Managing Performance

Corinne Leech

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN: 9781136382604
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

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1 The Bigger Picture

Understanding the bigger picture

Why organisations have to evolve

Meeting the challenges

Setting the strategy

Achieving alignment

The performance management cycle

Understanding the Bigger Picture

Managing performance is about managing people within the framework of a process, to achieve the organisation’s goals

So, what is the process that links the organisational goals to an individual? This chapter gives an overview of where managing performance fits into how organisations operate and survive. In practice, the way organisations operate is very similar across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. They all have to start by planning:

1 Where they are going.

2 How they are going to get there.

Although the principle is simple, in reality, steering an organisation successfully is exceedingly challenging. We live in a world where change is just about the only constant you can rely on. Making a wrong decision, or failing to see what’s happening round the next corner, can have dire consequences on an organisation’s fortunes or a chief executive’s career.

But planning alone isn’t going to ensure success. The plan has to be cascaded through the organisation so that:

Everyone understands the part they have to play, and

Their performance can be managed.

This chapter looks at:

Why organisations have to evolve.

How they meet the challenges.

How they try to achieve alignment (i.e. everyone working to achieve the organisation’s goals).

By the end you’ll be able to ask the right questions to understand exactly how you, and your team, fit in to the bigger picture in your organisation.

He who asks may be a fool for five minutes but he who does not remains a fool forever.

Chinese proverb

Why Organisations Have to Evolve

How many organisations do you know that have stayed the same over the last ten, or even five years? The chances are you’d be hard pressed to name any. Outsourcing, downsizing, restructuring, takeovers have become the language of the workplace. If organisations don’t evolve they simply don’t survive.

What’s Driving Evolution?

In a nutshell, there are three driving forces:

1 The Mantra of ‘Continuous Improvement’

Any organisation exists to meet the needs of its customers. Continuous improvement is a process which has evolved out of the quality revolution which began in the 1940s. Its aim is to keep the customer satisfied and to continually improve the services and products offered. This means organisations have to continually search for ways of improving. Inevitably this means change.

Figure 1.1 Continuous improvement cycle

2 The Business Case

The business case often drives the need for change. In the private sector it’s about increasing profitability. In the public and the not-for profit sectors it’s about best value. Everything has a cost attached and everywhere organisations are looking to reduce costs, justify costs, get value for money.

What was the Quality Revolution?

Japan applied the concept of quality to build its manufacturing capacity following the Second World War. Initially it focussed on ‘quality control’, i.e. a rigorous process for checking products met exacting standards. It developed into ‘quality assurance’ which included looking at the standard of all the inputs as well as checking the products. The concept is now widely applied in the West, and has evolved into ‘Total Quality Management’. This is a management approach that puts meeting customer expectations at the heart of everything. ISO 9000 and the European Excellence Model are examples of organisations getting external accreditation for demonstrating they have management systems which will meet, or even exceed, customer expectations.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• What is performance management?
• 1. The bigger picture
• 2. The human dimension
• 3. The toolkit
• 4. The skills
• 5. The team culture
• 6. Poor performance
• Managing performance: review
• Index