Introduction
Employee performance is essential in any organisation that is deemed to realise its goals. Workers form the backbone of the organisation; hence, they should be regarded as investment tools rather than liabilities. This distinction substantially acknowledges that both individual and collective performances play a fundamental role in propelling the organisation towards achieving its goals.
However, organisations have to conduct various assessments to determine the relevance of employee skills to the prevailing work conditions. Efforts to understand the dynamics that are associated with improving, sustaining, and managing employee performance with a view of adopting the related strategies to meet the needs of the employees increase the likelihood of organisational success. This report provides an insight into the role of the organisation in employee performance with a view of discussing different strategies that can be applied in the BlackBerry Smartphone manufacturers.
Employee Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal is defined as the systematic evaluating of employees according to their job potential and development. It seeks to compare present employee performance with that of the past. It is not only related to results but also the attitudes and behaviour. Different types of performance appraisals seek to achieve different objectives such as measuring and documenting the employee performance.
In addition to serving as a measurement function, performance appraisals are a vital components of human resource management. Attaining optimum utilisation of employees can be improved through work assessment as it provides a self-evaluation and corrective guide that encourages the employees to remain focused on quality and productivity. The prospective significance of embracing appraisals as performance management tools is contingent to the quality and structure of the organisation’s system. It is essential to assess the latent worth and efficiency of a firm. In Research in Motion, product quality consistency is the driving phenomenon (Sykes, Viswanath, & Jonathan 2014).
Whether in software development or hardware design employees have to remain focused to achieve consistent results. Lack of focus can pose adverse effects to the company. Furthermore, the overall effectiveness of performance management programs can be improved by ensuring that essential performance expectations are demarcated in job descriptions and reflected in methods used to measure performance.
Rewarding Performance
Rewards include some forms of payment or benefits that are offered to employees as a form of recognition, motivation, and appreciation for their exceptional performance. In RIM, excellent performance is rewarded through publications in magazines and leading print media. For instance, the invention of some software or a tech-savvy innovation is rewarded heavily through the media. Rewards are a popular technique to influence employee behaviour and performance. However, this objective is achieved by offering rewards in a timely manner. Common perceptions of rewards are typically limited to monetary forms.
However, non-monetary recognition can also serve as a valuable tool for influencing employee behaviour. Recognition can involve providing employees with a compliment on noteworthy performance. Regardless of the specific reward, it is important that organisations select rewards that employees will perceive as valuable. Rewards have proven to increase employee loyalty to the organisations, especially in the technology sector where intellectual competence is highly regarded. The BlackBerry management has to recognise the good work that is accomplished by these vital human assets to achieve the optimum utilisation of their software developers without leakage. Failure to do so can result in brain drain whereby employees quit to other companies who offer better recognition rewards. This shift of employees can result in leakage of technology ideas and secrets to their competitors.
Employee Training and Development
Substantial review of literature reveals that on the job training, training design and delivery style have significant effect on workforce performance, which consequently has positive influence on organisational performance. The perception here is that Individual ability influences individual performance. Therefore, strategies that seek to improve organisational performance should first seek to improve employee abilities (Mwita 2000).
In this respect, organisations must consider occasional employee upgrade on their skills and technological changes. Training can influence performance directly by improving task or job-related skills and abilities. This strategy is adopted by management in believe that employee training on their respective specialisation will result in improved and efficient performance. Training also can have indirect, positive effects on performance when employees perceive that organisation’s investment in their training manifests that the organisation values their contributions. In RIM, this strategy works perfectly as it serves a mutual purpose for the company and the employee. The organisation benefits through increased performance levels and quality. The employees also gain in that their contributions are being recognised and that new training attracts other merits such as increased knowledge and promotions. In a technology driven company such as RIM, training on new technological perspectives and applications helps in placing the firm strategically over their competitors.
Access to resources
Sometimes employees’ poor or inconsistent performance may stem from lack of sufficient access to resources. Therefore, the role of organisations is to review the access protocol that is used to ensure that the workforce accesses resources efficiently. The availability of old fashioned facilities and adoption of traditional production, methods will undoubtedly result in poor employee performance. Constant trial and error can be a source of low attitude. This situation ultimately results in poor performance and production of substandard output that attracts the attention of management. When substandard performance is a concern, managers usually investigate whether the employees have the resources necessary for their jobs. These resources are contingent to line of business that the organisation undertakes. For smartphone manufacturers such as RIM, the managers will need to review the employees’ access to relevant technology and equipment.
