Report on HRM Limitations and Strategies at CERA, Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices within the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). It identifies several limitations in CERA's performance measurement systems, including a lack of stakeholder involvement, invalid assumptions in cause-and-effect relationships, and insufficient focus on human resource management. The report explores how these limitations negatively impact organizational behavior and performance. It also suggests two alternative measurement approaches: the comparative approach, with methods such as ranking, forced distribution, and paired comparison; and the attribute approach. The aim is to address the challenges and improve employee performance and organizational effectiveness. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning performance measures with strategic goals and objectives to ensure a balanced approach between financial and non-financial indicators. The report concludes by highlighting the significance of effective HRM practices in achieving organizational standards and enhancing productivity within CERA.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Executive summary
The topic focused on the major limitations and resolution strategies for considering the
Human resource management practices within the organization CERA in Australia. The purpose
of the report was to determine the limitations and its negative impacts on the organisation and
how could it be resolved with ease and effectiveness. Few of the limitations that were faced had
been lack of understanding of the performance measurement tools and not being able to maintain
a balance between the financial and non-financial performance indicators. The comparative
approach, forced distribution, ranking, etc. had been major approaches to deal with these kinds of
limitations and ensured and successful functioning of the organization.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Aim..................................................................................................................................................4
Purpose............................................................................................................................................4
Limitations.......................................................................................................................................5
Body of Report................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The topic promises to provide a detailed analysis of the different types of limitations
based on the individual performance measurement that have been found within the organization
CERA in Australia. Performance measurement is important for determining the areas of
strengths and weaknesses of the individuals working within the organization and therefore
ensures that the workers’ performances are improved, where they have been found to lack certain
strengths (Bisbe & Malagueño, 2012).
Aim
The aim of the report is to provide a detailed analysis of the limitations during the
individual performance measurement within CERA related to the organizational strategy and
developments in the HRM practices.
Purpose
Thus, the main purpose of using the performance management system is to align the
performances of employees with the organizational goals and objectives and maintain a good
culture to encourage simplified processes and documentation of employee activities. This would
help in maintaining a good organizational behavior as well as maintain good performances of
workers with ease and effectiveness. The balanced scorecard is used as a strategy performance
management tool, which combines the financial performance measures to focus on the
requirements of customers and business processes and achieve long-term sustainability
(Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). The purpose of developing this report is to analyse the various

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findings and list the various limitations faced along with the probable approaches of addressing
the limitations.
Limitations
The performance measurement approaches can help in communicating the performances
of workers and assume the predicted performance level that is expected. This would also
provide the employees with necessary feedbacks, based on which, the performances could be
improved for achieving the organizational sustainability. The performance measurement system
including the both performance planning and evaluation systems can allow assuming the
performance level that is needed to be achieved to bring out the best from workers of CERA,
Australia. In spite of the benefits, there are certain limitations too like not involving all the
stakeholders in the performance management measures (Franco-Santos, Lucianetti & Bourne,
2012). There are many people such as the suppliers, public authorities whose responses are
decisive in nature and in many cases, their lack of engagement can lead to certain issues for the
company. The linear chain consisting of skilled workers and better performances could result in
satisfaction of customers, but it had been just a simplification of reality. There are certain
limitations related to the cause and effect relationship, which would not only create invalid
assumptions, but might also deteriorate the effectiveness of control system by using wrong data
and information. This would further cause anticipation of performance indicator results and
create complexities while managing the behaviors of organisations and furthermore led to below
the par performances (Karim & Arif-Uz-Zaman, 2013). The performance management measures
also could lead to other limitations such as not maintaining the efficiency of defined measures
and lack of focus on managing the human resources. The Balanced scorecard, which is one of the

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most effective performance management measures used within CERA has mostly focused on the
pre-defined indicators, so the other areas have remained unexplored. The performance
management measures does not monitor the level of competition and advancement in
technologies, which ignore certain risks and this further leads to inappropriate organisational
behavior maintenance and lack of control over the organization to implement an effective
strategy (McDavid et al., 2012). There are several situations when the organization fails to
allocate enough time for generating the key indicators for measurement of performance. This
creates complexities and the indicators remain unaligned with the strategic objectives. Due to
lack of control of implementing a strategy, a proper balance between the financial and non-
financial measures is not established. The narrow goals and objectives are established, which
becomes difficult to gain the adequate level of organizational capability and higher performance
of workers (Morrow et al., 2015).
The Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) follows various HRM practices for
ensuring that the organizational standards are maintained and good productivity of the
organization is achieved. The HRM practices include recruitment, selection, induction, training
and development along with performance appraisal, compensation techniques, grievance
addressable methods and welfare measures for ensuring satisfaction of customers within CERA.
Various recruitment processes are used to gain the most suitable candidates to work for the
company while proper skills, knowledge and expertise level are o other essential components
needed to be recruited within the organization. Often the data and information provided by
candidates during the process of recruitment and selection are not valid and appropriate, which
the employers fail to check and this creates further complexities (Searcy, 2012). Another
limitation could be the inability of the organization and its employers to communicate the roles

