late one night can start work late the next day. And the person who needs to run some errands during lunch can take a longer midday break. On the other hand, flexitime is more difficult to manage because others in the organisation may not be sure when a person will be available for meetings other than during the core time. Expenses such as utilities will also be higher since the organisation must remain open for a longer period each day. Some organisations use a plan in which workers set their own hours, but must then follow that schedule each day. Others allow workers to modify their own schedule each day. Organisations that have used the flexible work schedule method for arranging work include Old Mutual 24 and Absa. 25 FIGURE 6. 3 Flexible Work Schedules 6:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. - 11 :00 a.m. 1 :00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. Core Core time time Flexible work schedules are an important new work arrangement used in some organisations today. All employees must be at work during 'core time'. In the hypothetical example shown here, core time is from 9 to 11 a.m. and l to 3 p.m. The other time, then, is flexible - employees can come and go as they please during this time, as long as the total time spent at work meets organisational expectations. ALTERNATIVE WORKPLACES Another recent innovation in work arrangements is the use of alternative workplaces. The most common version of this approach is usually called telecommuting telecommuting - allowing employees to spend part of their time working off- Work arrangement in which site, usually at home. By using e-mail, web interfaces and other technology, many employees spend part of employees can maintain close contact with their organisation and do as much work their time working off-site at home as they could in their offices. The increased power and sophistication of modern communication technology - laptops and smartphones, among others - is making telecommuting easier and easier. 26 (Other terms used to describe this concept are e-commuting and working from home.) 21 6 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations On the plus side, many employees like telecommuting because it gives them added flexibility. By spending one or two days a week at home, for instance, they have the same kind of flexibility to manage personal activities as is afforded by flexitime or compressed schedules. Some employees also feel that they get more work done by staying at home because they are less likely to be interrupted. Organisations may benefit for several reasons as well: (I) they can reduce absenteeism and turnover since employees will need to take less 'formal' time off, and (2) they can save on facilities such as parking spaces because fewer people will be at work on any given day. There are also environmental benefits, given that fewer cars are on the highways. On the other hand, although many employees thrive under this arrangement, others do not. Some feel isolated and miss the social interaction of the workplace. Others simply lack the self-control and discipline to walk away from the breakfast table to their desk and start working. Managers may also encounter coordination difficulties in scheduling meetings and other activities that require face-to-face contact. Goal Setting and Motivation Goal setting is another very useful method of enhancing employee performance. 27 goal From a motivational perspective, a goal is a meaningful objective. Goals are used Ameaningful objective for two purposes in most organisations. Firstly, they provide a useful framework for managing motivation. Managers and employees can set goals for themselves and then work towards them. Thus, if the organisation's overall goal is to increase sales by I O per cent, a manager can use individual goals to help attain that organisational goal. Secondly, goals are an effective control device (control meaning the monitoring by management of how well the organisation is performing). Comparing people's short-term performances with their goals can be an effective way to monitor the organisation's longer-term performance. Social learning theory perhaps best describes the role and importance of goal setting in organisations. 28 This perspective suggests that feelings of pride or shame about performance are a function of the extent to which people achieve their goals. A person who achieves a goal will be proud of having done so, whereas a person who fails to achieve a goal will feel personal disappointment and perhaps even shame. People's degree of pride or disappointment is affected by their self-efficacy, the extent to which they feel that they can still meet their goals even if they failed to do so in the past. GOAL-SETTING THEORY Social learning theory provides insights into why and how goals can motivate behaviour. It also helps us understand how different people cope with failure to reach their goals. The research of Edwin Locke and his associates most clearly established the utility of goal-setting theory in a motivational context. 29 Locke's goal-setting theory of motivation assumes that behaviour is a result of conscious goals and intentions. Therefore, by setting goals for people in the organisation, a manager should be able to influence their behaviour. Given this premise, the challenge is to develop a thorough understanding of the processes by which people set their goals and then work to reach them. In the original version of goal-setting theory, two specific goal characteristics - goal difficulty and goal specificity - were expected to shape performance.  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 21 7 Goal Difficulty goal difficulty Goal difficulty is the extent to which a goal is challenging and requires effort. The extent to which a goal If people work to achieve goals, it is reasonable to assume that they will work is challenging and requires harder to achieve more difficult goals. But a goal must not be so difficult that it is effort unattainable. If a new manager asks her sales force to increase sales by 300 per cent, the group may ridicule her goal as laughable because they regard it as impossible to reach. A more realistic but still difficult goal - perhaps a 20 per cent increase in sales - would probably be a better objective. A substantial body of research supports the importance of goal difficulty. 