A Performance Management Initiative

This blog post is to define and explain what a 360 degree performance feedback plan is. Is the 360 degree method a valid way to evaluate performance? This, and more will be answered by examining the pros and cons related to the value of multi-source evaluations and the effect on employee performance.

First, since this a blog posting and not a formal assignment, I must say that until now, I had not heard of the 360 degree multi-source evaluation and I am curious about what it is. Heathfied (n.d) stated in an article that examined the 360 degree performance plan, that it is a performance plan that allows for feedback from multiple persons instead of the traditional manager-employee, one on one evaluation.  Instead, those that manage the employee, their coworkers, and others such as clients, evaluate the employee’s performance. Those that are selected are given a set of standardized, well defined set of questions and asked to evaluate a particular employee. The employees that will rate this person are selected because they work closely together with this employee and possibly see them at their best and worst. The overall purpose of this plan according to Heathfied is that when employees evaluate each other, good things happen. Teamwork is created, training is identified based on evaluation weakness in performance and whatever is revealed, positive or negative, an employee is responsible for his or her own growth and development and the work enviroment is able to support the training and growth (p. 1). Linman (n.d.) appeared to substantiate Healthfied, when she stated that the purpose of this feedback plan is to “assess[] personal development rather than [give an] evaluation (p. 1).

Based on the above stated introduction, the 360 degree performance plan seems logical and an exciting alternative to traditional review plans, which for the industry that I work in are routine and lack purpose other than to justify raises and or bonuses. However, there are several serious concerns about this plan and one in particular is that this type of plan cannot be implemented without serious preparation. The plan “…must be connected with the overall strategic aims of your organization” (p. 2). If it is linked to compensation as traditional apprasals are, the 360 degree plan is doomed because employees will be hesitant to rate each other for fear of retribution, with the subsequent result is the creation of a culture that lacks trust and communication. Linman also stated that the 360 degree plan is popular, but for companies such as IBM, this form of evaluation was stopped due to “[r]eviews had become politically charged and were no longer reliable” (p. 4). If used in a culture that is competitive or hostile, it cannot hope to work as this type of review process takes collaboration and trust so that the evaluation is impartial and fair.

Last, I am not sure that this type of performance evaluation would work in the legal industry as this environment is highly stressed and for the most part, is not supportive of employee growth.  Paulina Beautovia.

References

Aguinis, H. (2013). Performance management (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Heathfield, S. (n.d.). 360 Degree Feedback: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. About.com-g Human Resources. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://human resources.about.com/od/360feedback/a/360degreefeedback_2

Linman, T. (n.d.). 360-degree Feedback: Weighing the Pros and Cons. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/Interventions/360_1

MHRM6600-Week 2

Personal Blog

Pauline R. Lopez

 

September 16, 2012

 

Questions have been proposed that ask for a reflection of my past experiences working with teams, the advantages and disadvantages of doing so in an educational setting or otherwise.  In contrast, how does this compare to working individually? What about evaluating team members?

 

In response:

I have had experience working individually and in teams and I have mixed feelings and thoughts about these experiences.

Before deciding to attend Walden, I was enrolled in a Master’s program at University of Phoenix, which is primarily team based.  Feedback about the school was that the majority of my grades would be based on team assignments and in reviews about the college, other students complained that their grade was diminished due to problems with the team experience.  I found this threatening and decided that this school was not for me.  I am a very social and friendly person, but for many years, worked individually.  Anyway, I enrolled at Walden and guess what, in my second and third course, I was asked to work in teams.

I am glad that I “had” to do this because so far it has been an enjoyable experience for me. What I discovered is that I can lead a group if need be, directing and coordinating the completion of the assignment or I can work for another team member, and relax once my part is done.  The group eases tension and I learn from other group members.

Last, in my class on budget management, we had a team member that at first, I thought he was arrogant and a know it all.  Half way through the assignment group experience, I realized that what I thought was arrogance, was competence and I changed my opinion of him completely.

