Q. 1 Give your own concept of managment while referring defintions of other scholars. Elaborate significance of educational managment with reference to models of manamgnet.
Answer:
The term ‘management’ has been used in different senses. Sometimes it refers to the process of
planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling, at other times it is used to
describe it as a function of managing people. It is also referred to as a body of knowledge, a practice
and discipline. There are some who describe management as a technique of leadership and
decision-making while some others have analyzed management as an economic resource, a factor
of production or a system of authority.
Objectives of Management:
The primary objective of management is to run the enterprise smoothly. The profit earning objective
of a business is also to be kept in mind while undertaking various functions.
Following are the broad objectives of management:
1. Proper Utilization of Resources:
The main objective of management is to use various resources of the enterprise in a most economic
way. The proper use of men, materials, machines and money will help a business to earn sufficient
profits to satisfy various interests. The proprietors will want more returns on their investments while
employees, customers and public will expect a fair deal from the management. All these interests
will be satisfied only when physical resources of the business are properly utilized.
2. Improving Performance:
Management should aim at improving the performance of each and every factor of production. The
environment should be so congenial that workers are able to give their maximum to the enterprise.
The fixing of objectives of various factors of production will help them in improving their
performance.
3. Mobilizing Best Talent:
The management should try to employ persons in various fields so that better results are possible.
The employment of specialists in various fields will be increasing the efficiency of various factors of
production. There should be a proper environment which should encourage good persons to join
the enterprise. The better pay scales, proper amenities, future growth potentialities will attract more
people in joining a concern.
4. Planning for Future:
Another important objective of management is to prepare plans. No management should feel
satisfied with today’s work if it has not thought of tomorrow. Future plans should take into
consideration what is to be done next. Future performance will depend upon present planning. So,
planning for future is essential to help the concern.
Significance of educational managment with reference to models of manamgnet:
1. Forecasting:
It is a systematic assessment of future conditions by collecting all sorts of information about the
present position of the system, its present and expected resources and trying to form a picture in
terms of the accepted Philosophy in a particular country to arrive at a fruitful forecast.
2. Decision-making:
Decision-making is a key factor in educational management as here we have to think of generations
which will be affected by the policies decided. Having considered various alternative and
consequence of each course of action, a suitable course of action must be determined. Guess work,
arbitrary exercise of authority, ill considered hasty decisions should have no place in educational
management. The following points must be borne in mind while deciding that the:
- Course of actions should be simple and easily understood by all concerned;
- Standards for targets must be laid down; and
- Goal must be clear.
3. Planning:
The plan should be flexible. The very existence of variables and uncertainties make decision-making
and planning a necessity. There should be enough scope of change to cater for any unforeseen
situations. There are many variables - the priorities may change due to unforeseen circumstances;
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equipment and grants may not become available as expected; personnel may be posted out or they
may proceed on leave; all these variable contributing to the non-implementation of decisions.
4. Organization:
It is the combination of necessary human effort, material equipments in systematic and effective
correlation to accomplish the desired results. Under educational administration, we organize:
- Ideas and principles into school systems, curricular and co-curricular activities, time schedules, norms of achievement and the like;
- Human beings into schools, classes, committees, groups, school staff, the inspecting staff.
- Material into buildings, furniture and equipment, libraries, laboratories, workshops, museums and art galleries.
5. Motivation:
Involvement in deciding policies and plans help in motivation. The term motivation aims to make
the man to be cheerfully willing to do the job we want him to do. Face to face communication is
quite useful if organization members are to be motivated to do their best. Communication, down,
up and across is also of great importance to the motivation of organization members.
6. Control:
Effective control is an important element in educational administration. The administrator must
constantly check on his terms and his wn performance vis-a-vis the standards laid down. He needs to take corrective action to the form of adjustments to the physical environment of work,
modification and addition of materials and methods or abilities and motivation review of the
personnel in terms of their spirits.
7. Cooperation:
It is required of all the elements the persons, material and ideas, knowledge and principles and so to
interweave them as to achieve a common objective and a single effect. The administration should
look into the: (a) relations among people, (b) allocation of tasks, and (c) division of labour.
