Supporting Performance Improvement in the Workplace

In an organization where an employee has lost interest or their performance graph is falling down, several methods can be used to support performance improvement. These include increasing employee engagement by fostering a sense of belonging and encouraging extra effort, collaboration among employees to share knowledge and ideas, sharing the organization's vision with employees to empower them, continued learning opportunities for employees, continuous feedback to identify areas for improvement, and recognizing employee achievements to motivate them. Additionally, implementing effective disciplinary and grievance procedures is crucial to resolve any issues that may arise. A well-established procedure involves informal resolution, formal action, informing the employee of the result, providing an opportunity to appeal, and revisiting the issue if necessary.

Task 1: Individual, Team and Organizational Objectives
The objectives of an individual, the team, and the whole organization should align together so
that all the objectives are attained simultaneously. For instance, if an individual aspires to
grow further in the same function, then that individual will contribute to the team in
completion of the project. This will help the organization as a whole in completion of the
overall project within the set timeframe (McLean, 2006). For instance, if the goal of an
individual is to have work life balance, and the project being handled by the team requires 18
hours of work every day. This conflict in objective will negatively impact the overall output,
as one member of the team is not ready for the challenge. To build the organization to its
optimum capacity, it is important that the goals of individual, team and the organization are
interconnected. It can be done through the promotion of the skills and attitudes that are
imperative for the successful completion of projects and are also desired by the individuals
who are expected to work over the same. For a successful contribution from the individuals,
the managers within the organization have to understand the training cycle of the
organization and also the initiatives that are generally taken in order to collaborate with every
individual in the organization.
During agreement to come up with the goals for team and individual, the first thing that
should be taken into consideration is the workload (Bluck, 1996). It should be ensured that no
member of the team is taking unnecessary stress. It is to be ensured that work is distributed
among all the members equally. The managers and negotiators should ensure that they are
prepared in advance to conduct an effective negotiation. The essential support required by
each individual should be fulfilled by the management while deciding over the goals and
objectives. Moreover, involvement of each individual into the discussion and placing the
bigger picture during the decision making will result into fruitful results.
The individual and team responsibility should be identified distinctly as the overall result of
the team will be the collective effort of each of the member within the team. The members of
the team should report as per the usual communication channel to the team leader
(Margerison and McCann, 1990). For instance, the normal reporting will be done to the
seniors and the communication of the whole project can be done to the project manager.
Task 2: Conflict and Support
Building informed and supportive trust within the organization will help everyone grow. All
the big organizations trust their employees and that is the reason why they are able to handle
such huge business collaborations. These organizations are Apple, IBM, Microsoft and
others. For an effective business, the trust factor should come with two characteristics and
they are supportive and informed. Supportive trust factors works when there is vertical
structure of trust in the organization, on the other hand, the informed trust factor works when
there is acceptance of level of trust that are being exhibited by the bigger organizations. The
organizations can begin the culture of trust by investing in right individuals during hiring
them. They should be trusted and caring which will be carried in the whole organization by
default (Dimitrakos, 2012). The second thing would be to helping these people stay informed

