Deliverable 5 – Performance-Driven Workshop Handout
Competency
Evaluate the dynamics of a performance-driven organizational culture.
Scenario
You are a Human Resources Manager for a Fortune 500 company. Many articles have been written about your company because the company discontinued its use of traditional rating systems within its appraisal review system and immediately witnessed increased employee commitment, reduced turnover, and improved metrics related to organizational goals. Your company was asked to host a workshop to share the dynamics of your performance-driven organizational culture as well as the transition from your previous traditional rating system, options for non-traditional valuations, and organizational benefits that can result from the discontinuance of traditional rating systems.
Since you were a key champion involved in the discontinued use of the traditional rating system at your company, the Vice President of Human Resources has asked you to lead the workshop at the conference to educate attendees on the dynamics of performance-driven organizational culture and the use or nonuse of a ratings-driven appraisal system.
Instructions
Develop a handout for workshop attendees that:
Includes a timeline with the workshop agenda.
Describes elements of performance-driven organizational culture.
Compares the advantages and disadvantages of using traditional ratings and non-traditional valuations within performance appraisals systems.
Discusses employee and organizational benefits that can result from the adoption of non-traditional valuations within a performance-driven organizational culture.
Summarizes techniques to overcome resistance and encourage acceptance of non-traditional valuations to develop a performance-driven organizational culture.
Provides attribution for credible sources used in the workshop handout.
Running Head: PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN WORKSHOP HANDOUT 1
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout
Sam Pell
Rasmussen College
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on February 12, 2020, for Dr. Curtis LDR6100CBE
Performance Management course.
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 2
Performance-Driven Workshop
Organizations are beginning to shift their focus from traditional performance appraisal
systems to a performance-driven workshop. Performance-driven organizational culture is
showing increased employee commitment, reduced turnover, and improved metrics related to
organizational goals (Aguinis, 2019). This workshop will provide insight on how the culture
shifted after implementing a performance-driven culture.
1. Elements of Performance-driven Organizational Culture (15 minutes)
a. Understanding the elements of a performance-driven organizational culture is
important. This means that there is an alignment between a goal-oriented and
employee-supporting organizational culture. When this is implemented,
employees are doing work that is highly satisfying and motivating. For example,
employees will have higher job satisfaction when the organizations goals align
with theirs and the career development they strive for (Aguinis, 2019).
b. Other elements include communication, innovation, collaboration, support,
performance focus, responsibility, mission and value alignment (Fletcher, 2016).
i. For example, there should be frequent communication between employee
and manager (Fletcher, 2016). This allows managers to notice
opportunities for growth for employees and provide them with possible
areas of coaching or training to meet their strategic goals. Managers and
employees will work together to form individual strategic goals that will
align with the organization (Fletcher, 2016). Additionally, it will be
encouraging that employees or teams collaborate and innovate when an
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 3
issue arises. Together these individuals can strategize on how to solve the
problem while learning from peers.
ii. Performance focus will greatly increase. Employees will be more
receptive of gaining knowledge without the added pressure of a monetary
value linked to it. Each employee will be better supported based on their
goals and how they align with the organizations goals. In turn, this will
create a performance-driven culture as employees will not feel as though
they need to compete against their peers.
2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Performance Appraisal Systems (25 minutes)
a. Traditional Ratings
i. Traditional ratings are used to guide employees by providing objective,
honest, and growth-oriented feedback and support (Aguinis, 2019). This
should help guide employees in the direction to meet their strategically
aligned, individual goals (Aguinis, 2019). However, this is not always the
case.
1. Traditional rating systems can lead employees to creating negative
and stressful thoughts or experiences (Aguinis, 2019). This can
also be a stressful and negative experience for the manager if they
feel uncomfortable giving feedback, both positive and negative
(Aguinis, 2019). This is the result of contrasting views of
performance from the employee and manager, as well as
communication failures as they may not both be clear on
expectations (Aguinis, 2019). When using performance appraisals
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 4
for multiple purposes in an organization, it is likely to lead to
conflicts such as pay administration, training and development
(Aguinis, 2019).
a. Disadvantages of traditional ratings are shown to have
reduced employee engagement, reduced performance, and
reduced positive impact on individuals goals (Murphy,
2019). Additionally, there is a high cost that comes with
traditional systems such as time, energy, setup,
psychological toll and administrative costs to perform,
prepare and conduct the appraisal (Aguinis, 2019).
b. Non-Traditional Valuations
i. Cultural norms can be one of the leading factors that influence
performance ratings (Murphy, 2019). It is crucial that organizations
establish a culture that will effectively utilize performance ratings. This
will support attainment of individual, functional and strategic goals when
done properly (Aguinis, 2019).
1. For example, organizations that value upward communication are
more likely to have positive impacts of performance appraisal
systems as employees would feel as though they can share
information throughout the appraisal process (Murphy, 2019).
Additionally, organizations that value innovation will encourage
employees to think creatively and solving problems differently
(Murphy, 2019).
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 5
c. There can be useful alternatives to traditional performance ratings, for example,
more frequent feedback. This can, however, also be seen as a disadvantage.
Feedback is not always accepted and could lead to employees feeling that they are
only being told the negative (Aguinis, 2019). This feedback may not be seen as
credible and it does not provide a firm basis for evaluating individual employees
(Aguinis, 2019).
