Goal Setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time-targeted objectives.

Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it's an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them if an objective is to be achieved. On a personal level, setting goals is a process that allows people to specify then work towards their own objectives - most commonly with financial or career-based goals[citation needed]. Goal setting is a major component of personal development literature. The business technique of management by objectives uses the principle of goal setting. In business, goal setting has the advantages of encouraging participants to put in substantial effort; and, because every member has defined expectations set upon him or her (high role perception), little room is left for inadequate effort going unnoticed. To be most effective goals should be tangible, specific, realistic and have a time targeted for completion. There must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal. For example, setting a goal to go to Mars on a shoe string budget is not a realistic goal, while setting a goal to go to Hawaii as a backpacker is a possible goal with possible, realistic plans. Some people[who?] feel that one possible drawback of goal setting is that implicit learning may be inhibited. This is because goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to exploration, understanding or growth.[citation needed] "Goals provide a sense of direction and purpose" (Goldstein, 1993, p. 96).[vague] Locke et al. (1981)[vague] examined the behavioral effects of goal-setting, concluding that 90% of laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy or no goals. While some managers[who?] would believe it is sufficient to urge employees to do their best, Locke and Latham have a clear contradicting view on this. The authors state that people who are told to do their best will not do so. Doing your best has no external referent which implies that it is useless in eliciting specific behavior. To elicit some specific form of behavior from others, it is important that this person has a clear view of what is expected from him/her. A goal is thereby of vital importance because it facilitates an

individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction. In other words; goals canalize behavior (Cummings & Worley p. 368)[vague]. However when goals are established at a management level and thereafter solely laid down, employee motivation with regard to achieving these goals is rather suppressed (Locke & Latham, 2002 p. 705)[vague]. In order to increase motivation the employees not only need to be allowed to participate in the goal setting process but the goals have to be challenging as well (Cummings & Worley p. 369)[vague]. Managers cannot be constantly able to drive motivation and keep track of an employees work on a continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that acquires an employee a certain amount of guidance [1] have distilled four mechanisms through which goal setting is able to affect individual performance: 1. Goals focus attention towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities. 2. Goals serve as an energizer; higher goals will induce greater effort while low goals induce lesser effort. 3. Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources will affect work pace. 4. Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies which allows employees to cope with the situation at hand. Through an understanding of the effect of goal setting on individual performance organizations are able to use goal setting to benefit organizational performance.[2] have therefore indicated three moderators which indicate the success of goal setting: Goal commitment People will perform better when they are committed to achieve certain goals. Goal commitment is dependent of: 1. The importance of the expected outcomes of goal attainment and; 2. Self-efficacy - one's belief that they are able to achieve the goals; 3. Commitment to others - promises or engagements to others can strongly improve commitment Feedback

Keep track of performance to allow employees to see how effective they have been in attaining the goals. Without proper feedback channels it is impossible to adapt or adjust to the required behavior. Task complexity More difficult goals require more cognitive strategies and well developed skills. The more difficult the tasks ahead, a smaller group of people will possess the necessary skills and strategies. From an organizational perspective it is thereby more difficult to successfully attain more difficult goals since resources become more scarce. Employee motivation The more employees are motivated, the more they are stimulated and interested in accepting goals. Macro-economical characteristics The position of the economy in the conjucture puts pressure or simply relieves the organization. This means that some goals are easier set in specific macro-economical surroundings. Depression is for instance the least successful conjucturial phase for goal setting. These success factors are not to be seen independently. For example the expected outcomes of goals are positively influenced when employees are involved in the goal setting process. Not only does participation increase commitment in attaining the goals that are set, participation influences selfefficacy as well. In addition to this feedback is necessary to monitor one's progress. When this is left aside, an employee might (s)he is not making enough progress. This can reduce self-efficacy and thereby harm the performance outcomes in the long run [3]. A performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career) development discussion[1] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor[2]. A performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career development. It is the process of obtaining analyzing and recording information about relative worth of an employee to the organization. Aims Generally, the aims of a performance appraisal are to:

Give a employees feedback on performance Identify employee training needs Document criteria used to allocate organizational rewards Form a basis for personnel decisions: salary increases, promotions, disciplinary actions, bonuses, etc. Provide the opportunity for organizational diagnosis and development Facilitate communication between employee and administration Validate selection techniques and human resource policies to meet federal Equal Employment Opportunity requirements

[edit] Methods A common approach to assessing performance is to use a numerical or scalar rating system whereby managers are asked to score an individual against a number of objectives/attributes. In some companies, employees receive assessments from their manager, peers, subordinates, and customers, while also performing a self assessment. This is known as a 360-degree appraisal and forms good communication patterns. The most popular methods used in the performance appraisal process include the following:

Management by objectives 360-degree appraisal Behavioral observation scale Behaviorally anchored rating scales

Trait-based systems, which rely on factors such as integrity and conscientiousness, are also commonly used by businesses. The scientific literature on the subject provides evidence that assessing employees on factors such as these should be avoided. The reasons for this are two-fold: 1) Because trait-based systems are by definition based on personality traits, they make it difficult for a manager to provide feedback that can cause positive change in employee performance. This is caused by the fact that personality dimensions are for the most part static, and while an employee can change a specific behavior they cannot change their personality. For example, a person who lacks integrity may stop lying to a manager because they have been caught, but they still have low integrity and are likely to lie again when the threat of being caught is gone.

