The success of performance management practices in any organization depend upon the commitment and involvement of the different stakeholders like top management, line managers, employees and the HR specialists.

Role of Top Managers in Performance Management

The top managers play a lead in the entire process by setting trends for the lower rung and acting as role models for the employees. Their responsibility is to design policies which ensure an efficient management of performance in an organization and to define and act upon the core values relating to performance.

Top management plays a vital role in convincing the line managers that performance management can be instrumental in the achievement of business goals and thus ensure that they take this aspect seriously in their work front for maximizing employee satisfaction and productivity.

Top managers are expected to develop a high performance culture in an organization by ensuring the following:

• By communicating an organization’s mission and values to its customers and employees.
• By clearly defining the work expectations and communicating to everyone for ensuring success in the achievement of business goals and facilitating an overall performance improvement.
• By keeping the employees informed about their progress towards the achievement of goals and suggesting corrective actions for non-achievement of performance.
• By establishing a shared belief amongst the employees regarding the importance of continuous improvement in performance.

A remarkable example is Infosys Technology Ltd., an international IT company and a world leader. The chairman Mr. Narayan Murthy was dedicated and committed towards an efficient management of performance of the employees for developing a vast talent pool in the organization. He considered his employees as the most powerful wealth responsible for driving the success and the future of his organization.

Mr. Narayan Murthy introduced the best reward systems in the industry for retaining the existing talent and the attracting the best from the industry. He encouraged an open communication and provided them with an opportunity to interact with the management and share ideas in meetings.

He established a Leadership Institute in Mysore for grooming the future leaders for successfully tackling the challenges of the changing markets. Similary, the management of United Parcel Service of America (UPS), selects only those people who fit into their organizational culture for efficiently managing their performance and projecting a positive image before the customers.

Role of Line Managers in Performance Management

The line managers or the front line management play a very crucial role in implementing and enacting the HR policies. Hence, it is very important for the management to ensure that the line managers possess a right attitude towards the performance management approaches and equally possess the right competencies for executing it.

The line managers mostly consider the performance management process as a mere bureaucratic chore and hence they consider it as a sheer waste of time. Some managers lack the required skills for reviewing the performance of the employees, providing feedback and identifying objectives along with them. These limitations can be overcome by adopting the following remedies:

• By providing leadership from the top.
• By communicating with the line managers about the importance of performance management in driving successful results and how it is a part of their responsibility.
• By maintaining simplicity in the overall process of performance management.
• By reducing the pressure from the line managers by making the process an ongoing one instead of an annual review.
• By involving the line managers in the design and development of the performance management processes by representing them in pilot studies.

Role of Employees in Performance Management

The employees have a vital role to play in the performance management cycle as the entire process revolves around them. They play an active part in formulating performance agreements along with their line managers and participate in 360 degree assessment schemes. They discuss their roles and the competencies required and define objectives in conjunction with their superiors. Hence, the employees should be trained in all these activities.

Role of HR in Performance Management

The HR department today is a strategic partner and plays a vital role in pursuing a particular strategy. For facing the challenges of a globalized world, Indian organizations have reformed their HRM strategies for managing the employee performance by considering part time work, outsourcing and temporary workers.

HR no longer today plays the role of a rubber stamp department, rather is a performance enabler by closely working with the to management and all the major functional departments of an organization. Companies like Maruti Udyog Ltd. and Mahindra and Mahindra, revamped their entire organizational set up and were able to create performance efficiency due to the efforts of the HR department.

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