8. Evaluation:
Evaluation is a good way to find out the success or failure of a project. Good measures are required
to find out the reasons why it failed or succeeded, which steps in the process were most successful,
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what should have been done to improve the action and what should be done differently at the next
trial.
9. Recording and reporting:
Recording and reporting are essential elements of educational management which is answerable to
the parents, the higher authorities, the society etc.
10. Supervision:
The purpose of supervision is to bring about a continuing improvement in the instructional
programme. Cox and Langfitt write, "Management executes, directs; supervision advises, stimulates,
explains, leads, guides and assists. Both plan, both diagnose, both inspect, but management decides
and orders execution, while supervision helps to decide and assist in improving instruction."
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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)
Q. 2 How does the knowledge of management help the managers? Enrich your answer with solid examples for the field?
Answer:
All organizations can benefit from their people sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating and
learning. Here is a list of 15 benefits that can result from knowledge management (KM) and
enterprise social networks (ESNs). What would you add to this list?
1. Enabling better and faster decision making
By delivering relevant information at the time of need through structure, search, subscription,
syndication, and support, a knowledge management environment can provide the basis for making
good decisions. Collaboration brings the power of large numbers, diverse opinions, and varied
experience to bear when decisions need to be made. The reuse of knowledge in repositories allows
decisions to be based on actual experience, large sample sizes, and practical lessons learned.
2. Making it easy to find relevant information and resources
When faced with a need to respond to a customer, solve a problem, analyze trends, assess markets,
benchmark against peers, understand competition, create new offerings, plan strategy, and to think
critically, you typically look for information and resources to support these activities. If it is easy and
fast to find what you need when you need it, you can perform all of these tasks efficiently.
3. Reusing ideas, documents, and expertise
Once you have developed an effective process, you want to ensure that others use the process each
time a similar requirement arises. If someone has written a document or created a presentation that
addresses a recurring need, it should be used in all future similar situations. When members of your
organization have figured out how to solve a common problem, know how to deliver a recurring
service, or have invented a new product, you want that same solution, service, and product to be
replicated as much as possible. Just as the recycling of materials is good for the
environment, reuse is good for organizations because it minimizes rework, prevents problems, saves
time, and accelerates progress.
4. Avoiding redundant effort
No one likes to spend time doing something over again. But they do so all the time for a variety of
reasons. Avoiding duplication of effort saves time and money, keeps employee morale up, and
streamlines work. By not spending time reinventing the wheel, you can have more time to invent
something new.
5. Avoiding making the same mistakes twice
George Santayana said, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." If we don't learn from
our mistakes, we will experience them over and over again. Knowledge management allows us to
share lessons learned, not only about successes, but also about failures. In order to do so, we must
have a culture of trust, openness, and reward for willingness to talk about what we have done
wrong. The potential benefits are enormous. If NASA learns why a space shuttle exploded, it can
prevent recurrences and save lives. If FEMA learns what went wrong in responding to Hurricane
Katrina, it can reduce the losses caused by future disasters. If engineers learn why highways and
buildings collapsed during a previous earthquake, they can design new ones to better withstand
future earthquakes. If you learn that your last bid or estimate was underestimated by 50%, you can
make the next one more accurate and thus earn a healthy profit instead of incurring a large loss.
6. Taking advantage of existing expertise and experience
Teams benefit from the individual skills and knowledge of each member. The more complementary
the expertise of the team members, the greater the power of the team. In large organizations, there
are people with widely-varying capabilities and backgrounds, and there should be a benefit from this. But as the number of people increases, it becomes more difficult for each individual to know
about everyone else. So even though there are people with knowledge who could help other
people, they don't know about each other. The late Lew Platt, former CEO of HP, is widely quoted as
saying "If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive." Knowing what
others know can be very helpful at a time of need, since you learn from their experience and apply it
to your current requirements.
7. Communicating important information widely and quickly
Almost everyone today is an information worker, either completely or partially. We all need
information to do our jobs effectively, but we also suffer from information overload from an
increasing variety of sources. How can we get information that is targeted, useful, and timely
without drowning in a sea of email, having to visit hundreds of web sites, or reading through tons of
printed material? Knowledge management helps address this problem through personalized portals,
targeted subscriptions, RSS feeds, tagging, and enterprise search engines.