3. Employee and Organizational Benefits of Non-Traditional Valuations (25 minutes)
a. Some possible alternative is more frequent, informal and immediate feedback
from supervisors (Aguinis, 2019). Organizations can use larger data to address
problems within HR management (Aguinis, 2019).
b. When an organization is switching from a traditional performance appraisal
system to non-traditional valuation, it is important that three main principles are
considered.
i. Performance appraisals are different from performance management.
Additionally, decisions within the organizations management needs to be
made about the purpose of the performance appraisals and need to be
carried throughout the entire organization (Aguinis, 2019). Lastly, the
benefits of the appraisal need to exceed for the employees and exceed the
costs to the organization (Aguinis, 2019).
c. In rating systems, decouple pay from performance ratings and this will in turn,
decrease the threat of reduced raises (Aguinis, 2019). Many organizations end up
giving employees very similar annual raises, which discredits the rating system as
a whole if they will get the same out of it regardless (Aguinis, 2019). This will
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 6
also greatly decrease the anxiety that managers and employees experience and it
will allow the employees to take in the feedback in a much more positive manner
(Aguinis, 2019).
i. Appraisals require a great deal of time and effort by the rater. An example
of a solution may be using a multicourse rating system (Aguinis, 2019).
This system will have the ability to collect data from many sources, or
individuals, as possible and the information will be reported as a single
aggregate (Aguinis, 2019).
ii. An example is the 360-feedback technique. This is particularly useful for
performance driven organizational cultures (Aguinis, 2019). Performance
levels are defined as individual goals that are linked to functional goals
(Aguinis, 2019). Feedback is taken from managers and employees using
quantifiable scales. This results in explanations of evaluations, reduced
bias and improved objectivity (Aguinis, 2019).
iii. Another example is the Management by objective (MBO) technique. This
is technique promotes performance-driven culture and values the focus on
organizational goals and collaboration among employees (Aguinis, 2019).
MBO values managers and employees defining SMART goals, ongoing
feedback and communications, improvement of employee performance,
engages and motivates employees and is appropriate for performance-
driven culture (Aguinis, 2019).
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 7
4. Techniques to Overcome Resistance and Encourage Acceptance (40 minutes)
a. According to Aguinis (2019), an attitude is an employees positive or negative
response to a change within the employees environment (Aguinis, 2019). The
employees attitude will vary by cognition, or their values and beliefs, and will be
influenced depending on their feelings towards their jobs and change (Aguinis,
2019). Employees display different behaviors which are representative of positive
or negative emotions when an organizational change takes place (Hon et al.,
2016). It is a natural human defense mechanism to resist change because they
correlate change with alterations in steps of a certain process from traditional
processes (Hon et al., 2016).
i. For example, employees may disengage when presented with a new
process to communicate to their entire team.
b. A critical component of an effective system is that it is aligned with goal-oriented
and employee-supporting culture. The culture should inspire higher levels of job
satisfaction, objective and helpful feedback, effective and open communication
between managers and employees (Aguinis, 2019). Getting employees to
recognize and become invested in the process will increase their overall work
satisfaction and engagement levels (Fletcher, 2016). For organizations, this can
have an extremely positive impact on revenue (Aguinis, 2019).
c. Changing from a traditional to non-traditional system will have some resistance.
Employees may be hesitant about more frequent communication between their
manager, however this will help to correct or support performance in a more
timely manner (Aguinis, 2019).
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 8
d. To overcome resistance, organizations should introduce and implement change
through a change leadership plan. This plan should overcome resistance, increase
willful acceptance of changes and will generate desired organizational benefits
(Hon et al., 2016).
i. The plan will first need to be created highlighting the urgency to change
from a traditional to a non-traditional system (Hon et al., 2016). Factors
that can communicate the need for urgency include comparing
performance metrics to the needs within the business (Hon et al., 2016).
Additionally, an emotional appeal may be beneficial to present to
employees to help solve a critical organizational problem (Hon et al.,
2016).
ii. A change leadership plan will also be useful to create a sense of urgency
to management and leadership roles (Hon et al., 2016). If they are not on
board, neither will their employees. This plan should include the message
that employees will receive regarding the matter, the desired response, and
who will deliver the message to the employees (Hon et al., 2016). The
purpose of the plan should be clearly defined as well as the benefits of the
new system for the employees and organization (Hon et al., 2016).
Objectives and deliverables of each phase of the plan, how each step will
be implemented or introduced and the timeline for the plan as a whole
(Hon et al., 2016).
1. Committed Champions will also be identified. These individuals
throughout the organization will be responsible for promoting the
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 9
new system. They will be highly engaged, positively compel other
employees to minimize resistance, and will help increase the
acceptance of the new system (Hon et al., 2016).
a. The leadership plan will also include training for how to
solicit feedback and recommendations for employees to
increase inclusiveness and increase the ownership of the
new system (Hon et al., 2016).
iii. Training will be an important factor in accepting the new plan and
eliminating resistance. Through training, managers and employees will be
able to clarify any questions or concerns that they may have to remove the
barriers to fully accept the new system (Hon et al., 2016).
e. To periodically check to ensure that the new plan is effective, organizations re
urged to use a balanced scorecard. This will help measure areas to improve the
effectiveness of the new plan, and to see if it is truly doing its role in increasing
job satisfaction and achievement of goals (Hon et al., 2016).
Performance-Driven Workshop Handout 10
References
Aguinis, H. (2019). Performance Management (4th ed.). St. Charles, IL: Chicago Business Press.
Fletcher, C. (2016). Appraisal (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hon, A. H. Y., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming resistance to change and
enhancing creative performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), 919-941
Murphy, K. R. (2019). Performance appraisal and management (4th ed.). St. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
