Module 8 Signature Assignment
Module 8 Signature Assignment
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Module 8 Signature Assignment
Introduction
Globalization, advanced technology, competitive pressures, and changing workforce, among other factors, have prompted business organizations and their employees to embrace and manage planned change (Stouten et al., 2018). Planned organizational change involve the intentional activities that move an company from its current state to a desired future state. Stouten et al. (2018) reveal that organizations today often find it challenging to make meaningful, sustainable changes. As such, proper planning must be done to ensure successful organizational change. This paper presents plans and strategies to be incorporated in the current organization. It begins by providing plan for employee performance appraisals in the customer service and accounting departments of the current organization. Further, it outlines how the managers’ performance will be measured. Further, strategies to train leaders to engage in diversity are discussed. Also, the paper includes strategies to impact the culture of the current organization, and innovative and future trends that will assist with plans and strategies to be incorporated. The paper also presents a brief discussion of one major challenge and one major opportunity anticipated with the new leadership once the two organizations merge and what must be done about the challenge and the opportunity to ensure success in the organization.
Plan for Employee Performance Appraisals
After the two organizations are merged, there will be a need to perform employee performance appraisals to assess the employees’ level of performance. The goal of performance appraisal in business organizations is to provide feedback to employees, allocate rewards, allow for employees’ self-development, and gather the information that can be used for managers’ personal decisions, such as to guide in developing training and development programs (Oyomikun, 2017). Managers from the two organizations will be expected to conduct employee performance appraisals quarterly. Before the managers start conducting employee performance appraisals, they will first be trained on how to go about it. The following plan will be used for training.
Setting training Goal
The first step will include setting the goal for training the managers. The goal of training managers in the accounting and customer service departments will be to enlighten them on how to perform employee performance appraisals so as to allow the new organization to recognize the achievement of its employee, their weaknesses, and future potential.
Training on appraisal methods
The managers will be trained on at least five most commonly used modern performance appraisal methods such as Management by Objectives, 360-Degree Feedback, and Assessment Center Method. During the training, managers will be informed about the benefits and challenges associated with each appraisal method. Also, they will be informed of the guidelines for implementing each performance appraisal method.
Explain Common Appraisal Mistakes
After training on the most effective appraisal methods, managers will be educated on the most common appraisal mistakes done by managers and how these mistakes can be avoided. Such mistakes include managers evaluating an employee favorable because they share similar cultural background instead of what the employee has accomplished. Other common errors include recency effects (rating employees based on what happened during the past evaluation) and central tendency (rating all employees in the middle).
Explaining Ways to Deliver Feedback After Assessment
After enlightening managers on the best performance appraisal methods and common appraisal mistakes and how to avoid them, managers will be trained on ways of delivering feedback to the employees. Managers will be encouraged to ensure that their feedback focuses mostly on the areas that need to be improved instead of dwelling on the positive side. According to Tahiri et al. (2020). An employee performance appraisal should focus mainly on areas that an employee needs to improve.
Explaining Post Appraisal Actions
Lastly, managers will be educated on the actions to be taken after performance appraisal. This may include the two types of corrective actions. One of the corrective actions includes putting out fires. This action is immediate and involves dealing predominantly with symptoms. Another corrective action entails delving into the causes of deviations between actual performance and standard performance and seeking to adjust the difference permanently. Among the most commonly used corrective actions that managers use to improve employee performance include coaching, training, and counseling.
After managers in the accounting and customer service departments are trained on how to conduct the appraisal, they will use the following employee performance appraisal plan to assess the performance of employees serving in these departments.
Establishing Performance Standards
The first step of employee performance appraisal will involve establishing performance standards. Managers from the accounting and customer care departments will be required to first determine the accomplishments, outputs, and skills to be evaluated. The performance standards will be determined from the job descriptions and job analyses.
Communicating the Established Performance Expectations to Employees
After establishing the performance standards, the managers will communicate these standards to their subordinates to inform them of what is required of them. Research reveals that failure to communicate performance standards to employees compounds the appraisal problem (Tersoo et al., 2018). Managers will be required to ensure that all of their subordinates understand the performance standards. The managers will also require employees to give their feedback on the set performance standards. The standards will be revised or modified based on the employees’ feedback.