8. Promoting standard, repeatable processes and procedures
If standard processes and procedures have been defined, they should always be followed. This
allows employees to learn how things are done, leads to predictable and high-quality results, and
enables large organizations to be consistent in how work is performed. By providing a process for
creating, storing, communicating, and using standard processes and procedures, employees will be
able to use them routinely.
9. Providing methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples
Methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples are the building blocks supporting repeatable
processes and procedures. Using these consistently streamlines work, improves quality, and ensures
compatibility across the organization.
10. Making scarce expertise widely available
If there is a resource who is in great demand due to having a skill that is in short supply, knowledge
management can help make that resource available to the entire organization. Ways of doing so
include community discussion forums, training events; ask the expert systems, recorded
presentations, white papers, blogs, podcasts and videos.
11. Showing customers how knowledge is used for their benefit
In competitive situations, it is important to be able to differentiate yourself from other firms.
Demonstrating to potential and current customers that you have widespread expertise and have
ways of bringing it to bear for their benefit can help convince them to start or continue doing
business with you. Conversely, failure to do so could leave you vulnerable to competitors who can
demonstrate their knowledge management capabilities and benefits.
12. Accelerating delivery to customers
Speed of execution is another important differentiator among competitors. All other things being
equal, the company that can deliver sooner will win. Knowledge sharing, reuse and innovation can
significantly reduce time to deliver a proposal, product, or service to a customer. And that translates
into increased win rates, add-on business, and new customers.
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Q. 3 Suppose you are coordinating a training programme of employees in your school / institution / office. Explain its step wise process including all activities. Also prepare PERT diagram of this activity (Please follwing guidelines to prepare PERT diagram)
Answer:
Complex projects require a series of activities, some of which must be performed sequentially and
others that can be performed in parallel with other activities. This collection of series and parallel
tasks can be modeled as a network.
In 1957 the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed as a network model for project management.
CPM is a deterministic method that uses a fixed time estimate for each activity. While CPM is easy to
understand and use, it does not consider the time variations that can have a great impact on the
completion time of a complex project.
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network model that allows for randomness
in activity completion times. PERT was developed in the late 1950's for the U.S. Navy's Polaris project
having thousands of contractors. It has the potential to reduce both the time and cost required to
complete a project.
The Network Diagram
In a project, an activity is a task that must be performed and an event is a milestone marking the
completion of one or more activities. Before an activity can begin, all of its predecessor activities
must be completed. Project network models represent activities and milestones by arcs and nodes.
PERT originally was an activity on arc network, in which the activities are represented on the lines
and milestones on the nodes. Over time, some people began to use PERT as an activity on node
network. For this discussion, we will use the original form of activity on arc.
The PERT chart may have multiple pages with many sub-tasks. The following is a very simple
example of a PERT diagram:
PERT Chart
The milestones generally are numbered so that the ending node of an activity has a higher number
than the beginning node. Incrementing the numbers by allows for new ones to be inserted
without modifying the numbering of the entire diagram. The activities in the above diagram are
labeled with letters along with the expected time required to complete the activity.
Steps in the PERT Planning Process
PERT planning involves the following steps:
- Identify the specific activities and milestones.
- Determine the proper sequence of the activities.
- Construct a network diagram.
- Estimate the time required for each activity.
- Determine the critical path.
- Update the PERT chart as the project progresses.
1. Identify Activities and Milestones
The activities are the tasks required to complete the project. The milestones are the events marking
the beginning and end of one or more activities. It is helpful to list the tasks in a table that in later
steps can be expanded to include information on sequence and duration.
2. Determine Activity Sequence
This step may be combined with the activity identification step since the activity sequence is evident
for some tasks. Other tasks may require more analysis to determine the exact order in which they
must be performed.
3. Construct the Network Diagram
Using the activity sequence information, a network diagram can be drawn showing the sequence of
the serial and parallel activities. For the original activity-on-arc model, the activities are depicted by
arrowed lines and milestones are depicted by circles or "bubbles".
If done manually, several drafts may be required to correctly portray the relationships among
activities. Software packages simplify this step by automatically converting tabular activity
information into a network diagram.
4. Estimate Activity Times
Weeks are a commonly used unit of time for activity completion, but any consistent unit of time can
be used.