30 For example, the CEO of Sasol Mining, Riaan Rademan, is known for demanding performance through the goals that Sasol management sets by increasing the difficulty of employee tasks. As a result, Sasol's performance has improved significantly. 31 Reinforcement also fosters motivation towards difficult goals. A person who is rewarded for achieving a difficult goal will be more inclined to strive towards the next difficult goal than someone who received no reward for reaching the first goal. Goal Specificity goal specificity Goal specificity is the clarity and precision of the goal. A goal of 'increasing The clarity and precision of productivity' is not very specific, whereas a goal of'increasing productivity by 3 per agoal cent in the next six months' is quite specific. Some goals, such as those involving costs, output, profitability and growth, can easily be stated in clear and precise terms. Other goals, such as improving employee job satisfaction and morale, company image and reputation, ethical behaviour and social responsibility, are much harder to state in specific or measurable terms. Like difficulty, specificity has been shown to be consistently related to performance. The study of timber truck drivers previously mentioned also examined goal specificity. The initial loads the truck drivers were carrying were found to be 60 per cent of the maximum weight each truck could haul. The managers set a new goal for drivers of 94 per cent, which the drivers were soon able to reach. Thus, the goal was quite specific as well as difficult. Locke's theory attracted widespread interest and research support from both researchers and managers, so Locke, together with Gary Latham, eventually proposed an expanded model of the goal-setting process. The expanded model, shown in Figure 6.4, attempts to capture more fully the complexities of goal setting in organisations. The expanded theory argues that goal-directed effort is a function of four goal attributes: difficulty and specificity (previously discussed), goal acceptance and acceptance and commitment. Goal acceptance is the extent to which a person The extent to which a person accepts a goal as his or her own. Goal commitment is the extent to which he or accepts agoal as his or she is personally interested in reaching the goal. The manager who vows to take her own whatever steps are necessary to cut costs by 10 per cent has made a commitment to achieving the goal. Factors that can foster goal acceptance and commitment goal commitment include participating in the goal-setting process, making goals challenging but The extent to which a person realistic, and believing that goal achievement will lead to valued rewards. 32 is personally interested in The interaction of goal-directed effort, organisational support, and individual reaching agoal abilities and traits determines actual performance. Organisational support is whatever the organisation does to help or hinder performance. Positive support might mean providing whatever resources are needed to meet the goal; negative support might mean failing to provide such resources, perhaps due to cost 21 8 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations considerations or staff reductions. Individual abilities and traits are the skills and other personal characteristics necessary to do a job. As a result of performance, a person receives various intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that in turn influence satisfaction. Note that the latter stages of this model are quite similar to those of the Porter-Lawler expectancy model discussed in Chapter 5. FIGURE 6. 4 The Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation Goal Goal Organisational Intrinsic difficulty acceptance support _ / _.. ___ \ Goal- Performance Satisfaction Goal specificity commitment abilities and traits rewards The goal-setting theory of motivation provides on important means of enhancing the motivation of employees. As illustrated here, appropriate goal difficulty, specificity, acceptance and commitment contribute to goal-directed effort. This effort, in turn, hos a direct impact on performance. Source: Reprinted from Latham, G.P., et al. (1979, Autumn). The Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation. Organizational Dynamics. Copyright 1979, with permission from Elsevier. BROADER PERSPECTIVES ON GOAL SETTING Some organisations undertake goal setting from the somewhat broader management by objectives perspective of management by objectives, or MBO. The MBO approach is (MBO) essentially a collaborative goal-setting process through which organisational goals Acollaborative goal-setting systematically cascade down through the organisation. Our discussion describes a process through which generic approach, but many organisations adapt MBO to suit their own purposes organisational goals cascade and use a variety of names for it. (Indeed, most companies today use other names. down throughout the However, since no other generic label has emerged, we will continue to refer to this organisation approach as MBO.) A successful MBO programme starts with top managers establishing overall goals for the organisation. After these goals have been set, managers and employees throughout the organisation collaborate to set subsidiary goals. First, the overall goals are communicated to everyone. Then, each manager meets with each subordinate. During these meetings, the manager explains the unit goals to the subordinate, and the two together determine how the subordinate can contribute to the goals most effectively. The manager acts as a counsellor and helps ensure that the subordinate develops goals that are verifiable. For example, a goal of 'cutting costs by 5 per cent' is verifiable, whereas a goal of 'doing my best' is not. Finally, manager and subordinate ensure that the subordinate has the resources needed to reach his or her goals. The entire process flows downwards as each subordinate manager meets with his or her own subordinates to develop their goals. Thus, as we noted earlier, the initial goals set at the top cascade down through the entire organisation. During the time frame set for goal attainment (usually one year), the manager periodically meets with each subordinate to check progress. It may be necessary  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 21 9 to modify goals in light of new information, to provide additional resources, or to take some other action. At