PSYC 651 Week 2 Weekly Reading Summary 2 Example

Weekly Reading Summary 2: The Performance Management Cycle From Prerequisites and Planning to Review and Renewal

Introduction

Chapter 2 of Aguinis (2013) describes performance management as a cycle with six connected stages: prerequisites, performance planning, performance execution, performance assessment, performance review and performance renewal and recontracting. Each stage depends on the ones before it, and the last feeds back into the first. This summary groups the stages into four themes: what must be in place before the cycle begins, how expectations are set, what employees and supervisors do during the performance period and how performance is judged, discussed and renewed.

Before the Cycle Begins

Two prerequisites must be met. Employees and supervisors need to know the organization's mission and strategic goals, so that individual work can be linked to them, and they need to understand the job itself. Aguinis (2013) explains that job analysis identifies the key components of a job, its tasks and the knowledge, skills and abilities required, producing a job description that becomes the foundation for everything that follows.

Setting Expectations

In performance planning, the employee and supervisor meet to agree on what the employee will do and how. Aguinis (2013) describes three components: results, expressed as key accountabilities, specific objectives and performance standards; behaviors, often described as competencies; and a development plan identifying areas for growth. When both parties shape these expectations, the employee understands what success looks like before the year begins.

Shared Responsibilities During the Year

Performance execution is a joint effort. The employee is responsible for committing to goals, seeking feedback and coaching, communicating openly with the supervisor, collecting and sharing performance data and preparing for reviews. The supervisor is responsible for observing and documenting performance, updating objectives as conditions change, giving feedback, providing resources and reinforcing effective behavior. Aguinis (2013) stresses that this stage, not the annual review, is where most performance management actually happens.

Assessment, Review and Renewal

In the assessment stage, both employee and supervisor evaluate performance, often through a self-appraisal and a supervisor appraisal. The review meeting then discusses past performance, current status and future goals. Cawley et al. (1998) found that employees who participated in their appraisals reported greater satisfaction, saw the process as fairer and were more motivated to improve, and participation valued for its own sake was especially powerful. Pichler (2012) found that employees who got along well with the supervisor rating them reacted far more favorably to their appraisals, a reminder that the review meeting rests on the working relationship behind it. Renewal and recontracting then revise goals and plans in light of what was learned, restarting the cycle.

Conclusion

The chapter shows that performance management is a sequence of connected stages built on clear goals and job knowledge, shaped by joint planning, sustained through shared responsibilities and closed by assessment and review that lead into renewal. In a restaurant group that relies on shift managers, applying this cycle would mean updating job descriptions, setting quarterly targets for food cost and guest satisfaction with each manager, holding brief monthly check-ins and asking managers to complete self-appraisals before each review. The research on participation suggests that this approach would also make managers more receptive to the feedback they receive.

References

Aguinis, H. (2013). Performance management (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Cawley, B. D., Keeping, L. M., & Levy, P. E. (1998). Participation in the performance appraisal process and employee reactions: A meta-analytic review of field investigations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(4), 615-633. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.4.615

Pichler, S. (2012). The social context of performance appraisal and appraisal reactions: A meta-analysis. Human Resource Management, 51(5), 709-732. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21499