Introduction
Performance improvement has evolved over the past year training, to human resources development, to human performance improvement and to the most recent which is workplace learning and performance. Training focused on providing employees with new or additional knowledge and skills to improve their performance of job requirements (Rothwell, Sanders, and Soper 1999). Early studies helped to define trainer roles (Kenny 1976; Lippit and Nadler 1967; McLagan 1983; Nadler 1962; Pinto and Walker 1978; U.S. Civil Service Commission Studies 1973, 1976).
While, human resources development (HRD), "integrated the use of training and development, organization development, and career development to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness" (McLagan and Suhadolnick, 1989). Human resource development went beyond training to include organization and career development. Nine major competency studies (Chalofsky and Lincoln, 1983; Gilley 1998; Harris and DeSimone, 1994; Kenny, 1982; Nadler and Nadler 1989) were conducted between 1970 and 1989 that helped shape the HRD field (Gilley and Eggland, 1989).
According to Rothwell (1996), human performance improvement (HPI), however, required everyone in an organization to contribute to improving performance and enhancing organizational competitiveness. Human performance improvement recognized that the trainers themselves could no longer solely determine the role of trainers. Human performance improvement required a shared responsibility, among HRD practitioners, management, and non-management employees, for improving organizational performance.
And lastly, the most recent which is workplace learning and performance (WLP), requires the combined talents of many organizational members from various disciplines to improve human performance. Workplace learning and performance is "the integrated use of learning and other interventions for the purpose of improving human performance and addressing individual and organizational needs. It uses a systematic process of analyzing and responding to individual, group, and organizational performance issues. Workplace learning and performance creates positive, progressive change within organizations by balancing human, ethical, technological, and operational considerations" (Rothwell, Sanders, and Soper, 1999).
Organizations are in a constant state of change, requiring a workforce that is not only prepared to adjust quickly to the changing environment but to simultaneously maintain or improve overall organizational performance. Over the years, organizations have implemented a variety of major organizational-improvement techniques, including total quality management/continuous quality improvement (TQM/CQI), zero-based budgeting, management by objectives, reengineering, and, most recently six sigma.
In addition, Hammer (2004) argued that "operations can often be the foundation of strategy and the basis for superior performance." Improving processes with the goal of enhancing the firm's competitive position requires an analysis of both construction and performance processes and also a critical assessment of how individual processes contribute to the firm's business model and strategy. This paper attempts to develop a work plan on the improvement of organization performance through the transition to a process view of management.
Goals
1. Develop a clear set of organizational improvement objectives, complete with time lines, budget, and responsible parties.
2. Organize a steering committee to facilitate the transition to organizational improvement. The steering committee should include skilled persons appropriate for their responsibilities. Committee members should have the authority to make changes and start projects, within the established time lines and budget. Part of the control process for the steering committee is to establish key measures of performance so progress can be gauged.
3. Describe any needed structural changes, such as development of teams, and develop a timetable for achieving the structural changes.
4. Communicate about transition activities to employees at every level throughout the organization, and celebrate when goals are met.
Objectives
1. To improve organizational performance
2. To increase productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the organization
Requirements
Requirements are needed to be considered when working on a work plan for organizational performance improvement. Considerable effort is required to train employees to use organizational-improvement techniques. Some employers routinely build training into employees' schedules and count training as productive time. Motorola, for example, requires managers to receive 40 hours of training per year. In other organizations, productivity may decline during the time employees are being trained. For any organizational-improvement method to work, managers need to plan carefully for the time and resources needed for training and for maintaining productivity.
Training and education constitute most of the resource allocations for massive change efforts such as TQM/CQI, a well-known and long-lived organizational transformation methodology. Changing an organization's culture is a slow process, during which the organization requires additional resources to accomplish the research and the education needed.
In addition, organizations also need to recognize that change management requires considerable money and time. If employees receive only a one-time exposure to the new ideas or new methods, the result will be that employees who have not mastered the necessary skills will become stressed and burned out because of the increased expectations, and the work processes may deteriorate instead of improve.
Moreover, implementing process improvement requires careful planning. Implementing process management faces several significant challenges. First, process management requires structural changes that enable a business to operate around processes instead of functions. For example, process management often uses both technology and cross-functional teams to integrate activities that span traditional functional boundaries. Second, the rapid changes associated with moving to a process management environment often require workers to adapt. Pressure to improve and change the status quo can result in constant tension among individual workers. Finally, process management requires knowledgeable individuals who are able to manage in the increasingly complex process-oriented environment.
Team Members Involvement
Employee participation is among the more popular strategies touted to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of companies. Its advocates claim that empowerment can increase employee satisfaction, boost employee morale and motivation, enhance organizational performance and effectiveness, and facilitate greater acceptance by employees of organizational change.
In order for the work plan to be at its success, it is important to encourage extensive employee participation. To do this, employee empowerment is encouraged. Employees should be given an active involvement in their work. They should be given a greater responsibility in their workplace.
According to Sashkin (1984, 1986), majority of the employees wish to become actively involved in their work, desire and have the ability, knowledge and expertise to assume greater responsibility in their workplace and can make significant contribution to their organizations; seek to fulfill many of their psychological needs through their work; and management participative management stimulates employee enthusiasm and willingness to carry out decisions in which they have been involved.
It is evidently seen in the most of the organizations that encouraging employee participation satisfies employee’s inner needs and serves as motivating vehicle resulting in greater productivity, effectiveness and commitment in the organization. This may also result to a greater acceptance of employees to organizational change.
