Motivation and Performance: Setting SMART Objectives and Performance Standards

In this document we will discuss about Motivation and Performance and below are the summary points of this document:- SMART objectives help teams understand their goals and tasks, promoting collaboration and logical progress. Managers play a crucial role in setting performance standards and engaging team members in decision-making processes. Performance measurement includes assessing quality, quantity, timelines, cost-effectiveness, and analyzing absenteeism patterns.

Running head: MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
Answer to Question 10
SMART objectives are focussed and clear in nature. The objectives need to be agreed
upon by the members of the team, before the manager is able to set SMART objectives for
the members of the team. The team members are thereby able to see and understand what
they need to do in a useful and logical manner. Collaboration is considered to be quite useful
while the team aims at setting the SMART objectives of the organization which are helpful in
the proper achievement of goals 1. The team members are considered to be an important part
of planning based process of the organizations. They seem to be much more engaged in
different organizational processes that are able to provide satisfactory outcome to the team.
The goals that have been set by the managers, team members and the organization as a whole
can be achieved with the help of proper SMART objectives 2.
Answer to Question 11
Managers of the team are responsible for setting the performance based standards of
the members of a team. They also have to understand what is actually required by the team
members and gain their agreement as well. The members of a team seem to be more engaged
on different processes of the work if they can become a major part of the decision-making
based activities that are performed in the organization. The levels of cooperation that are
gained by the members of a team are able to affect the standards based on performance that
have been set 3. The team members who are therefore involved in the process of improving
the performance standards need to understand the following,
1 C Bianchi & S Tomaselli, "A dynamic performance management approach to support local strategic
planning", in International Review of Public Administration, vol. 20, 2015, 370-385.
2 M Buckingham & A Goodall, Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business
Review, 93(4), 2015, pp.40-50.
3 P Cappelli & A Tavis, The performance management revolution. Harvard Business Review, 94(10),
2016, pp.58-67.

2MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
 The reasons behind the standards that have been set.
 The exact responsibilities that they have.
 The responsibility that they have towards the standards of work.
 The ways by which they are able to support efforts that are taken by the team.
Answer to Question 12
The managers of different organizations need to measure the performance levels of
the employees after the standards have been set for their performance. The performance of
employees can be measured with the help of certain major performance based standards. The
areas that will be assessed by the managers are as follows,
 Quality – Setting the standards that are laid down in the policies, training
materials and procedures.
 Quantity – Maintaining a log of the outputs, commission, services, sales that
are the provided over a long period of time.
 Timelines – Checking the number of products or services that are delivered to
the customers within the stipulated time and the delays that have been made as
well.
 Cost-effectiveness – Analysing the new and the old systems and further
measuring the actual differences in costs 4.
 Absenteeism – The patterns based on absenteeism need to be analysed by the
managers in order to find the solutions.
4 D.G. Collings Mellahi, K. & W.F Cascio, Global talent management and performance in
multinational enterprises: A multilevel perspective. Journal of Management, 2018, p.0149206318757018.

3MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
The performance based indicators of the members of the team are mainly set for the
non-time based targets based on quantitative terms. The measurements are mainly based on
the levels of accuracy.
Answer to Question 13
Feedback is considered to be an important part of the work process of the employees
in different organizations. The employees as well as the managers require feedback in order
to improve the strengths and work on the weaknesses as well. Negative aspects that are
related to feedback are based on the ways by which performance standards of the team
members can be improved. Feedback is collected in order to provide time so that different
objectives can be achieved within the time period that is provided. Data that is required to
analyse feedback provided by the employees needs to be readily available to the managers 5.
Feedback that is provided to the managers can be formal as well as informal in nature.
Formal feedback is offered in a documented way and on the other hand, informal feedback is
provided in the form of messages or comments. For improvement of performance, team
members and the managers have to work in a collaborative manner in order to, collect the
feedback, use feedback which is collected, reflect on the work based activities, reflect in the
training related activities and developing a plan that is able to improve the skills, knowledge
and experience levels as well 6.
Answer to Question 14
5 A Ferraris, G Santoro & L Dezi, How MNC’s subsidiaries may improve their innovative
performance? The role of external sources and knowledge management capabilities. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 21(3), 2017, pp.540-552.
6 B Kuvaas, R Buch & A Dysvik, Performance management: Perceiving goals as invariable and
implications for perceived job autonomy and work performance. Human Resource Management, 55(3), 2016,
pp.401-412.

4MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
The team members or the employees of an organization are able to provide feedback
with the help of different factors that include,
 Formal reviews that are done with the members of a team – The reviews are
able to offer valuable, focussed and organised opportunities for team members
who have detailed conversations with the manager. The formal reviews mainly
start with performance appraisal related forms that are able to show the
objectives, comments and the rating based systems as well 7.
 Informal feedback provided during the work activities – The informal
feedback can be offered by members of the team at any point of time. This can
be based on the proper completion of a project that was being conducted by an
organization.
 Feedback that is received from the team members and other peers – The
opinions of feedbacks that are received by the team members from their peers
is considered to be useful 8.
 Feedback from the suppliers and the customers – The feedback that is received
by the organization from suppliers, customers and people outside the
company. The information is thereby collected with the help of forms, surveys
and questionnaires.
Answer to Question 15
The potential areas related to underperformance in the workplace that need to be
considered by the employees. These areas include,
7 G.E. Ledford, G Benson & E.E. Lawler, Aligning research and the current practice of performance
management. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(2), 2016, pp.253-260.
8

5MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
 Sales – Note meeting the targets and not converting the enquiries into sales
figures.
 Public relations and marketing – Not being able to attract the customers or
repeating the business and not gaining public attention from the publicity
based events.
 Volume of the output related to products and services – Missing the output
based targets and missing the deadlines and not delivering the products within
stipulated time.
 Quality of the services or products – Producing the goods that are of poor
quality and damaging the goods in the process of delivery 9.
Answer to Question 16
The failure of meeting performance based levels can be based on many different
causes. Some of the causes can be defined below,
 Inadequate amounts of physical resources provided to the company that is
based on insufficient equipments, out-of-date equipments. Example – not
enough laptops available.
 Inadequate levels of human resources – Staff that are provided to cover the
tasks and overloaded members of the team. Example – lack of proper skills.
 Staffs having personal issues 10.
Answer to Question 17
9 E.M. Mone and M London, Employee engagement through effective performance management: A
practical guide for managers. 2018, Routledge.
10 M Saratun, Performance management to enhance employee engagement for corporate
sustainability. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 8(1), 2016, pp.84-102.

6MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
The actions are able to restore performance of organizations on an acceptable level
that can vary due to different causes,
 The managers need to step back and then review whole picture.
 Identification of the reasons based on underperformance.
 Managers need to prioritise different problems.
 Devising a recovery based plan.
 Implementation of the plan 11.
11 J Shields, M Brown, S Kaine, C Dolle-Samuel, R North-Samardzic, P McLean, R Johns, P O'Leary, J
Robinson & G Plimmer, Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. 2015,
Cambridge University Press.

7MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
References
Bianchi, C, & S Tomaselli, "A dynamic performance management approach to support local
strategic planning.". in International Review of Public Administration, 20, 2015, 370-385.
Buckingham, M. & A Goodall, Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business
Review, 93(4), 2015, pp.40-50.
Cappelli, P. & A Tavis, The performance management revolution. Harvard Business
Review, 94(10), 2016, pp.58-67.
Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. & W.F Cascio, Global talent management and performance in
multinational enterprises: A multilevel perspective. Journal of Management, 2018,
p.0149206318757018.
Ferraris, A., Santoro, G. & L Dezi, How MNC’s subsidiaries may improve their innovative
performance? The role of external sources and knowledge management capabilities. Journal
of Knowledge Management, 21(3), 2017, pp.540-552.
Kuvaas, B., Buch, R. & A Dysvik, Performance management: Perceiving goals as invariable
and implications for perceived job autonomy and work performance. Human Resource
Management, 55(3), 2016, pp.401-412.
Ledford, G.E., Benson, G. & E.E. Lawler, Aligning research and the current practice of
performance management. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(2), 2016, pp.253-
260.
Mone, E.M. and M London, Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. 2018, Routledge.

8MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE BASED STANDARDS
Saratun, M, Performance management to enhance employee engagement for corporate
sustainability. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 8(1), 2016, pp.84-102.
Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P.,
Johns, R., O'Leary, P., Robinson, J. & G Plimmer, Managing employee performance &
reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. 2015, Cambridge University Press.