the end of the specified time period, managers hold a final evaluation meeting with each subordinate. At this meeting, manager and subordinate assess how well goals were met and discuss why. This meeting often serves as the annual performance review as well, determining salary adjustments and other rewards based on reaching goals. This meeting may also serve as the initial goal-setting meeting for the next year's cycle. GOAL-SETTING CHALLENGES Goal-setting theory has been widely tested in a variety of settings. Research has demonstrated fairly consistently that goal difficulty and specificity are closely associated with performance. Other elements of the theory, such as acceptance and commitment, have been studied less frequently. A few studies have shown the importance of acceptance and commitment, but little is currently known about how people accept and become committed to goals. Goal-setting theory may also focus too much attention on the short run at the expense of long- term considerations. Despite these questions, however, goal setting is clearly an important way for managers to convert motivation into actual improved performance. From the broader perspective, MBO remains a very popular technique. Vantage Capital and Agile Capital, for example, have used versions of MBO with widespread success. The technique's popularity stems in part from its many strengths. For one thing, MBO clearly has the potential to motivate employees because it helps implement goal-setting theory on a systematic basis throughout the organisation. It also clarifies the basis for rewards, and it can stimulate communication. Performance appraisals are easier and more clear-cut under MBO. Further, managers can use the system for control purposes. However, using MBO also presents pitfalls, especially if a company takes too many shortcuts or inadvertently undermines how the process is supposed to work. Sometimes, for instance, top managers do not really participate; that is, the goals are actually established in the middle of the organisation and may not reflect the real goals of top management. If employees believe this situation to be true, they may become cynical, interpreting the lack of participation by top management as a sign that the goals are not important and that their own involvement is therefore a waste of time. MBO also has a tendency to overemphasise quantitative goals to enhance verifiability. Another potential liability is that an MBO system requires a great deal of information processing and record keeping, since every goal must be documented. Finally, some managers do not really let subordinates participate in goal setting but instead merely assign goals and order subordinates to accept them. On balance, MBO is often an effective and useful system for managing goal setting and enhancing performance in organisations. Research suggests that it can actually do many of the things its advocates claim, but that it must also be handled carefully. In particular, most organisations need to tailor it to their own unique circumstances. Properly used, MBO can also be an effective approach to managing an organisation's reward system. It does, however, require individual, one-on- one interactions between each supervisor and each employee; these one-on-one interactions can often be difficult because of the time they take and the likelihood that at least some of them will involve critical assessments of unacceptable performance. 220 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations Performance Management As described earlier, most goals are oriented towards some element of performance. Managers can do a variety of things to enhance employee motivation and performance, including designing jobs, allowing greater participation and promoting empowerment, considering alternative work arrangements and setting goals. However, they may also fail to do things that might have improved motivation and performance, and they might even inadvertently do things that reduce motivation and performance. Thus, it is clearly important that managers understand that performance is something that can and should be managed. 33 Moreover, effective performance management is essential in order for rewards to be used effectively. The core of performance management is performance appraisal the actual measurement of the performance of an individual or group. Performance The process of assessing and appraisal is the process by which someone (1) evaluates an employee's work behaviours evaluating an employee's by measurement and comparison with previously established standards, (2) documents work behaviours by the results, and (3) communicates the results to the employee. 34 Performance measurement management comprises the processes and activities involved in performance appraisals. PURPOSES OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT Performance appraisal may serve many purposes. The ability to provide valuable feedback is one critical purpose. Feedback, in turn, tells the employee where she or he stands in the eyes of the organisation. Appraisal results, of course, are also used to decide and justify reward allocations. Performance evaluations may be used as a starting point for discussions about training, development and improvement. Finally, the data produced by the performance appraisal system can be used to forecast future human resource needs, to plan management succession and to guide other human resource activities such as recruiting, training and development programmes. Providing job performance feedback is the primary use of appraisal information. Performance appraisal information can indicate that an employee is ready for promotion or that he or she needs additional training to gain experience in another area of company operations. It may also show that a person does not have the skills for a certain job and that another person should be recruited to fill that particular role. Other purposes of performance appraisal can be grouped into two broad categories - judgement and development, as shown in Figure 6.5. FIGURE 6. 5 Purposes of Performance Management Foster work improvement Identify training and Provide a basis for promotions, development opportunities transfers, retrenchments, Develop ways to overcome and so on obstacles and p,erformance Identify high-potential barriers employees Establish supervisor-employee Validate selection procedures agreement on expectations Evaluate previous training programmes Performance measurement plays a variety of roles in most organisations. This figure illustrates that these roles can help managers judge an employee's past performance and help managers and employees improve future performance.  