Employee involvement and Participation
Employee involvement is a process of participation and empowerment of employees with a view of utilising their input towards achieving higher individual and organisational performance. Involvement refers to the employee participation in decision-making, problem solving, and increased autonomy in work processes (Siami & Gorji 2011). Organisations gain from this process, as employees remain motivated, committed, productive and satisfied with their work. Establishment of goals is an important strategy that influences employees’ performance. Goals guide employees on time and attitude as they induce employee motivation, which drives individuals to accomplish them. Employees spend a significant portion of their adult lives engaged in the workplace and work-related activities. Jobs represent an important aspect of the lives of many employees.
Therefore, employees will always want to have a voice in factors that are directly related to their work-lives. Avenues for employee participation vary depending on work factors that include involvement in setting goals and making decisions for the organisation (Noe et al. 200). The practice of allowing employees to provide input communicates to employees that they are valuable to the organisation. It also implies that their values, opinions, needs, and ideas are worthwhile. As a result, employees take their work more seriously as they feel part of the outcome of such efforts. Research in Motion recognises the effects of employee participation in goal setting and decision-making processes (Siami & Gorji 2011).
Positive Organisational Behaviour (POB)
POB is the study and application of positive human resource strengths and intellectual capability orientation that can be measured, developed, and efficiently managed for performance improvement in the modern enterprise (Siami & Gorji 2011).
Optimistic response to employees results in constructive implications for their morale and their subsequent motivation. The feeling that their opinions and issues are considered by the organisation is the ultimate effect on successful operations. Most importantly, constructive company behaviour and suitable organisational communication models contribute immensely to employee performance. Indeed, empirical evidence reveals that for the last one decade, there has been a relationship between POB and performance. At Research in Motion, it is highly regarded as a strategy to influence employee performance.
The company handles issues affecting customers and employees at a global scale where there are even set guidelines and avenues established to facilitate efficient and user-friendly communication between customers, the employees and management. POB can be integrated with the aforementioned strategies besides working well with feedback and coaching. The study of positive organisational behaviour and positive psychology is a common area of interest of scholars. Therefore, managers and organisations have the power to influence certain aspects of that are related to theoretical approaches by adopting habits that centre around enabling employees to achieve maximum potential. This strategy nurtures their strengths and affirmative behaviour.
Ability and Willingness to Adapt to Change
In the wake of technological and business model changes, it is imperative for organisations to manage adaptation and survival. Failure to initiate proper methodologies of prevalent change smoothly and effectively, the organisation faces a huge challenge. Organisation’s ability to change successfully often hinges on the efforts of employees. Study shows that there is a tendency of employees to resist change especially one that involves change of management or transfers and/or swapping of employees (Sykes, Viswanath, & Jonathan 2014).
The ability of management to utilise proper strategies to handle changes without adversely affecting employee performance will determine failure or success of the enterprise. In addition, the ability of the organisation to adopt technological change also influences employee performance. Employee participation is relevant where planning and implementation of issues with respect to change is a highly applauded approach to reducing resistance and increasing support for associated changes. The capacity of the firm to adopt new technological changes also determines performance. Recently, the invention of Android operating system was a major shake-off for companies such as RIM and Apple Inc. that had dominated the Smartphone industry (Sykes, Viswanath, & Jonathan 2014). RIM only produced a device that offered similar capabilities as Samsung.
This evidence-based report reveals that organisations have the duty of ensuring employee performance. Failure to do so will ultimately result in collapsing of the company. The management needs to control various strategies to ensure that the employees execute their duties successfully in a manner that is mutually sustainable. Employees should be treated as investments rather than tools of success. Such practices will lead to improved performance in organisations since the employees will feel appreciated for their efforts towards attainment of goals.
References
Noe, R, Hollenbeck, J, Gerhart, B & Wright, P 2008, Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, McGraw-Hill, Boston. Web.
Siami, S & Gorji M 2011, ‘Assessment of empowerment on employees performance’, Business and Management Review, vol. 1 no. 8, pp. 20-4. Web.
Sykes, T, Viswanath, J, & Jonathan, L 2014, ‘Enterprise System Implementation and Employee Job Performance’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 38 no. 1, pp. 51-4. Web.