In addition, organizations should provide with greater intrinsic rewards from work than do traditional forms of management. These greater rewards from work increase job satisfaction and, in turn, increase employees' motivation to achieve new production goals (Miller and Monge, 1986; Hammer, 1988).
Moreover, it has also been proposed that giving workers access to management information increases mutual trust and commitment to organizational goals (Hammer, 1988). Hence, employee-supervisor relations improve (Cooke, 1990a), employees are willing to be more flexible regarding changes in human resource policies (Delaney et al., 1993), and employees are more inclined to channel their power in positive ways than they otherwise would be (Strauss, 1990).
Transition to Process View of Management
A process is any activity or group of activities that takes an input, adds value to it, and provides an output. The product or service that a process delivers may be tangible or intangible.
Management processes such as strategic planning and labor relations influence customer and administrative processes on both a long term and day-to-day basis. Anupindi, et al. (2006) defined four key features of any process: predictable and definable inputs, a linear, logical sequence or flow, a set of clearly definable tasks or activities, and a predictable and desired outcome or result.
Almost all processes involved in delivering products and services to customers are of this type. It becomes clear that superior operational performance most often hinges on the capabilities of cross-functional processes that involve two or more departments. This aspect of process management is worth noting in light of the success of six sigma projects that have been fairly limited to activities within one functional unit (Hammer, 2002). Rummier and Brache (1990) described the key aspects of managing this process capability as:
· Establishing sub goals for each critical process which drives functional goals
· Obtaining feedback on process outputs to track performance, provide feedback, and reset goals to current requirements
· Providing resources to support each individual process goal and its contribution to the overall process
· Managing the "white space" between process steps, or hand-offs between functions.
In describing this important element of managing process capability, Duck (1993) states that "the critical task is understanding how pieces balance one another, how changing one element changes the rest, how sequencing and pace affect the whole structure." Only a comprehensive organization-wide view of managing processes can achieve this understanding.
Rothwell, Sanders, and Soper (1999) identified seven roles which include: (1) manager, (2) analyst, (3) intervention selector, (4) intervention designer and developer, (5) intervention implementor, (6) change leader, and (7) evaluator. These roles are the key to the success of the work plan since a person in the organization would be given a specific function.
A role represents "a grouping of competencies targeted to meet specific expectations of a job or function" (Rothwell, Sanders, and Soper, 1999, 43). Role theory developed from the earliest analyses of behavior at work and served as the impetus for the identification and development of motivation theories, which are some of the means to determine why individuals act the way they do at work. Motivation theorists argued that individuals behave in a prescribed manner for a number of reasons. Expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) suggested that expected behavior was the result of a valued outcome, which is the attractiveness or value of rewards to an individual for practicing behaviors expected by an employer. Goal theory (Locke, 1968) argued that an employee's behavior was based on his or her desire to achieve personal goals, assuming that the goals were clear, specific, and attainable. According to Pfeffer (1982), individual job behavior stemmed from the combination of work desired by an organization and the values, goals, and needs of the individual. Role theory identifies what individuals might do based on motivational conditions. Katz and Kahn (1978) attributed roles and role behaviors to the relationship between an organization's structure and its supporting environment. Role theory suggested that if an organizational structure supported role behaviors, the desired roles or inputs most likely will create the desired outputs.
Table 1. Roles and Function
Role
Function
Manager
Plans, organizes, schedules or monitor, and leads the work of individuals and groups to attain desired results; facilitates the strategic plan; ensures that workplace learning and performance is aligned with organizational needs and plans; and ensures the accomplishment of the administrative requirements of the function.
Analyst
Troubleshooters and isolates the causes of human performance gaps or identifies areas for improving performance
Intervention Selector
Chooses appropriate interventions to address root causes of human performance gaps
Intervention designer and developer
Creates learning and other interventions that help to address the specific root causes of human performance gap
Intervention implementor
Ensures the appropriate and effective implementation of desired interventions that address the specific root causes of human gaps
Change leader
Inspires the workforce to embrace change, creates direction for the change effort, helps the organization’s workforce to adapt to change, and ensures that intervention s are continuously monitored and guided in ways consistent with stakeholders’ desired results.
Evaluator
Assesses the impact of interventions and provides participants and stakeholders with information about how well interventions are implemented
In addition, Harrington (1991) proposes a basic five-phase approach to be successful in process improvement. These are organizing for improvement, understanding the process, streamlining, measurement and control, and continuous improvement. Tennor and DeTorro (1992) discuss three skill and knowledge sets that individuals need to succeed at process improvement. These include job knowledge, team skills, and process analysis skills. Job knowledge describes what and how to do a task or activity. Teams skills are describe as being able to function and interact in a group or team environment to enhance overall performance of the system. Process analysis skills is described as being able to measure and analyze processes, determine the effects of changes on those processes, and implement an improvement model.
Any approach that fails to ensure these skills are in place will surely fail to improve organizational performance. However, education and training alone do not guarantee success. Gilbert (1978) presents six categories of potential causes for deficiencies in performance: data, resources, incentives and rewards, skills and knowledge, capacities, and motives. The first three are generally provided by management. Individuals must have relevant data that can be transformed into useful information to conduct their work. Resources such as appropriate tools and equipment are needed. Incentives and rewards that reinforce behavior and support the organization's goals are a must.
Education and training, however, affect both the fourth and sixth causes of performance deficiency. This is due to a lack of training in the essentials of process analysis, education in viewing work as processes, and education in decision-making directed at improving processes. Appropriate training and education can overcome a lack of motivation for individuals to change the way things are done and reduce the fear of failure. Finally, overcoming the fifth deficiency, the capacity of individuals, involves matching specific individuals' abilities with job requirements.
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