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and positions of the employees, which not only arises issues and makes the employees not
understanding their responsibilities properly and fail to perform to their potential. There are
limitations such as lower production level, lack of commitment of workers and deteriorated
organizational performance, which can be due to the less training and development opportunities
provided to the workers of the organization (Zairi, 2012). Monetary benefits are not provided to
the employees art certain stages though their performances are quite good and noteworthy, which
is another limitation too. Training and development measures lift up employee performance and
improve the organizational effectiveness too and so not providing them with enough scopes and
opportunities to grow and develop can also be a major limitation faced by the organization.
Limitations are also faced when the employees’ health and wellbeing are not properly managed
by the organization, then also their performances may deteriorate and lead to reduced
organizational productivity (Bisbe & Malagueño, 2012).
In terms of lower performances of workers, the performance appraisal technique cannot
present an actual picture of the employees while the employer who gives appraisal by giving
central values can make the employees not getting promotions at the right time. The performance
appraisal is often managed based on the past performances and thus the employees who will
perform better in the present may not gain the same benefits. A strict performance appraisal can
create limitations within the organization by affecting the goodwill between employers and
employees, which further deteriorates the relationship between them and cerates negative impact
on the organization too. Focusing on just the pre-defined indicators is another limitation,
because the other areas remain unexplored and the human resources are not managed properly
too (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). It is important to determine the level of competition in the
organization prior to the measurement of performances of theirs. If the level of competition is not

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understood along with the technological advancements, then also the performance measures will
tend to remain ineffective and inappropriate. If the performance measures are not aligned with
the strategic goals and objectives, then also certain limitations will be created which can create
imbalance between the financial and non-financial measures. Other limitations include
bureaucracy resulting due to job based pay and hierarchical nature that influences the top down
approaches to decision making with ease and effectiveness (McDavid et al., 2012). Often the
workers are not paid according to their performance, which is also considered as a major
limitation experienced by the organization. Lack of motivation within the organization can also
result in not bringing out the expected performances from the workers and this deteriorates the
performances of the workers as well. There are many cases where CERA has failed to
understand what actually the benefits can be obtained by using balanced scorecard as an effective
performance management tool and also how can it be applied (Morrow et al., 2015). Therefore,
these are the different kinds of limitations that are faced during the performance measurement
considering the strategies within the organization and development in the practices of human
resource management at CERA, Australia.
Body of Report
Recommend two alternative measurement approaches and indicative methods within each
approach that you believe could work in CERA to address the limitations
Various limitations are identified in the performance measurement approaches in CERA.
The current strategy followed by CERA in human resource management shows incapability in
managing and identifying the performance of its employees. The limitations such as invalid
assumption, effectiveness of prioritizing the good performers are the major ones. The ineffective

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measurement of the performance is the cause of wrong data and information used in the process.
Moreover, the biasness in the measurement system is also another issue that are found in the
CERA’s performance management. This hampers the promotion process and fails to address the
right candidate for the appraisal. A logical selection of performance management approach for
the company can show potentiality to address the issues identified. Two of the alternative
approaches re identified in the following discussion that can successfully address the issues
found in the organization. They are comparative approach and attribute approach (Arzu &
Erman, 2010). A detailed discussion of the mentioned approaches is shown in the following
along with the process it obtains in resolving the issues.
Comparative Approach
The first approach that can be useful in addressing CERA’s limitation of performance
management is comparative approach. Comparative approach utilizes some overall assessment
of an individual performance or worth, and seeks to develop a kind of ranking of the individual
within a particular group. It requires some standard rater to put the units in the same scale and
compare the individual’s performance with the other members of the group. The top performer
can be identified and rewarded with the help of this method. It distinguishes the top performers
from the poor ones (McDavid et al., 2012). Later, it facilitates in taking necessary actions to
increase the work potential of every segments of the groups. Three indicative methods are
included in the comparative approach of performance measurement that are ranking, forced
distribution and paired comparison.
Ranking

