Decision Making

     INTRODUCTION

Management is involved with making, implementing and accepting the responsibility for decisions intended to continuously meet the objective of a firm. There are four main functions of management: planning, controlling, organizing and directing. Performance review is usually carried out by the directing function of management since it checks the actual performance against the planned performance.

 PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Job performance review is an important component of a good corporate. It evaluates the areas which need to be improved need identifies areas which need expertise. Job appraisal as regularly called is not a punitive tool but rather a constructive tool which is aimed to meet the goals a firm and develop skills. Performance appraisal should be based on approved strategic plan of a business which changes from time to time due to changing business environment.

However there are many problems which arise during the performance appraisal when the management is not fully equipped with the correct procedure to under take the process. This incompetence lead to the employees being evaluated not satisfied with this kind of evaluation.

Some of the problems associated with job review are:

1.      Managers giving their own opinions on the performance of the employees. This is where by there is no laid down criteria for appraisal, they don’t have forms to fill from time to time concerning the respective employee, the managers are not trained on the subject matter and therefore they give their personal feeling and attitude about the employees.

2.      Comparing the employees with each other. The managers usually compare the employees within a firm though they belong to different department with different responsibilities. They feel demoralized by such actions and cooperation between employees and departments end and managers become targets for hostility.

3.      Managers fail to understand that performance appraisal is a tool for development rather than for blame, this leads to managers not recognizing the positive contribution but only the negative things concerning the employee in question. This leads to employees having a poor relationship with their managers since they are always on the blame.

4.      The managers may be canceling and postponing the performance appraisal. This makes the employees to undermine the importance of these appraisals since the managers are no committed to meet this obligation. The employees feel that they are not given the right attention as there are not allocated with the much value to the company.

5.      The manager fail to attach much value to the performance appraisal as it’s supposed to prevent performance problems rather than solving. They fail to take performance appraisal as a continuous process which stabilizes the relationship between workers through the continuous communication.

SOLUTION TO PERFOMANCE APPRAISAL

Once the performance appraisal problems are identified there is need for urgent remedy to improve the performance and ensure that the employees are satisfied. The management should set up an investigation and come with solutions which will be implemented promptly. The solutions below refer to the problems mentioned above. They refer to each problem respectively.

1. the managers should be trained on how to carry on the performance appraisal. This will enable them to do this responsibly so that they give the correct information to be interpreted for decision making by the management. The evaluation will can entail submitting forms to be filled regularly about the respective worker.
2. A well defined job description should be allocated for each worker so that they are not weighed against the same scale. This ensures that a worker knows his key areas and the managers can use this appropriately during their decision making, this is because the will have a reference when making the performance review.
3. The manager should ensure that the employees are trained regularly given proper education and orientation rather than punishing them when they are not performing to their best ion the job environment. The training will improve the performance of employees and improve their relationship.
4.  The managers need to take their responsibility of performance review. This involves undertaking them promptly. This will include having a schedule on their daily routines. This will make the employees attach some value and importance to these performance appraisals.
5. The management should take performance appraisal as a continuous process which will ensure that there is continuous communication between the workers, both the juniors and the seniors, therefore making the process to take place without any suspicion. 

 CONCLUISION

Performance appraisal should be based on the employees past performance, assessment on own potential and current performance and report from the current set assessment centre by the management. Employees should be encouraged to do their own personal assessment and feel free to talk with the managers on the trainings they need to improve their skills.

 References:

Stephen C. Harper (2003), Business and Marketing, McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York

Robin Wood (2001) Managing Complexity, Prentice hall publishers, UK