A distinguishing feature of PERT is its ability to deal with uncertainty in activity completion times. For
each activity, the model usually includes three time estimates:
- Optimistic time - generally the shortest time in which the activity can be completed. It is common practice to specify optimistic times to be three standard deviations from the mean so that there is approximately a 1% chance that the activity will be completed within the optimistic time.
- Most likely time - the completion time having the highest probability. Note that this time is different from the expected time.
- Pessimistic time - the longest time that an activity might require. Three standard deviations from the mean is commonly used for the pessimistic time.
Expected time = ( Optimistic + 4 x Most likely + Pessimistic ) / 6
This expected time may be displayed on the network diagram.
To calculate the variance for each activity completion time, if three standard deviation times were
selected for the optimistic and pessimistic times, then there are six standard deviations between
them, so the variance is given by:
[ ( Pessimistic - Optimistic ) / 6 ]
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5. Determine the Critical Path
The critical path is determined by adding the times for the activities in each sequence and
determining the longest path in the project. The critical path determines the total calendar time
required for the project. If activities outside the critical path speed up or slow down (within limits),
the total project time does not change. The amount of time that a non-critical path activity can be
delayed without delaying the project is referred to as slack time.
If the critical path is not immediately obvious, it may be helpful to determine the following four
quantities for each activity:
- ES - Earliest Start time
- EF - Earliest Finish time
- LS - Latest Start time
- LF - Latest Finish time
The variance in the project completion time can be calculated by summing the variances in the
completion times of the activities in the critical path. Given this variance, one can calculate the
probability that the project will be completed by a certain date assuming a normal probability
distribution for the critical path. The normal distribution assumption holds if the number of activities
in the path is large enough for the central limit theorem to be applied.
Since the critical path determines the completion date of the project, the project can be accelerated
by adding the resources required to decrease the time for the activities in the critical path. Such a
shortening of the project sometimes is referred to as project crashing.
6. Update as Project Progresses
Make adjustments in the PERT chart as the project progresses. As the project unfolds, the estimated
times can be replaced with actual times. In cases where there are delays, additional resources may
be needed to stay on schedule and the PERT chart may be modified to reflect the new situation.
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Q. 4 What are the benefits of strategic decision? Explain the concept of SWOT analysis in strategic managment.
Answer:
Benefits of strategic decision
Strategic planning is a formalized, documented organizational management process used to analyze
its current situation, set priorities, and to focus resources and energy to achieve and maintain an
organization’s competitive advantage. While many organizations understand the importance of
strategic planning and spend a great deal of time and money coming up with the strategic plan, it
still remains something that is reviewed just once a year or worse - a glossy document that sits on
the shelf!
"
If you don't know where you are going, you are certain to end up somewhere else." - Yogi Berra
You might be thinking: Is it worth embarking on a strategic planning process? There are many
benefits that go along with strategic planning. The key to successful strategic planning is to build in
measures and implementation steps that allow you to engage your staff and monitor the results at
regular intervals. The work of strategic planning doesn’t stop at the strategic plan, but it’s a start!
Here are the top 5 benefits of strategic planning:
1. It allows organizations to be proactive rather than reactive
A strategic plan allows organizations to foresee their future and to prepare accordingly. Through
strategic planning, companies can anticipate certain unfavourable scenarios before they happen and
take necessary precautions to avoid them. With a strong strategic plan, organizations can be
proactive rather than merely reacting to situations as they arise. Being proactive allows
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organizations to keep up with the ever-changing trends in the market and always stay one step
ahead of the competition.
2. It sets up a sense of direction
A strategic plan helps to define the direction in which an organization must travel, and aids
in establishing realistic objectives and goals that are in line with the vision and mission charted out
for it. A strategic plan offers a much-needed foundation from which an organization can grow,
evaluate its success, compensate its employees and establish boundaries for efficient decisionmaking.
3. It increases operational efficiency
A strategic plan provides management the roadmap to align the organization’s functional activities
to achieve set goals. It guides management discussions and decision making in determining
resource and budget requirements to accomplish set objectives -- thus increasing operational
efficiency.