2) Trait-based systems, because they are vague, are more easily influenced by office politics, causing them to be less reliable as a source of information on an employee's true performance. The vagueness of these instruments allows managers to fill them out based on who they want to/feel should get a raise, rather than basing scores on specific behaviors employees should/should not be engaging in. These systems are also more likely to leave a company open to discrimination claims because a manager can make biased decisions without having to back them up with specific behavioral information. [edit] Criticism Performance appraisals are an instrument for social control. They are annual discussions, avoided more often than held, in which one adult identifies for another adult three improvement areas to work on over the next twelve months. You can soften them all you want, call them development discussions, have them on a regular basis, have the subordinate identify the improvement areas instead of the boss, and discuss values. None of this changes the basic transaction... If the intent of the appraisal is learning, it is not going to happen when the context of the dialogue is evaluation and judgment. Performance management From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Simply put, performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on performance of the organization, a department, processes to build a product or service, employees, etc. Information in this topic will give you some sense of the overall activities involved in performance management. Then you might enhance your understanding by reviewing closely related library topics referenced from the sidebar. For a description of Performance Management in the context of Information Technology, please see IT Performance Management. Where PM is applied This PM approach is used most often in the workplace but applies wherever people interactschools, churches, community meetings, sports teams,

health setting, governmental agencies, and even political settings. PM principles are needed wherever in the world people interact with their environments to produce desired effects. Cultures are different but the laws of behavior are the same worldwide. Armstrong and baron (1998) defined it as A strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors It is possible to get all employees to reconcile personal goals with organisation goals. One can turn around any marginal business and increase productivity and profitability for any organisation, with the transparent and hidden forces embedded in this process. It can be applied by organisations or a single department or section inside an organisation; as well as an individual person. This process is a natural, self-inspired performance process and are appropriately named the self-propelled performance process (SPPP). The self-propelled performance management system is: 1. the fastest known method for career promotion; 2. the quickest way for career advancement; 3. the surest way for career progress; 4. the best ingredient in career path planning; 5. the only true and lasting virtue for career success; 6. the most neglected part in teachings about management and leadership principles; 7. the most complete and sophisticated application of performance management; 8. the best integration of human behaviour research findings, with the latest management, leadership and organisational development principles; 9. the best automated method for organisational change, development, growth, performance and profit; 10. the quickest way for career building, career development and moving up on the stepping stones of the corporate career ladder; 11. the surest and fastest way for increased motivation, productivity, growth, performance and profitability for both the individual and the organisation; 12. the best career builder and career booster for any career; and 13. inspirational, as it gets people moving, makes them self-starters in utilising own talents and initiative, automatically like magic. First of all, deriving from the strategic plan, a commitment analysis must be done, where a job mission statement is drawn up for each job. The job mission statement is a job definition in terms of purpose, customers, product

and scope. The aim with this analysis is to determine the continuous key objectives and performance standards for each job position. Following the commitment analysis, is the work analysis of a particular job in terms of the reporting structure and job description. If a job description is not available, then a systems analysis can be done to draw up a job description. The aim with this analysis is to determine the continuous critical objectives and performance standards for each job. [edit] Benefits Managing employee or system performance facilitates the effective delivery of strategic and operational goals. There is a clear and immediate correlation between using performance management programs or software and improved business and organizational results. For employee performance management, using integrated software, rather than a spreadsheet based recording system, may deliver a significant return on investment through a range of direct and indirect sales benefits, operational efficiency benefits and by unlocking the latent potential in every employees work day i.e. the time they spend not actually doing their job. Benefits may include : Direct financial gains

Grow sales Reduce costs Stop project overruns Aligns the organization directly behind the CEO's goals Decreases the time it takes to create strategic or operational changes by communicating the changes through a new set of goals

Motivated workforce

Optimizes incentive plans to specific goals for over achievement, not just business as usual Improves employee engagement because everyone understands how they are directly contributing to the organisations high level goals Create transparency in achievement of goals High confidence in bonus payment process

Professional development programs are better aligned directly to achieving business leval goals

Improved management control

Flexible, responsive to management needs Displays data relationships Helps audit / comply with legislative requirements Simplifies communication of strategic goals scenario planning Provides well documented and communicated process documentation

[edit] Organizational Development Definitions

In organizational development (OD), performance can be thought of as Actual Results vs Desired Results. Any discrepancy, where Actual is less than Desired, could constitute the performance improvement zone. Performance management and improvement can be thought of as a cycle:

1. Performance planning where goals and objectives are established 2. Performance coaching where a manager intervenes to give feedback

and adjust performance 3. Performance appraisal where individual performance is formally documented and feedback delivered A performance problem is any gap between Desired Results and Actual Results. Performance improvement is any effort targeted at closing the gap between Actual Results and Desired Results. Other organizational development definitions are slightly different. The US Government's Office of Personnel Management indicates that Performance Management consists of a system or process whereby: 1. 2. 3. 4. Work is planned and expectations are set Performance of work is monitored Staff ability to perform is developed and enhanced Performance is rated or measured and the ratings summarized 5. Top performance is rewarded[1]