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Volume 19/ Number 1
2006
Strategy Streamlines Evaluation
Karen Medsker
Leadership Perception: Analysis of 360-Degree Feedback
Thomas P. Bradley, Jeff M. Allen, Scott Hamilton, and Scott K. Filgo
Multirater feedback, often called 360-degree feedback, is a popular development and assessment tool, especially for organizational leaders. Raters from different organizational levels, including subordinates, boss, peers, and self, rate the leader's performance. However, there seldom is strong agreement across rater groups. This study used the data from a commercially available 360-degree leader development feedback instrument and a second-order confirmatory factor analysis model to try to explain the differences in ratings between the groups. Rather than an explanation of the differences, what was found were two second-order factors that may be the underlying elements that all raters consider when observing leader performance.
A Method of Assessing Leadership Effectiveness: Introducing
the Essential Behavioral Leadership Qualities Approach
A. Olu Oyinlade
Assessing the effectiveness of a leader is often a difficult exercise for many organizations. This is usually because most assessment procedures are influenced by organizational politics, they are not standard based, and the items on which a leader is assessed are undefined or poorly defined.
This study presents the Essential Behavioral Leadership Qualities (EBLQ) approach for assessing leadership effectiveness as an alternative method to commonly used assessment procedures. Among other assumptions, the EBLQ method is built on the assumptions that a leader should be evaluated on clearly defined behavioral qualities and his/her effectiveness rating should be standard based. Hence, the EBLQ method measures the effectiveness of a leader against the essentiality levels of behaviors deemed necessary for effective leadership. Leadership effectiveness is determined for each leadership behavior and for overall leadership performance.
The EBLQ method was demonstrated in the assessment of the leadership effectiveness of the principals of schools for students who are blind or visually impaired.
Cross-national Similarities and Differences in Employee Perceptions of Issues in the Work Environment: The Implications of Context Beyond National Culture for the Design of Employee Performance Improvement Interventions
David Ripley, Irene Hudson, Robin Turner, and AAhad Osman-Gani
This exploratory study examines cross-national similarities and differences in employee perceptions of issues in the work environment in 17 organizational work settings in seven
Asia-Pacific countries; Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Employees at these 17 sites indicated their degree of agreement with statements about 60 work environment issues which previous research has shown impact performance. Resulting data were compared using coefficients of concordance as described by Gibbons (1971) at three levels of analysis. Analysis indicated that differences and similarities in responses did not reflect those one would expect to find based on previous well-known research concerning cultural differences in those same countries (Hall, 1976; Hofstede, 1980, 2001). This suggests that relying primarily on national cultural differences is not a sufficient guide for the design of performance improvement interventions in various countries and that other context factors need to be taken into account. Possible hypotheses for future research are offered.
The Impact of Level of Performance on Feedback Strategy
R. P. Beaulieu and Kevin G. Love
The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the level of observed performance on the feedback strategy selected by a performance evaluator. One hundred and twenty-three actual performance evaluators from 15 different organizations and 123 college students reviewed, in groups which ranged from 2 to 20, a job description for the position of electronics shop supervisor, then viewed a video which contained four (supposed) shop supervisors describing their (respective) performances for the previous year. The subjects used a behaviorally-based device to rate the individual performances, then selected a feedback strategy to be used when discussing that evaluation with each shop supervisor. Results indicate that the feedback strategy selected varied as a function of observed performance, that the hierarchical level of the practitioners was related to the feedback strategy selected, and that the student subjects responded (somewhat) differently than their practitioner counterparts
Heterogeneity or Homogeneity: Socialization Makes the Difference in Firm Performance
Amy McMillan-Capehart
While research has focused on the effects of diversity on individual and group level outcomes, there has been little inquiry concerning the organizational level. Cox (1994) states that the most frequently asked question by executives regarding workforce diversity involves how it affects the performance of organizations. In order to manage the growing diversity of the workforce, organizations need to implement systems and practices so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized and the potential disadvantages are minimized (Cox, 1994). While the goal of these programs is organizational success, from a human resource perspective they introduce unique challenges. In particular, these challenges relate to activities such as the socialization of culturally diverse employees. Therefore, in an effort to increase understanding of the effects of cultural diversity on organizational performance, this paper examines the moderating impact of socialization tactics on the relationship between cultural diversity and firm performance.
Training Alone Is Not Enough: Factors that Influence the Performance of Healthcare Providers in Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and Nigeria
Lauren Crigler, Alfredo L. Fort, Orla de Diez, Susan Gearon, and Hayk Gyuzalyan
Improving healthcare services in the developing world remains a major goal for many organizations and despite enormous training and program investments from international organizations, service improvements have been modest. This study looks at how to improve results by examining the relationship between the conditions in a healthcare providers' work environment and his or her performance.
Drawing upon a human performance model that assumes that performance expectations, timely feedback, adequate environment, incentives,
and skills and knowledge are required for a worker to perform well, this study explores how these conditions might affect healthcare provider performance in four countries. The study successfully shows that although multiple conditions were deficient or missing in every country, significant association is found between the performance of workers and conditions in the workers environment. Further, when viewed across all countries,
non-monetary incentives are the most powerful "predictor" of performance when compared with other factors. Of particular interest to Performance Improvement practitioners,
knowledge and skills surfaced as important in only three of eight possible cases (with multiple cases in each country) -- the least influential factor overall.
Performance Appraisal System Impact on University Academic Staff
Job Satisfaction and Productivity
Yustina Ndambakuwa and Jacob Mufunda
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) introduced a performance appraisal system (PAS) designed to improve performance indicators across the board in Public Service including academic/faculty staff at the University of Zimbabwe as part of a nationwide strategy. The Public Service is a body responsible for all civil workers including academic staff, whose responsibility is to lecture to students, provide university to the community and conduct research activities. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of five years of PAS on productivity and job satisfaction of academic staff. a random sample of academic staff was studied using questionnaires and interviews. Job satisfaction and some indices of productivity decreased by half following introduction of PAS. a possible contributory factor for the decline in job satisfaction was that PAS was introduced without adequate preparation and when the socio-cultural environment was not conducive to its implementation. This study underpins the importance of community ownership of interventions targeted at performance management improvement prior to their implementation.
A Competency-Based Human Resource Development Strategy
Noordeen Gangani, Gary N. McLean, and Richard A. Braden
This article explores some of the major issues in developing and implementing a competency-based human resource development strategy. The article summarizes a brief literature review on how competency models can be developed and implemented to improve employee performance. A case study is presented of American Medical Systems (AMS), a mid-sized health-care and medical device company, where the model is being used to improve employee performance and gain a competitive advantage.
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