4. It helps to increase market share and profitability
Through a dedicated strategic plan, organizations can get valuable insights on market trends,
consumer segments, as well as product and service offerings which may affect their success. An
approach that is targeted and well-strategized to turn all sales and marketing efforts into the best
possible outcomes can help to increase profitability and market share.
5. It can make a business more durable
Business is a tumultuous concept. A business may be booming one year and in debt the next. With
constantly changing industries and world markets, organizations that lack a strong foundation, focus
and foresight will have trouble riding the next wave. According to reports, one of every three
companies that are leaders in their industry might not be there in the next five years... but the odds
are in favour of those that have a strong strategic plan!
From a decision viewpoint the overall problem of the business of the firm is to configure and direct
the resources-conversion process in such way as to optimize the attainment of its objectives. Since
this calls for a great many distinct and different decisions, dividing the total decision ‘space’ into
several distinct categories can facilitate a study of the overall decision process. One approach is to
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construct three categories: Strategic-, Administrative-, and Operating decisions. Each related to a
different aspect of the resources-conversion process.
Operating decisions usually absorb the bulk of the firm’s energy and attention. The object is to
maximize the efficiency of the firm’s resources-conversion process, or, in other words, to maximize
profitability of current operations. The major decision areas are resource allocation (budgeting)
among functional areas and product lines, scheduling of operations, supervision of performance,
and applying control actions. The key decisions involve pricing, establishing marketing strategy,
setting production schedules and inventory levels, and deciding on relative expenditures in support
of R&D, marketing, and operations.
Strategic decisions are primarily concerned with external, rather than internal, problems of the firm
and specifically with selection of the product-mix, which the firm will produce, and the markets to
which it will sell. To use an engineering term, the strategic problem is concerned with establishing
an ‘impedance match’ between the firm and its environment or, in other words, it is the problem of
deciding what business the firm is in and what kinds of business it will seek to enter. Specific
questions addressed in the strategic problem are: What are the firm’s objectives and goals; should
the firm seek to diversity, in what areas, how vigorously; and how should the firm develop an exploit
its present product-market position? A very important feature of the overall business decision
process becomes accentuated in the strategic problem. This is the fact that a large majority of
decisions must be made within the framework of a limited total resource. Regardless of how large or
small the firm, strategic decisions deal with a choice of resource commitments among alternatives;
emphasis on diversification will lead to neglect of present products. The object is to produce a
resource-allocation pattern, which will offer the best potential for meeting the firm’s objectives.
Administrative decisions are concerned with structuring the firm’s resources in a way, which creates
a maximum performance potential. One part of the administrative problem is concerned with
organization flows, distribution channels, and location of facilities. The other part is concerned with
acquisition and development of resource: development of raw-material sources, personnel training
and development, financing, and acquisition of facilities and equipment.
While distinct, the decisions are interdependent and complementary. The strategic decisions assure
that the firm’s products and markets are well chosen, that adequate demand. Strategy imposes
operating requirements: price-cost decisions, timing of output to meet the demand, responsiveness to changes in customer needs and technological and process characteristics. The administrative
structure must provide the climate for meeting these, e.g., a strategic environment which is
characterized by frequent and unpredictable demand fluctuations requires that marketing and
manufacturing be closely coupled organizationally for rapid response; an environment which is
highly technical requires that the research and development department work in close cooperation
with sales personnel.
In this sense ‘structure follows strategy’ – the environment determines the strategic and operating
responses of the firm, and these, in turn, determine the structure of authority, responsibility, work
flows, and information flows within the firm. As new business environment changes, different
strategy opportunities became available to business. As firms took advantage of these opportunities
and thus changed their previous strategies, operating inadequacies develop which dictated new
forms of organization. Alfred P. Sloan in his memoirs has diagnosed one of the major requirements
which strategy has imposed on structure: to organize the firm’s management in a way, which assures
a proper balance of attention between the strategic and operating decisions.
Such balance is difficult to achieve. In most firms everyone in the organization is concerned with a
myriad of recurring operating problems. Management from top to bottom continually seeks to
improve efficiency, to cut costs, to sell more, to advertise better. Problems are automatically
generated at all levels of management, and those, which are beyond the scope of lower
management authority, become the concern of top management. The volume of such decision is
great and constant, particularly because of the need for daily supervision and control. In fact one of
the major concerns of top management is to avoid overload by establishing decision priorities and
by delegating as much as possible to lower managers.