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 221 Performance appraisals with a judgemental orientation focus on past performance and are concerned mainly with measuring and comparing performance and with the uses of this information. Appraisals with a developmental orientation focus on the future and use information from evaluations to improve performance. If improved future performance is the intent of the appraisal process, the manager may focus on goals or targets for the employee, on eliminating obstacles or problems that hinder performance, and on future training needs. ELEMENTS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Employee appraisals are common in every type of organisation, but how they are performed may vary. Many issues must be considered in determining how to conduct an appraisal. Three of the most important issues are who does the appraisals, how often they are done and how performance is measured. The Appraiser In most appraisal systems, the employee's primary evaluator is the supervisor. This stems from the obvious fact that the supervisor is presumably in the best position to be aware of the employee's day-to-day performance. Further, it is the supervisor who has traditionally provided performance feedback to employees and determined performance-based rewards and sanctions. Problems often arise, however, if the supervisor has incomplete or distorted information about the employee's performance. For example, the supervisor may have little first- hand knowledge about the performance of an employee who works alone outside the company premises, such as a salesperson making solo calls on clients or a maintenance person who handles equipment problems in the field. Similar problems may arise when the supervisor has a limited understanding of the technical knowledge involved in an employee's job. This chapter's Understand yourself feature will give you insight into your own style for providing feedback. One solution to these problems is a multiple-rater system that incorporates the ratings of several people familiar with the employee's performance. One possible alternative, for example, is to use the employee as an evaluator. Although they may not actually do so, most employees are actually very capable of evaluating themselves in an unbiased manner. One of the more interesting multi-rater approaches being used in some companies today is something called 360-degree feedback 360-degree feedback (it is also called multi-source feedback). This method Aperformance appraisal involves employees receiving performance feedback from those on all 'sides' method in which employees of them in the organisation - their boss, their colleagues and peers, and their receive performance own subordinates. Thus, the feedback comes from all around them, or from 360 feedback from those on degrees. This form of performance evaluation can be very beneficial to managers all sides of them in the because it typically gives them a much wider range of performance-related organisation feedback than a traditional evaluation provides. That is, rather than focusing narrowly on objective performance such as sales increases or productivity gains, 360-degree feedback often focuses on things such as interpersonal relations and style. For example, one person may learn that she stands too close to other people wh~n she talks, another that he has a bad temper. These are the kinds of things a supervisor might not even be aware of, much less report as part of a performance appraisal. Subordinates or peers are much more willing to provide this sort of feedback than direct performance feedback, especially if it is used for development purposes and does not influence rewards or punishments. Bayer South Africa, Chevron South Africa and Exxaro South Africa are a few of the major companies today using 360-degree feedback to help managers improve a wide variety of performance- related behaviours. 35 222 Part 2 Individua l Behaviours and Processes in Organisations UNDERSTAND YOURSELF Your Feedback Style This exercise will help you understand the dynamics l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. of performance appraisal feedback. Diagnosing 7. When listening to someone questioning or performance is criti cal to effective management. criticising my proc edures, I often find myself Performance appraisal involves both diagnosis and engaging in mental counterarguments-thinking motivation, so it is critical to the effective functioning about my response while the person is talking. of organisations. One of the difficulties with most l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. performance appraisal systems is that the supervisor 8. I let the other person fi nish an idea before or manager feels uncomfortable providing feedback in intervening or finishing it for him or her. a one-to-one encounter. The result often is employee l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. vagueness about what the performance appraisal 9. When listening to someone, I find that I can really means, what it is designed to do and how it easily restate (paraphrase) that person's point of can improve performance. The supervisor or manager view. fails to address those concerns because he or she did l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. not adequately diagnose the situation and therefore lacks an understanding of how subordinates respond l 0. I try not to prejudge the spea ker or the message. to performance feedback or lacks the skil l necessary l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. to provide valuable feedback. Listed below is a set 11. Whenever I provide information to someone, I of feedback behaviours. Read the description of prefer using facts and data. each behaviour carefully, then select the response l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. that best reflects the extent to which that behaviour 12. Communicating empathy for the feelings of the describes what you do or think you would do. Indicate receiver tends to indicate weakness. your choice by circling the response. The possible l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. responses are as follows: 13. I try to ensure that others know how I view their actions : good, bad, strong, weak, etc. Possible responses l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. y_ = Yes, this definitely describes me. 14. In order to get people to do things properly, you Y = Yes, I'm fairly sure this describes me. have to tell them what to do. ? = I'm not sure. l. -Y 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. -N N = No, I'm fairly sure this doesn't describe me. 15. When talking with someone, I like saying, 'What _b!. = No, this definitely doesn't describe me. do you think?' to introduce more acceptance of l. When communicating, I try to seek feedback the issue. from the receiver to determine whether I'm being l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. understood. 