Incident 2: Performance Management
As the production supervisor for Sweeny Electronics, Nakeisha Joseph was generally well regarded by most of her subordinates. Nakeisha was as easygoing individual who tried to help her employees in any way she could. If a worker needed a small loan until payday, she would dig into her pocket with no questions asked. Should an employee need some time off to attend to a personal problem, Nakeisha would not dock the individual’s pay, rather, she would like take up the slack herself until the worker retuned.
Everything had been going smoothly, at least until the last performance appraisal period. One of Nakeisha’s workers, Bill Overstreet, had been experiencing a large number of personal problems for the past year. Bill's wife had been sick much of the time, and her medical expenses were high. Bill's son had a speech Impediment, and the doctors had recommended a special clinic. Bill, who had already borrowed the limit the bank would loan, had become upset and despondent over his circumstances.
When it was time for Bill's annual performance appraisal, decided she was going to do as much as possible to help him. Although Bill could not be considered more than an average worker, Nakeisha rated him outstanding in virtually every category. Because the firm’s compensation system was heavily tied to performance appraisal, Bill would be eligible for a merit increase of 10 percent in addition to a regular cost-of-living raise.
Nakeisha explained to Bill why she was giving him such high ratings, and Bill acknowledge that this performance had really been no better than average. Bill was very grateful and expended this to Nakeisha, As Bill left the office, he was excitedly looking forward to telling his work buddies about what a wonderful boss he had. Seeing Bill smile as he left gave Nakeisha a warm feeling.
Questions
1. From Sweeny Electronic’s standpoint, what difficulties might Nakeisha’s performance appraisal practices create?
2. What can Nakeisha do now to diminish the negative impact of her evaluation of Bill?
3. Might a forced distribution performance appraisal system overcome the problem that Nakeisha has created? Discuss.
7-18. From Sweeny Electronics standpoint, what difficulties might Mike Mahoney’s performance appraisal practices create?
This will hurt Sweeny in the long run bill will return with let incentive to work and cause the other workers to expect the same treatment. The other will look for the same sympathy when it comes to PA time. If Bill tells his coworkers about Nakeisha’s leniency towards his appraisal, another difficulty Nakeisha might face is that employees will begin to perform their work poorly and make excuses in order to take time away from work. Because they now know that she will give them a good appraisal even if they deserve an average performance grading. Goals will not be achieved. This may create a climate of favoritism. The recognition to the employees by giving the special compensation and incentive will increase their motivation to be the best.
7-19. What can Nakeisha do now to diminish the negative impact of her evaluation of Bill?
Complete honesty is the only approach. I disapprove of the actions in this case. It is dishonest. Far too often this type of behavior leads to problems. She is treading on very dangerous grounds here and you as the employer are implicated because all the events are work related. She should change the rating and would be prepared to talk to Bill if the situation was challenged. Perhaps he should Praise the high performance employees more now. This is the urgent thing that Nekeisha should do to diminish the impact of her evaluation of Bill. If she give more incentives to the high performance employees, it can save her from being judged as being unfair and favoritism, and it could sway the employees to an opinion that what Nekeisha has done is merely to help Bill to solve his problem although it was a wrong way. Nekeisha should tell Bill personally; that what she has done is merely to help him solving his problem and not to expect this treatment again. Nekeisha should work with Bill and create a training refresher course so that he will show a better performance in the future. She should be investigated along with Bill. They have corroborated the appraisal results.