By contrast, strategic decisions are not self-regenerative; they make no automatic claims on top
management attention. Unless actively pursued, they may remain hidden behind the operations
problems. Firm are generally very slow in recognizing conditions under which concern with the
operating problem must give way to a concern with the strategic. Usually when such conditions
occur, operating problems neither ceases nor slacken. On the contrary, they appear to intensify.
Conditions in the environment of the last decades demonstrate these competing claims on
operating and strategic responses. On the one hand forces of change buffer many firms: technology obsolescence, saturation of demand, rapid obsolescence of products. On the other hand, the very
same firms have to meet competition of intensity which they have never experienced before.
The immediate demands on management time and effort raised by such operating problems can
readily obscure the fact that the basic ills lie not in the firm but in its environment. Even when a
continuous downward trend in profitability or obvious signs of market saturation strongly point to
the need to revamp the entire product-market position, a natural tendency is to seek remedies in
operational improvements: cost reduction, consolidation, a new advertising manager, and the most
popular may be that the demand for the firm’s products is on a rapid decline.
Since strategic problems are harder to pinpoint, they require special attention. Unless specific
provisions are made for concern with strategy, the firm may misplace its effort in pursuit of
operating efficiency at times when attention to strategic opportunities (of threats) can produce a
more radical and immediate improvement in the firm’s performance.
A proper balance of managerial attention requires three kinds of provisions. One is to provide
management with a method of analysis, which can help to formulate the firm’s future strategy. The
second provision is to provide a method by which management can determine the administrative
structure, which will be needed to manage under the new strategy. The third provision is to provide
a method for guiding the transformation from the present to the future strategy and from the
present to the future administrative structure.
The balance of management attention to strategic and operating decisions is ultimately determined
by the firm’s environment. If the demands in the firm’s markets are growing, technology is stable
and customer demands and preferences change slowly, a firm can remain successful by focusing its
attention on the operating activities, and letting its products, markets and competitive strategies
evolve slowly and incrementally. In such environments a majority of firms typically focus their
attention on the operating decisions. Strategic decisions seldom find their way into the corporate
office, and the strategic evolution of the firm is ‘from the bottom up initiated and implemented
through cooperation among the R & D, marketing and production departments.
Only a minority of firms in growing and stable environments are strategically aggressive. These are
the firms led by restless and ambitious entrepreneurs who are bent on expanding the firm beyond
the limits made possible by its markets. If environment turns turbulent and changeable, and/or
demand approach saturation, firms no longer have the option of a dominant concern with
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operations. Continued success, and even survival, is possible only if management gives a high
priority to the firm’s strategic activity.
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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)
Q. 5 Define performance apprasial. Explain different ways and uses of Feedback and coaching in the process of performance managment.
Answer:
Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to
understand the abilities of a person for further growth and development. Performance appraisal is
generally done in systematic ways which are as follows:
- The supervisors measure the pay of employees and compare it with targets and plans.
- The supervisor analyses the factors behind work performances of employees.
- The employers are in position to guide the employees for a better performance.
Objectives of Performance Appraisal
Performance Appraisal can be done with following objectives in mind:
- To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.
- To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.
- To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and development.
- To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
- To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
- It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.
- To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes.
Advantages of Performance Appraisal
It is said that performance appraisal is an investment for the company which can be justified by
following advantages:
1. Promotion:
Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the promotion
programmes for efficient employees. In this regards, inefficient workers can be dismissed or
demoted in case.
2. Compensation:
Performance Appraisal helps in chalking out compensation packages for
employees. Merit rating is possible through performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries
to give worth to a performance. Compensation packages which includes bonus, high salary rates,
extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites are dependent on performance appraisal. The
criteria should be merit rather than seniority.
3. Employees Development:
The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the
supervisors to frame training policies and programmes. It helps to analyse strengths and
weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps
in framing future development programmes.
4. Selection Validation:
Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the validity
and importance of the selection procedure. The supervisors come to know the validity and
thereby the strengths and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in selection
methods can be made in this regard.