about all the happenings around the block and also keeping enough patience while in the
process of guiding them towards the next goal and achieving the success. The other ways
round can also be taken to effectively bring the trust factor in the organization. They are
identification of key individuals in the organization and involving them in the activity. The
next step would be to create a framework that can help the employees stay up to date with the
information. Moreover, celebrating any success and failure together can be beneficial in
building the environment of trust. Along with that, having the key assessment of the all the
individuals and providing them periodic feedback on their improvements will also help in
building trust.
In general there are four causes of conflict that occurs in the workplace (Black, 1971). They
are:
(i) Less information: If the employees in the workplace feels that any change is
being not informed to them or they are being kept aloof from any information
intentionally, then it give rise to conflict.
(ii) Less Resources: If the available resource is less and the demand is more from the
management side, then it leads to conflict as the handler cannot finds themselves
in difficult situation of fulfilling the need with fewer resources.
(iii) Relationships: The environment at the workplace can be stressful or productive
and this depends entirely on what are the current relationships of the employees
with each other.
(iv) Management: If the management of the organization is not competent enough to
handle the changing situation and any other issues, then this may lead to conflicts.
The management of conflict can be achieved through the following available strategy:
(i) Understanding the point of view of the other party can help the former to
understand the real cause behind the conflict. Each employee should understand
that it is important to look at things from others perspective also.
(ii) Emotions: Keeping emotions in check while resolving the conflict is important as
getting angry might worsen the situation. It should be handled calmly and
compassionately.
Task 3: Individual and Team Performance
In the individual performance evaluation, the individuals’ performance is measured against
the various already defined objectives. The evaluation allows the organization to understand
where the individual is standing at the moment and the things that need to be done in order to
achieve the required objective. This type of performance is dependent on the feedback and
recognition of the employee. The team performance appraisals have become important as
accomplishment of challenging tasks can be easily undertaken by the teams in an effective
manner. The performance evaluation of the team can be the sum of individual performance,
or the overall performance of the team in comparison to the already defined objectives.

The feedback methods to individual and teams can be given through three techniques that are
mentioned below:
(i) Feedback Sandwich: This kind of technique can be used to provide feedback to
the individual or team by following the middle path where the feedback includes
the corrective steps that will be taken by the listener, and also the praises are given
for the things that are performed very well (Dohrenwend, 2002). The only thing
that should be kept in purview is that, the communication should be clear and
concise and should not confuse the listener.
(ii) EEC Model: The EEC model consists of Evidence, Effect and Change, where the
focus of any feedback is the improvement of the individual performance and the
team performance. For instance, giving feedback on schedule recovery to the team
about the deviating timeline by the project manager to the team can be taken in the
purview of EEC Model where the feedback is constructive and has space for
improvements only.
(iii) Group Feedback: The group feedback entails that feedback is given to the whole
team at once. While this method generally leads to the misunderstandings as
everyone in the team has different orientation and capacity to grab the idea
(Adelson, 1975). That is same message cannot be tailored according to every
individual at once.
The most common systems of recording the performance of individuals or team are ratings,
narrative, rankings, and or 360 degree. Ratings generally include performance on the job,
skills that are with the individual, behaviour, and the knowledge possessed. These variables
can be rated on the scale 1 to 5. Placing specific notes besides each rating can help in
understanding the reason of such ratings when compiled later. The second method is
Narrative, where a summary is written about any individual’s or team’s performance. When
given certain structure, the narrative can be the most effective way to deal with the evaluation
as it gives greater detail. The third system is Rankings, where individuals are ranked
according to variables and based on that required trainings are imparted or the employees are
fired. The fourth method is 360 degree, where the feedback about the individual is collected
from the peers, superiors, and various other linked sources.
Task 4: Performance and Improvement
Performance improvement cycle helps the manager in supporting the employees in reaching
their potential (Wysocki, 2004). This is done in three steps that are: (i) review the things that
have been completed, (ii) plan the things that are required to be done, and (iii) acting on the
formulated plan. The first stage is the plan where the future requirements regarding the
performance are brought down on paper and priorities are set as per the requirements from
the individuals. The second stage is developing the plan where the current expertise is
improved to meet the expectation of the plan and also the opportunities are identified. The
next step is performing where the actual action takes place and the plan is given existence.
The last step is reviewing the whole planning and the actions. This step identifies whether the