Measure Actual Employee Performance
After the performance standards are agreed upon, the managers will perform the first actual appraisal after four months. Performance appraisals will be conducted quarterly for the new organization. During this stage, managers will assess the actual performance of the employees based on information obtained from different sources such as performance reports, personal observations, and weekly reports submitted by the employees to their managers.
Comparing the Actual Performance with the Established Standards
After measuring the employees’ actual performance, managers will compare the results with the standards established. Comparing employees’ actual performance and the set standards will allow the managers to identify any deviation between actual performance and standard performance.
Discussing the Appraisal with the Employee
During this stage, the managers will share and discuss the appraisal results with the employees. Discussing the results with the employees will allow employees to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and potential (Mwema & Gachunga, 2014). The manner in which the appraisal results are presented to the employees either positively or negatively impacts their future performance. Therefore, managers will be required to ensure effective communication is upheld.
Initiating a Corrective Action
This will be the last step of the appraisal. After the areas that need to be improved are identified during the discussion of the results with the employees, corrective action will be initiated to help employees improve their performance.
How the Managers Performance Will be Measured
The performance of managers in the accounting and customer service departments will be measured based on their ability to meet the reasonable and achievable goals and targets set for their departments. Often, organizations set targets and goals for various departments that align with the requirements set out in the job description. These goals and targets can be monthly, weekly, or daily. The expectations are that these goals and targets are met and exceeded for performance to be considered effective (Daoanis, 2012). This method of assessing the managers will be preferred since it will provide them with objective and easily identifiable clear targets.
The manager’s performance will be evaluated on a monthly basis since each department has monthly targets to met. If the departments will be found to have met and surpassed the set targets, the managers’ performance will be considered excellent. If the departments will have met at least half of the targets, the managers’ performance will be considered above average. If the department will not have met at least half of the set targets, the managers’ performance will be considered below average. A performance management process will be instigated for managers whose performance will continually be below average for more than six months. Lack of improvement may lead to termination of the working contract.
Strategies to Train Leaders to Engage Diversity
Merging the two organizations will lead to employees and managers from different backgrounds coming together to work under one department. This will increase diversity in the organization. Managers from the accounting and customer service departments will be required to manage this diversity to create and maintain a positive work environment that values the differences and similarities of the employees.
Various strategies will be used to train these managers to engage diversity in the organization. One of these strategies includes awareness training. The goal of the awareness diversity training strategy will be to give the managers an overview of the organization’s demographics (Cletus et al., 2018). Managers will be able to understand how diverse the workforce. Awareness training will also provide managers with gender, sexual orientation, race, racial minorities, and ethnicity information. It will also inform the managers about workplace equity, how it can be improved, and its benefits. Awareness training sessions will help shift managers’ mindsets and promote employees’ inclusivity, respect, and value.
Another strategy that will be used to train managers to engage in diversity will be skill-based diversity training. This strategy focuses on specific activities that workers at various levels within a workforce may take to practice inclusion skills, ensuring that all employees have practical skills that foster belonging (Treven & Treven, 2007). Skill-based training strategy will allow managers to gain the necessary skills and become proficient in handling diversity. It will also equip them with skills to foster a culture of inclusivity in their organizations.
Another strategy that will be used to train managers to engage in diversity is intermediate diversity training. This strategy will involve providing managers with the tools required for implementing change and creating an inclusive culture within the workplace. The strategy entails discussing personal behavior. Therefore, managers will discuss with the trainer about their personal behavior, and the trainer will help them identify how they can engage in diversity based on their personal attributes and behavior. An intermediate diversity training strategy will be ideal for helping managers in the accounting and customer service departments since it helps identify implicit biases and know how to deal with them, eradicates microaggressions, makes a working environment free of discrimination, and encourages team building and cross-cultural communication.
Strategies to Impact the Culture of the Current Organization
The HRM will be responsible for leading the upcoming change. The HRM will utilize various strategies to impact the culture of the current organization. Organizational culture refers to the values and beliefs of employees in an organization that influences their behavior and attitudes (Joseph & Kibera, 2019). Usually, HRM brings the company’s culture to the fore by reminding employees of the importance of acting in accordance with the organizational values. One of the strategies that human resource managers will adapt to lead the upcoming change is practicing what they preach. The HRM will act as the role models of the organization, embodying the values and the behaviors that the new organization will need to promote. Usually, things such as leaders acting against their own stated beliefs may negatively influence an organization’s culture. However, leaders setting a good example for the rest of the organization may be transformative in obtaining buy-in. Therefore, HRM is positioned to shape their organization’s culture in both unintentional and deliberate ways and must ensure that they serve as a good example to positively impact the current organization’s culture.