5. Communication:
For an organization, effective communication between employees and
employers is very important. Through performance appraisal, communication can be sought for
in the following ways:
- Through performance appraisal, the employers can understand and accept skills of subordinates.
- The subordinates can also understand and create a trust and confidence in superiors.
- It also helps in maintaining cordial and congenial labour management relationship.
- It develops the spirit of work and boosts the morale of employees.
6. Motivation:
Performance appraisal serves as a motivation tool. Through evaluating performance
of employees, a person’s efficiency can be determined if the targets are achieved. This very well
motivates a person for better job and helps him to improve his performance in the future.
Past Oriented Methods
1. Rating Scales:
Rating scales consists of several numerical scales representing job related
performance criterions such as dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc. Each scales
ranges from excellent to poor. The total numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are
derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost, every type of job can be evaluated, large
number of employees covered, no formal training required. Disadvantages – Rater’s biases
2. Checklist:
Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of employee in the form of Yes or
No based questions is prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or checking and HR
department does the actual evaluation. Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited
training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters biases, use of improper weighs by HR,
does not allow rater to give relative ratings
3. Forced Choice Method:
The series of statements arranged in the blocks of two or more are
given and the rater indicates which statement is true or false. The rater is forced to make a choice.
HR department does actual assessment. Advantages – Absence of personal biases because of forced
choice. Disadvantages – Statements may be wrongly framed.
4. Forced Distribution Method:
here employees are clustered around a high point on a rating
scale. Rater is compelled to distribute the employees on all points on the scale. It is assumed that
the performance is conformed to normal distribution. Advantages – Eliminates Disadvantages –
Assumption of normal distribution, unrealistic, errors of central tendency.
5. Critical Incidents Method:
The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of employee
that makes all the difference in the performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record such
incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by
descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases, chances of subordinate improvement are
high. Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized, forgetting incidents, overly close
supervision; feedback may be too much and may appear to be punishment.
6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales:
statements of effective and ineffective behaviors
determine the points. They are said to be behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to say, which
behavior describes the employee performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating errors.
Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions inherent in most rating techniques.
7. Field Review Method:
This is an appraisal done by someone outside employees’ own
department usually from corporate or HR department. Advantages – Useful for managerial level
promotions, when comparable information is needed, Disadvantages – Outsider is generally not
familiar with employees work environment, Observation of actual behaviors not possible.
8. Performance Tests & Observations:
This is based on the test of knowledge or skills. The tests
may be written or an actual presentation of skills. Tests must be reliable and validated to be useful.
Advantage – Tests may be apt to measure potential more than actual performance. Disadvantages –
Tests may suffer if costs of test development or administration are high.
9. Confidential Records:
Mostly used by government departments, however its application in
industry is not ruled out. Here the report is given in the form of Annual Confidentiality Report (ACR)
and may record ratings with respect to following items; attendance, self expression, team work,
leadership, initiative, technical ability, reasoning ability, originality and resourcefulness etc. The
system is highly secretive and confidential. Feedback to the assessee is given only in case of an
adverse entry. Disadvantage is that it is highly subjective and ratings can be manipulated because
the evaluations are linked to HR actions like promotions etc.
10. Essay Method:
In this method the rater writes down the employee description in detail within a
number of broad categories like, overall impression of performance, promoteability of employee,
existing capabilities and qualifications of performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training
needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely useful in filing information gaps about the
employees that often occur in a better-structured checklist. Disadvantages – It its highly dependent
upon the writing skills of rater and most of them are not good writers. They may get confused
success depends on the memory power of raters.
11. Cost Accounting Method: Here performance is evaluated from the monetary returns yields to
his or her organization. Cost to keep employee, and benefit the organization derives is ascertained.
Hence it is more dependent upon cost and benefit analysis.
12. Comparative Evaluation Method (Ranking & Paired Comparisons): These are collection of
different methods that compare performance with that of other co-workers. The usual techniques
used may be ranking methods and paired comparison method.
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Ranking Methods: Superior ranks his worker based on merit, from best to worst. However
how best and why best are not elaborated in this method. It is easy to administer and
explanation.
Paired Comparison Methods: In this method each employee is rated with another
employee in the form of pairs. The number of comparisons may be calculated with the help
of a formula as under.
N x (N-1) / 2