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The first indicator of comparative approach is the ranking. It is the process of
identification of the employees on performance basis. It can again be divided into two. They are
simple ranking and alternative ranking. The simple ranking involves the employer to rank
everyone from the highest performer to the poorest performer. Both the best and the worst
performer are identified in a single chain of ranking. On contrary, alternative ranking first
identifies the best performer and the places him differently. The process then moves on to the left
out names that would slowly taught about the worst performer and cross his name of the list and
so on.
Forced Distribution
The forced distribution is the second indicative method used in comparative approach of
performance management where the employee is put under some predetermined category. Every
employee is given percentage on the basis of their performance. A scale is pre-prepared
segmenting the percentages slabs and the employees are put under the slabs based on their
percentage they obtained from their performance.
Paired Comparison
The last indicative model used in comparative model is the paired comparison. This
process involves a more complex method of ranking. Every single employee is compared with
every other employee in the group. Whenever an employee proves to perform greater than their
competitors they are scored one. The score is then calculated at the end of the process and the
employee with the highest score process to be the best performer in the group (Bratton & Gold,
2012).

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Advantages and Disadvantages
Several advantages and disadvantages are identified in the comparative approaches. It is
an effective tool in differentiating employee performance, eliminating problems of leniency,
central tendency and strictness. It is also a good basis for pay raises and promotions. The
compatibility of this approach shows greater results than the other approaches available in the
market. However, personal biases are seen in the results if the number of evaluators is
considerably low. It has greater impact on the rating of the employees. Moreover, it lacks
specificity for feedback purposes as the employees aren’t aware of what they should improve on
for their ranking individually (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Attribute Approach
Attribute is the suggested approach that can be useful in solving the identified issues in
CERA. This approach identifies a set of skills of the employees which are considered as the
parameters of rating. They can be like, problem solving skills, teamwork, communication,
judgment, creativity and innovation. There are two indicative methods incorporated in the
attribute approach of measuring performance. They are graphic rating scale and mixed rating
scale. The graphic rating scale evaluates the employees on a scale of 1 to 5 for each of the
predetermined skills set for the evaluation. The employee’s performances are market on the basis
of this rating. Whereas, multiple layers are involve in the mixed rating scale. The employees are
primarily categorized between high, medium and low on a given parameter. Later, each
parameter is broken down to above, equal or below (Alwaer & Clements-Croome, 2010).
Advantages and Disadvantages

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The major disadvantage of this approach is the subjectivity of measurement. It heavily
depends of the nature of the evaluator. Moreover, only the best and worst performance is
identified with this method, while neglecting the rest of the employees who come in between.
Advantage of the approach on the other hand is the simplicity. This is the reason for its
acceptance in various industries (Micheli & Neely, 2010). This is the primary reason for
suggesting it for the case of CERA.
Recommendation
The above mentioned approaches are capable of providing effective scorecard for the
employees and remove the errors that are present in the organization. The both the simple and
alternative ranking can provide authentic ranking of the employees based on their performance.
However, the paired comparison is the most effective process of evaluating the performance as it
includes multiple level of performance checker. A single employee undergoes several stages of
verification before producing the end result. Moreover, no biasness can occur in this process
which makes it the best among all the comparative methods of performance measurement. Tool
under attribute approach also shows potential of removing the biasness, and false information
issue that is faced by the CERA. This approach addresses specific set of parameters as mentioned
above. The mixed rating scale in this approach is useful for the organization as it has a minimum
of two level of verification. However, it might fail to address the biasness that the organization
faces as it is a subjective approach. Moreover, as it identifies the best and the worst among the
group members, it can show lack of compatibility in the organization.

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Conclusion
The above discussion suggests that the comparative and attribute approach are the best
measuring tool for performance management that CERA can utilize at this moment for
eradicating the issues they face in the measurement. Both the tools and its indicators have some
limitations, but their capabilities serve the function to address the limitations of the organization.
As mentioned in the discussion, the comparative approach can address the biasness involved in
CERA’s performance indication. On the other hand, the attribute approach can prove to be useful
in the case for its multiple level verification process. However, the biasness cannot be addressed
with the help of attribute approach. To meet the necessity to address the biasness, the
comparative approach of performance measurement is the best tool to address the issue.

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