 Two areas that are difficult for me are not being able to visually see my classmates during team assignments, however, if I am in my sleep clothes and without makeup or my hair is in a mess, this environment is much better.

Second, is that I struggle with evaluations in that I believe that most if not all classmates work diligently and I do not want a negative review to reflect on their evaluation.  It is not my place to have this type of influence.  Regardless, I have given positive evaluations except for one woman who did not participate in our group project, did not communicate with the professor or her teammates and those that remained and participated, had to complete her part.  Without communication by her, I could not give her a positive review. With love, Paulina Beautovia

PERFORMANCE MANAGMENT Dated: 9-5-12

This is a new Blog for this course in performance management.  My assignment is to create or begin a new blog for this class.  I have decided to continue with an existing Blog and here it is. With love and blessings from the universe to you. Paulina Beautovia

Unit 7 Response to Data Management and Ethics

Unit 7 Response to Data Management and Ethics


How would I handle being asked to be unethical by manipulating data? Well, this happened to me in my present position with a slight tweaking of the circumstances.

Here is my story. I worked for an attorney who the secretaries called “Evil Spawn”. I was not told about this attorney until my first day of employment. It was as if management was hiding something from me and this alone is not ethical or at least this is not good business practices and as a prior manager, I would not practice this form of deceptive management. However, I started working for the firm and had several other wonderful attorneys, so I dealt with having one bad one. I worked for this “bad” attorney for about three years, with very little conflict and thought his reputation was ill founded. In year four, his behavior changed and he came into the office less frequently and when he did, he was disorganized, curt in his behavior toward me and began asking me for answers to questions that he as an attorney should have known the answer to and or responded to others instead of me as go between. I could go on and on, rather, I will get to the point. He began to miss hearings and appointments and tried to blame me for not telling him, but I did and had documented when and how I told him (thank goodness). He asked me to cover for him and that “he would scratch my back, if I would scratch his.” I told him no, that I would not do this and that it was unethical for him as an attorney, nor was it ethical for me as a professional secretary and as you might imagine, he tried to retaliate against me. I refused to cover for him and told my boss that something was wrong with him and I suspected drug use or that medically he was ill.

One day, I called him at home because the court called me asking for him at a very important court appearance. He was at home sleeping and the client was waiting at the court for him. Bad, really bad.... He asked me to cover for this missed appearance and lie to the client and I couldn’t do this. Regardless of how I feel about my firm, of which I have shared about before, I had to protect its name, myself, the other attorneys in our firm, and of course we didn’t want to lose the client. This attorney was lying to the client and the client reported this to the manager. It was a very bad situation. This attorney also wanted me to sign his name on declarations under the penalty of perjury.

I was very worried that because he is an attorney and has much more clout and power then I do as a secretary that somehow he would manipulate the situations that had occurred and I would be held accountable. This occurs quite frequently in other firms I am sad to say.

My boss protected me from his retaliation and his employment with my firm was terminated.

If the situation was with a co-worker, it would depend on the situation; however, if asked to change or modify information or data, no I wouldn’t do that. I am not a saint, but don’t put me in a position that jeopardizes my job. This is an extreme form of selfishness.

Metrics-Blog 2 BUILDING TRUST

In this Blog assignment, I want to look at trust and how it is very much integrated into the employment relationship. My first thought was what is trust...what is it really? I looked at Silzer and Dowell (2010) and read about trust, which is that trust "...must be real, pervasive and here and now" and that it is the foundation of the employment relationship (p. 133). Our stakeholders need to know that our agenda, whatever it is, is focused on the health and welfare of the corporation. No matter what our role is for our organization, the relationship that we have with those in charge  and each other has to be based on our credibility and of course trust because we will be given confidences and we could be privy to confidential information (p. 727). "Without trust, you get shut out of critical discussions..." (p. 740). So, how do we build this trust? First is credibility and as I have mentioned before, speak their language. Know what I am talking about, speak clearly, get to the point, speak confidently and openly and if "...organizations do not know what difference their training makes," I had better know how and why my recommendations are going to make a difference (Griffin, 2010, p. 3). 

