Focusing on these three areas of performance management allowed me to explore aspects of performance management involving manager-employee interactions within the university's Student Affairs department. The research results, combined with the coded answers from the interviews with managers, yielded a number of important results. Despite the urgency and haste of the transition to remote work, the university's operations continued seamlessly.
Stevens Institute of Technology was founded in 1870 and is one of the oldest technology-focused universities in the United States. Despite the rush, the workforce has adapted to remote work, and Stevens' leadership was pleased with the workforce's virtual activities and productivity during the year 2020. The performance management framework (Ferreira & Otley, 2009) guides this capstone project through an analysis of Stevens Institute of Technology's Performance Management Practices.
Feedforward is an assessment that takes place before performance begins and is often an important part of the planning process. At the end of the PA, the employee is asked to self-evaluate his overall performance for the fiscal year. The work of Ferreira and Otley (2009) has produced Performance Management Systems (PMSs) to guide organizations towards a holistic approach to PM, and part of the model informs my research design.
This study focused on the following elements of the PMS framework: Key Performance Measures, Performance Evaluation, and Information Flows, Systems and Networks.
How do managers engage with performance management?
With what frequency and methods do managers communicate about performance to remote employees?
What is the nature of interactions between managers and remote workers?
The purpose of the third question was to examine interactions between managers and their staff. The purpose of the survey was to understand the nature of interactions between managers and employees. The model focuses on the strength and development of the manager-employee relationship by asking questions related to trust, motivation and competence.
In this case, the LMX-7 model in the form of a survey was used to analyze the maintenance of employee-manager relationships at Stevens during remote work. The first step of the survey analysis was to export the survey responses from the Google Form to Excel. Additional data points were collected to identify the individual's virtual work status and tenure at the university.
I then calculated statistics for each LMX-7 question to determine which aspect of the relationship was strong versus weak. Question 5 Regardless of the amount of formal authority your manager has, how likely is he/she/they to “save” you? All interviews were conducted via Zoom so that audio and visual recordings were accessible for analysis.
As a result, all interview transcription errors were edited during the initial review of the recordings. The second review of the recordings was intended to update any field notes previously taken during the interviews with an overarching view of interrelated themes. The third and final review of the recordings was intended to identify any biases or perceptions that needed to be noted.
It was clear that this group communicated closely with their staff regardless of the virtual work environment. We have to] train graduate and professional staff to see that." The virtual work environment has created a need for many employees to improve their virtual collaboration skills. A fourth finding came from the respondents' unanimous criticism of the current formal annual performance appraisal process.
A rating of two corresponds to "Does not meet expectation." Managers stated that due to organizational policy, an employee rated at two must be placed on a performance plan. According to the LMX-7 model key in Table 5, the average quality of interactions between the respondents would be represented as high.
Human Resources at Stevens should develop a training for managers that focuses on behaviors that promote effective performance
The following are recommendations to help Stevens' HR department better support performance management efforts in a virtual work environment.
Human Resources at Stevens should form a working group of managers to re-design the current performance appraisal system
Another limitation of this study was the number of managers who responded to the electronic survey. The individuals who responded to the survey remained anonymous, so it was not revealed whether the nine managers were similar to the managers who participated in the interviews. How to bring humanity back into performance management when people's personal lives may have taken precedence.
The findings from this study demonstrate the strength of the Student Affairs department at Stevens. The scale of this project could be expanded to other high-touch student departments to understand the potential of effective remote performance management. The training suggested in the recommendations will provide a baseline for performance management expectations and outline behaviors that impact performance.
The performance appraisal redesign will improve operations at Stevens as the organization prepares for a long-term transition to a hybrid workforce environment. Manager Interviews - Informed Consent to Participate in Research Activities Because of your position as a manager at Stevens Institute of Technology, you are invited to participate in a research project about Performance Management in support of my role as a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University . Participation is voluntary and responses will be kept anonymous to the extent permitted by the technology being used.
Confirmation of the interview agreement will be interpreted as your informed consent to participate and that you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. Your responses will remain anonymous to the extent permitted by the technology used. Participation is voluntary and responses will remain anonymous to the extent permitted by the technology used.
Submitting the survey will be interpreted as your informed consent to participate and that you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. If you have any questions about the research, please contact the Principal Investigator, Nicole Malantchouk, by email at nicole.p.malantchouk@vanderbilt.edu or the faculty advisor, Dr. Q5 Do you know where you stand with your manager [and] do you generally know how satisfied your manager is with what you are doing.
Q8 Regardless of how much formal authority your manager has built into his/her/their position, what are the changes your manager will use his/her/their power to help you solve problems in your work. Q9 Regardless of the amount of formal authority your manager has, what are the chances that he/she/they would "sponsor" you at his/her/their expense?