Another strategy that the HRM will use to impact the current organization’s culture is introducing a benefits package. The HRM will include a benefits package for employees in the new organization such as parental leave (including both paternity and maternity leave), financial wellness programs such as saving plans for employees, gender reassignment and transformation assistance, and flextime. The benefit package will directly impact the culture of the new organization since it will improve employee job satisfaction (Norbu & Wetprasit, 2021).
Also, the HRM will impact the current organization’s culture by keeping the managers on track. Since managers will be managing a large group of employees, it will be very easy for them to lose sight of how their decisions and behavior may affect the entire organization. As such, it will be the duty of the HRM to bring the organization’s culture to the fore by reminding managers of the different departments of the impact their decisions and choices have on employee commitment and morale and how crucial it is for the organization to act in accordance with its organizational culture.
Innovative and Future Trends that Will Assist with the Plans and Strategies to be Incorporated in the Current Organization
The previous sections have outlined various plans and strategies that will in incorporated into the new organization after the two organizations merge. One innovative and future trend that assists with the aforementioned plans and strategies to be incorporated into the new organization is embracing technology and analytics. Managers in the current organization will use emerging tools for performance appraisal to ensure effective performance appraisal. Analytics will also be used to predict and assess the effectiveness of the tools used for performance appraisal. Also, emerging technology will be used to facilitate the training of managers on how to perform performance appraisals. Online training of managers will be preferred since it will be convenient for managers due to their busy schedules. Mason (2020) reveals that online training is more accessible and convenient for employees compared to in-person training.
Also, analytics will be employed to assist with measuring managers’ performance based on their ability to meet and exceed the set goals and targets. Also, the training of the managers to engage with diversity will be made easier using technology since the training can be performed online, and managers will be able to get training materials right away through the computers. During the training, chatbots will allow managers to have an automated, personalized conversation with computers where they will be able to ask various questions concerning diversity and how it can be managed. Also, analytics will be used to examine the effectiveness of the strategies proposed to be used by the HRM to impact the culture of the current organization.
Major Challenge and Opportunity Anticipated With the Managers and What Must be Done
One major opportunity anticipated with the managers of the new organization is synergies. The concept of synergies suggests that the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts (1 + 1 = 3) (Holtström & Anderson, 2021). In other words, the combined value of the two organizations should be more than the value of each independent entity. In the context of this paper, synergies mean that when managers from the two organizations that merge work together, the managers should perform better than when the organizations are working independently. To ensure the success of the organizations, managers should promote teamwork and work collaboratively to ensure that their department meets the organizational goal.
One major challenge anticipated with managers in the new organization is cultural differences. Managers from the two merging organizations will have different cultures, which may pose a significant challenge to the managers as they try to integrate different cultures. To ensure organizational success, the organization must set a clear organizational culture that all employees must adhere to despite their individual cultures.
Conclusion
Overall, this paper presents a plan to be shared with current employees and managers of a finance company in corporate America that intends to merge with another organization as part of its organizational change. The process of employee performance appraisal in the new organization will involve establishing performance standards, communicating the standards to employees, measuring the actual employee performance, comparing the actual performance with the standard performance, discussing the appraisal results with the employees, and initiating a corrective action is the actual performance of employees is below the standard performance. Managers will also be trained on how to perform the appraisal. They will be enlightened on various things, including the different appraisal methods, common appraisal mistakes, ways of delivering appraisal feedback, and post-appraisal actions. The performance of managers will be measured by their ability to meet the goals and objectives set for their respective departments. Also, strategies to train leaders to engage in diversity will include awareness training, skill-based diversity training, and intermediate diversity training. The strategies to impact the current organization’s culture will include the introduction of an employee benefits package, HRM acting as role models, and HRM keeping the managers on track. Also, the current organization will embrace technology and analytics to assist with the effective implementation of plans and strategies for the new organization. The major challenge that will face managers is cultural differences, while the major opportunity for managers in the new organization is synergies.
References
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