I can also build trust by regular and/or frequent communication with those I am reporting to and give them measurable progress. What also comes to mind is that many stakeholders are men, or at least many of them are in my field and they don’t have time for indecision. As a woman, this means that I present my ideas, get to the point, have suggestions for solving the challenges that I present and ask for their input. This relationship of trust is built over time and by experiences. To overcome distrust, maybe it would be good to talk about the distrust instead of avoiding the topic. Start with little projects and build from there. Maybe mistrust will always be there because HR is seen as a “different kind of animal,” however, this is where persistence is important. Some stakeholders will be willing to trust and those relationships can be built as we work on building our relationships with managers and others.

 Resources

Griffin, R. P. (2010). Means and ends: Effective training evaluation. Industrial and Commercial Training, 42(4), 220-225. doi:10.1108/00197851011048582

Silzer, R., & Dowell, B. E. (Eds.). (2010). Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Metrics-Blog 1

I have been asked to assess whether HR is getting a “seat at the table” as strategic partner.  If I use my company as an example, or my chosen company for research, Estee Lauder, I would say no.  I see my HR as a transactional department; one that administers benefits, employee orientations and manages our anti-harassment/discrimination policies. I think that I am selling my HR department short and until I interview an HR employee, I won’t really know what their roles are.  However, with this being said, it appears that my HR is a silent department.  It is possible as Becker, Huselid and Ulrich (2007) state, that there is a great deal of frustration between departments and a lack of communication (p. 10-11).  I think that HR, as it evolves, will need be more then it is.  Companies are demanding more of their employees and you know, why wouldn’t HR want to grow?  One of the problems is that those that want to grow strategically, don’t know how or don’t know how to talk to stakeholders. 

In my master’s classes at Walden University, I know that I am being asked to look at HR from a broader prospective and I am glad for this.  HR, to remain a viable unit in any organization needs to align itself as strategic partner, yet until there are those that understand this change, HR will not grow. 

Historically, HR has been staffed with women, like my field is.  Women working for men in support position.  In my field, no matter how much education we have or experience, there are many attorneys that cannot look at their assistant as an integral part of their team. It is frustrating! 

Resource

Becker, B., Huselid, M., & Ulrich, D. (2001). The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy. Boston, MA. Harvard Business School Press.

Unit 8 Tuckman stages

I am a member of group C and we had two group assignments to complete.  One of our group members really took the lead in both assignments and I appreciate her taking the lead and mapping it all out for us. I had been thinking about doing it, but I decided to wait and see what would happen. Several of us got to work on our projects right away and others came in a day or two later.  In the first assignment, I went with the flow and with the second, I wanted to check in with everyone early, just to connect.  I got a response and felt connected.  I am not sure that others feel connected, but also because there was no communication about the stages or where we are at and we haven’t processed our experiences, I don’t know.

I think that we are still in the forming stage.  Working at getting to know each other, yet with these assignments, we are developing interdependence on each other.

In the first assignment, we were told that our project was good but had too many words, etc. Our grade was good, and the group member that prepared it felt bad that our grade went down.  I don’t know what others said to him, but he apologized for this.  During the second assignment, he gave us clear specific instructions for submitting our portions.

However, with all of this being said, I think that I have just entered the storming phase. As I said, I selected my topics early and they were confirmed by the group leader.  As I was submitting my assignments to the person that was to prepare the power point presentation, I noticed that another group member, who got his assignments much later than I did, TOOK MY SECOND TOPIC.  I email him right away and told him that he took my topic.  This is the kind of thing that happens when we are under stress and know that the course is coming to an end or are in a hurry.  However, I feel scared and angry because I don’t have the time to do another topic.  Plus, I usually back down and am a people pleaser.  Not this time, I did my part.  I have earned an evening off to watch Twilight. Now I am stressed....

Update on 2-23-12:  The team member that took my assignment has done another, which decrease my stress.  I over reacted and he was gracious and apologized for his error.  So, I have exited the storming phase and am back to working confidently and patiently with all. 

Love Paulina Beautovia