goal has been achieved, and if achieved then whether there are shortcomings that can be
improved further while working on the next project.
The identification of poor performance of the employees can be done through below
mentioned indicators.
(i) Employees fail to meet the goals is the sure indicator of whether the performance
is falling. This is obvious way to identify the poor performance.
(ii) If the employees are relying heavily on other employees to complete their task
then it can be taken as the sign where the employee is failing to achieve the
required productivity meter.
(iii) If the quality of work done by the employee is poor or the quality requirements
are not being met, then it can be taken as the indicator of poor performance.
(iv) If the employee is facing difficulty in workplace while performing their duty
either with the staff or the boss, then it indicates that the employee has lost the
interest or his performance graph is falling down.
Mentioned below are the methods that can be used to support the performance improvement
within an organization:
(i) Increasing the Employee Engagement: The employees who are engaged within the
organization are more connected through various channels and assume themselves
as the integral part of the organization. These types of employees contribute more
to the organization by going extra-mile. Moreover, when they understand that the
management is open for the new ideas, then they regularly come up with ideas
that are constructive and beneficial for the organization.
(ii) Collaboration: Helping the employees to collaborate with each other foster the
environment where employees work together and help others in their
improvement and growth. This kind of activities help employees expands their
knowledge and leads to the creation of the opportunities that solve various
problems.
(iii) Sharing Vision: The employees who are able to understand the vision of the
organization are able to contribute to the organizations’ success in a better way.
They feel empowered when they understand that their activities are contributing to
the organization’s overall growth.
(iv) Continued Learning: If the environment in the organization is developed in such a
manner that it foster learning or the management focuses on the knowledge
improvement of the employees then it helps employees feel supported. They
assume that the organization is contributing to their knowledge improvement
which is a long term investment. Thus, employees work harder for the benefit of
the organization.
(v) Feedback: If the organization gives continuous feedback to the employees, then
the employees stay aware about the areas they need to work on to improve their
quality and ability to handle more work in future. The feedback system works well
in helping the employees in such activity.

(vi) Recognizing Achievement: If the management of the company recognizes the
achievement of the employees either by giving prizes or bonus, then it motivates
the employees in working harder to improve their performance to gain more praise
in future.
Task 5: Disciplinary and Grievance Management
The disciplinary procedure of the organization follows the following steps while resolving
any issue:
(i) Informal Resolution of the disciplinary issues, where the employees are addressed
on personal level for the correction of their conduct.
(ii) Formal Action: When the concerned employee fail to stay on the line on informal
directions, then formal action becomes imperative. The first step in formal action
is the establishment of facts and then the notification to the employee in writing.
Moreover, if required, meeting can be also held to decide on the proper action.
(iii) Informing Result: The employee is then informed about the result on whether
he/she has to pay the penalty or has to give written consent that no such action
will be repeated in the future.
(iv) Opportunity to Appeal: The disciplinary committee gives the employee
opportunity to say their concern on the case that has been developed.
(v) Revisit: If the employee is granted another chance to improve and that employee
fails to recover, then further action will be taken in such cases which may include
dismissal based on the code of conduct.
The Grievance procedure of the organization follows the following steps while resolving any
issue:
(i) Informal Resolution: Like disciplinary procedure, resolving grievances at the
informal level is considered the first step from any senior officials.
(ii) Grievance Procedure: The systematically developed grievance handling procedure
comes in place when the informal methods fail to address the issue.
(iii) The next step is in the continuation of the previous one, where the employee
informs the employer about the grievance in writing. Then a formal meeting is
setup where both the party discuss over the issue. The appropriate action is
decided and employee is allowed to appeal again if the grievance has not been
solved.
The role of the manager in implementing both disciplinary and grievance procedure is
important in various aspects (Smith, 2002). In spite of the presence of strong discipline and
grievance handling mechanism, managers should try to prevent the problems from occurring.
The established informal methods will be beneficial for the same. Moreover, if the manager
holds regular meeting with different employees, then it will help in developing positive
relation which can be beneficial in easy redress of grievance being raised. The managers need

to respond to the issues well within the time before the issue scales further. If the manager
has no idea about the solution of such issue, then that manager can seek immediate help from
the concerned HR department.
References
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