Importance of job performance
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The document discusses the significance of job performance, highlighting its measurement through various indicators such as quality, quantity, and accuracy of work. It emphasizes the influence of general mental ability (intelligence) and factors like organizational justice, stress, and personality traits on job performance outcomes. Additionally, it outlines the importance of effective performance management processes, linking individual goals to corporate strategy and the role of planning, monitoring, and feedback in enhancing performance.
Importance of job performance
- 1. 11/3/2016 Importance of Job Performance bizeducator.com/importance-of-job-performance/ Job performance refers to the level to which an employee successfully fulfills the factors included in the job description. For each job, the content of job performance may differ. Measures of job performance include quality and quantity of work performed by the employee, the accuracy and speed with which the job is performed, and the overall effectiveness of the person on the job. In many companies, job performance determines whether a person is promoted, rewarded with pay raises, given additional responsibilities, or fired from the job. Therefore, most employers observe and track job performance. This is done by keeping track of data on topics such as the number of sales the employee closes, the number of clients the employee visits, the number of defects found in the employee’s output, or the number of customer complaints or compliments received about the person’s work. In some jobs, objective performance data may not be available, and instead supervisor, coworker, customer, and subordinate assessments of the quality and quantity of work performed by the person become the indicators of job performance. Job performance is one of the main outcomes studied in organizational behavior and is an important variable managers must assess when they are engaged in the Controlling role. What Are the Major Predictors of Job Performance? Under which conditions do people perform well, and what are the characteristics of high performers? These questions receive a lot of research attention. It seems that the most powerful influence over our job performance is our general mental ability also known as cognitive ability or intelligence, and often abbreviated as “g.” General mental ability can be divided into several components—reasoning abilities, verbal and numerical skills, and analytical skills—and it seems to be important across different situations. It seems that “g” starts influencing us early in our school days because it is strongly correlated with measures of academic success even in childhood. In adult life, “g” is also correlated with different measures of job performance. It seems that the influence of “g” on performance is important across different settings, but there is also variation. In jobs with high complexity, it is much more critical to have high general mental abilities. Examples of such jobs are manager, sales representative, engineer, and professions such as law and medicine. In jobs such as police officer and clerical worker, the importance of “g” for high performance is still important but weaker. Perceptions of organizational justice and interpersonal relationships are factors determining our performance level. When we feel that we are being fairly treated by the company, that our manager is supportive and rewards high performance, and when we trust the people we work with, we tend to perform better. Why? It seems that when we believe we are treated well, we want to reciprocate. Therefore, we treat the company well by performing our job more effectively. The stress we experience on the job also determines our performance level. When we are stressed, our mental energies are drained. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, we start concentrating on the stressor trying to cope with it. Because our attention and energies are diverted to dealing with stress, our performance suffers. Having role ambiguity and experiencing conflicting role demands are related to lower performance. Stress that prevents us from doing our jobs does not have to be related to our experiences at work. For example, according to a survey conducted by Workplace Options, 45% of the respondents said that financial stress affects work performance. When people are in debt, worrying about their mortgage payments or college payments of their kids, their performance will suffer. 1/4
- 2. Our work attitudes, particularly job satisfaction, are also correlates of job performance but not to as great a degree as you might expect. Many studies have been devoted to understanding whether happy employees are more productive. Some studies show weak correlations between satisfaction and performance while others show higher correlations (what researchers would call “medium sized” correlations of .30). The correlation between commitment and performance tends to be even weaker. Even with a correlation of .30, though, the relationship may be lower than you may have expected. Why is this the case? It seems that happy workers have an inclination to be more engaged at work. They may want to perform better. They may be more motivated. But there are also exceptions. Think about this: Because you want to perform, does this mean that you will actually perform better? Chances are your skill level in performing the job will matter. There are also some jobs where performance depends on factors beyond an employee’s control, such as the pace of the machine they are working on. Because of this reason, in professional jobs such as with engineers and researchers, we see a stronger link between work attitudes and performance, as opposed to manual jobs such as assembly-line workers. Also, think about the alternative possibility: If you don’t like your job, does this mean that you will reduce your performance? Maybe up to a certain point, but there will be factors that prevent you from reducing your performance: such as the fear of getting fired, the desire to get a promotion so that you can get out of the job that you dislike so much, or your professional work ethic. As another example, among nurses, there seems to be a weak correlation between satisfaction and performance. Even when they are unhappy, nurses put a lot of effort into their work because they feel a moral obligation to help their patients. As a result, we should not expect a one-on-one relationship between satisfaction and performance. Still, the observed correlation between work attitudes and performance is important and has practical value. Finally, job performance has a modest relationship with personality traits, particularly conscientiousness. People who are organized, reliable, dependable, and achievement-oriented seem to outperform others in various contexts. BY BIZEDUCATOR Performance Management is the process of defining clear objectives and targets for individuals and teams, and the regular review of actual achievement and eventual rewarding for target achievement. The process should ensure that individual and team effort support the organizational objectives and that key stakeholder expectations are realized by focusing on key value drivers. Thus: Planning is crucial Stakeholder expectations are key drivers of Performance Management Management and employee buy-in and involvement are paramount Key objectives and targets should be linked to corporate strategy These factors are often not addressed in organizations and as a result the process is often destructive and draws a tremendous amount of energy from the organization – leading to a situation where value-add and benefits are minimal. Performance Management should be a process that incorporates the following: Planning Performance: setting Key Performance Area’s (KPA’s), objectives and standards that are linked to 2/4
- 3. corporate strategy, development plans Maintaining Performance: monitoring, feedback, coaching and mentoring and regular interactions regarding goal achievement Reviewing Performance: formal feedback and ratings – evaluating performance Rewarding of Performance: increases, bonuses, incentives, etc The Planning Phase is crucial – 80% of time and effort should be allocated to this phase. If the focus is on inappropriate aspects of the organization (i.e. the goals do not contribute to long-term strategy achievement and stakeholder requirements), none of the subsequent phases will be worthwhile. If the focus is inappropriate, it often leads to de-motivation, lack of credibility and failure of the business. Planning typically should include the identifying Key Value Drivers of stakeholders (stakeholders typically are the shareholders, customers and employees of the organization). Benefits of performance management: A well-implemented performance management process is beneficial to the company, its managers and employees. The advantages include: Integration Open Communication Improved Performance Training and Development Clarity of Standards/Requirements Placement of Individuals Increased Objectivity Equitable Remuneration Objective Promotability Structured Career Planning Success factors in implementing Performance Management: Relevance Link to strategy, clear job goals, up-to-date job profiles Reliability Consistent measurement, rating errors Discriminability Ability to discriminate between good and poor performance Freedom from contamination External factors should not influence measurement (resources, line of sight) Practicality 3/4
- 4. Easy to use, understandable, manageable administration Acceptability Perceived legitimacy, involvement Legal compliance Labour law compliance, Employment Equity Act, substantive and procedural fairness BY BIZEDUCATOR 4/4