What is the difference between performance management and performance management system?

The need for  performance management was never as important as it is today, the world of business is witnessing immense change, with the focus of Business, Employees and Customers seeing a transformation. Business wants their employees to be on the peak of their performance in serving the customers. Performance management is based on the principle of management by agreement or contract rather than management by command. It emphasizes development and the initiation of self-managed learning plans as well as the integration of individual and corporate objectives.

In a nutshell, Performance management is an HRM process that provides the basis for improving and developing performance and is part of the reward system in its most general sense.

The main objective of Performance Management is to work towards improving the Organizational performance by managing the performance of the individuals and teams with in the organization. Performance Management offers the means whereby Management of the organization tries to get better results by getting an understanding of the employee performance and the enhancing the performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards.

Definition

Performance management could be defined as

'A process for establishing a shared understanding about what is to be achieved and how it is to be achieved, and an approach to managing people that increases the probability of achieving success.’  Weiss and Hartle (1997) 

Performance Management System

Performance management is concerned with:

Bringing inline the individual objectives with organizational objectives and encouraging individuals to uphold corporate core values. The idea behind Performance Management is that individuals are completely focused towards Organizational objectives.

Enabling expectations to be defined and agreed in terms of role responsibilities and accountabilities (expected to do), skills (expected to have) and behaviors (expected to be);

Providing opportunities for individuals to identify their own goals and develop their skills and competencies. as the performance management processes would offer individual to have insight on their performance.

Difference Between Performance Appraisal and Performance Management

There are significant differences in Performance Management and Appraisals, where Performance Appraisals were Formal assessment and rating of individuals by their managers at or after a review meetings, it has been described to operate as a top down and bureaucratic system. It is sometimes referred to as a dishonest annual ritual. Whereas in contrast Performance Management is a continuous and much wider, comprehensive and more natural process that clarifies mutual expectations, emphasizes the role of managers who are expected to act as coaches and the focus is on the future.

Performance appraisal can be defined as the formal assessment and rating of individuals by their managers at or after a review meeting. It has been discredited because too often it has been operated as a top-down and largely bureaucratic system owned by the HR department rather than by line managers. Armstrong and Murlis (1998) asserted, performance appraisal too often degenerated into a dishonest annual ritual’.

In contrast performance management is a continuous and much wider, more comprehensive and more natural process of management that clarifies mutual expectations, emphasizes the support role of managers who are expected to act as coaches rather than judges and focuses on the future.

Bibliography

Armstrong, M (2006) Performance Management, 3rd edn, Kogan Page, London.

Armstrong, M and Murlis, H (1998) Reward Management, 4th edn, Kogan Page, London.

Weiss, T B and Hartle, F (1997) Re-engineering Performance Management, Breakthroughs in achieving strategy through people, St Lucie Press, Boca Raton, FL

Clay Johnson, CCP, SHRM-SCP

Clay Johnson, CCP, SHRM-SCP

Director, Total Rewards Consulting at GBS

Published Feb 17, 2016

There’s a lot of dialogue online around how, when, and whether to measure workplace performance. Business leaders wonder about best practices that will foster growth and employee engagement. Finding answers to these queries is important. Perhaps more important, however, is a clear understanding of the fundamental concepts of performance management that underlie the best practices themselves.

A good starting place is to understand the relationship between performance appraisal and performance management. These intimately related (but different) concepts seem to be confused by some. They are not one and the same—nor is performance management a new, hip title for performance appraisal.

Performance appraisal is a means of evaluating a worker’s behavior against what is expected in his or her role (based on job analysis). This appraisal, regardless of its frequency, is only part of a broader performance management system. A performance management system goes beyond an individual worker’s behavior and views performance in the context of teams, performance development, and alignment of individual and team performance with organizational goals.

Of course, progression along the path of individual or team development implies having a sense how closely current behaviors align with expected behaviors. This is where performance appraisal comes into play. Performance appraisal is an integral part of the performance management process to identify effective behaviors, measure performance, set goals and plans for development, track improvement (or decline), and inform administrative decisions.

What should a performance management system look like? That depends on the size, resources, and goals of the organization. The work of Herman Aguinis, Wayne Cascio, or Robert Guion (to name a few) provide excellent models to adopt. Regardless of the structure or steps built into the performance management system, the process is intended to be continuous, cyclical, and inclusive of all parties.

My intent here is simply to describe the relationship between performance appraisal and performance management, not to delineate their every detail. To put it simply, performance management is a means of removing performance appraisal from a vacuum of individual worker behavior and linking it to the strategic goals of a team, division, department, and organization. That link supports a unified and engaged workforce.

So, before answering the questions of how, when, or whether to measure workplace performance, ask a different question: How well do I understand the fundamental concepts of performance management and performance appraisal?

Let me know whether you found this post helpful and add to this important dialogue.

Explore topics

What is performance management and performance management system?

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