16. If you are the boss, people expect you to tell l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. them what to do. 2. Whenever possible, I try to ensure that my point l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. of view is accepted and acted upon. 17. I try to use prob ing, non-directive questions in l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. discussions with individuals. 3. I can easily handle and accept counterarguments l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. to my ideas. 18. In providing negative feedback, I want to be 1.y_ 2. Y 3.? 4.N 5. _b!. certain the rece-iver knows how I view the 4. When a communication problem occurs between situation. another person and myself, it's usually his or her l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. fault. 19. I try to listen with empathy. I listen both to what l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. is being said and to what I think the sender is 5. I make sure the othe r person understands that I know what I am talking about. trying to say. l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. l. y_ 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. _b!. 6. If someone comes to me with a personal 20. Whenever I provide someone with feedback, I problem, I try to listen objectively without being usually want to persuade him or her to act on it. judgmental. l. Y 2. Y 3. ? 4. N 5. N  Chapter 6 Motivating Behaviour with Work and Rewards 223 Scoring: ( 1) For the items listed, score your responses as follows: (2) For the items listed, the scoring system is reversed: Item Score Scoring Item Score Scoring 1. Y=2 2. y = -2 3. 4. 6. Y=l 5. y = -1 8. 7. 9. ?=0 12. ?=0 10. 13. 11. N =-1 14. N=1 15. 16. 17..b! =-2 18..b! = 2 19. 20. TOTAL TOTAL The items on the left assess if you are collaborative and open. The items on the right assess if you are domineering and closed in style. Stating 'yes' for these items indicates a less effective feedback style, so it is reverse scored (Y = -2, N = 2). A higher score on either column thus indicates a more effective style. The sum of your two scores indicates your overall feedback style. The lowest overal l score is -40 and the highest overall score is +40. Most people will score in the positive range. Frequency of the Appraisal Another important issue is the frequency of appraisals. Regardless of the employee's level of performance, the types of tasks being performed, or the employee's need for information on performance, the organisation usually conducts performance appraisals on a regular basis, typically once a year. Annual performance appraisals are convenient for administrative purposes such as record keeping and maintaining a level of routine that helps keep everyone comfortable. Some organisations also conduct appraisals semiannually. 36 Several systems for monitoring employee performance on an 'as-needed' basis have been proposed as an alternative to the traditional annual system. Managers in international settings must ensure that they incorporate cultural phenomena into their performance-appraisal strategies. For example, in highly individualistic cultures such as that of the United States, appraising performance at the individual level is both common and accepted. But in cultures such as South Africa where both individualistic and collectivistic cultures are found, performance appraisals may need to be focused on group performance and feedback in many contexts. And in countries where people put a lot of faith in destiny, fate, or some form of divine control, employees may not be receptive to performance feedback at all, believing that their actions are irrelevant to the results that follow them. 2 24 Part 2 Individual Behaviours and Processes in Organisations Measuring Performance The foundation of good performance management is correctly identifying what should be measured, then selecting the best method( s) for measuring it. Accurately defining job performance is critical: measuring the wrong things well is not good performance management. Once the critical performance dimensions are known, the best way( s) of assessing them can be identified. Detailed descriptions of the many different methods for measuring performance are beyond the scope of this book; they are more appropriately covered in a course in human resource management or a specialised course in performance appraisal. However, we can present a few general comments about how to measure performance. The measurement method provides the information that managers use to make decisions about salary adjustment, promotion, transfer, training and discipline. South African labour laws such as the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 recognise that an employer may require work performance of an acceptable standard, and that employees should be protected against unfair treatment. The principles outlined here serve as a guideline only, as workplaces differ in size and nature, and these aspects may determine the appropriate steps to be taken in cases of poor work performance. What is important is that measurement methods must not produce ratings that are consistently too lenient or too severe, or that all cluster in the middle. 37 They must also be free of perceptual and timing errors. Some of the most popular methods for evaluating individual performance are graphic rating scales, checklists, essays or diaries, behaviourally anchored rating scales, and forced choice systems. These systems are easy to use and familiar to most managers. However, two major problems are common to all individual