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organization’s goals. The key differences are performance management’s continuous
and goal-based adjustments. Beyond the differences between performance appraisal and
management, it will be necessary to have input from relevant departments, leaders, and
employees into the program to help establish commitment to a new system.
8-6. Illustrate examples of segmenting and actively managing a company’s talent.
Talent management is the goal-oriented and integrated process of planning, recruiting,
developing, appraising, and compensating employees. Several practices distinguish
talent management. These include using the same profile or list of skills and
competencies for recruiting someone for the job as for selecting, training, appraising, and
compensating that person, as well as actively managing how employees are recruited,
selected, trained, appraised, and paid. One company (Accenture) uses a 4 × 4 strategic
role assessment matrix to plot employees by performance (exceptional, high, medium,
low) and value to the organization (mission-critical, core, necessary, nonessential). Other
examples include: Compass Group PLC who identifies top performers. Tesco PLC
segments employees according to personal and professional goals. McKinsey & Co.
recommends limiting the “high potential group in whom the company invests heavily to no
more than a certain percentage.” Unilever includes 15% of employees per management
level in its high potential list. Finally, Shell China appoints “career stewards” to meet
regularly with “emerging leaders.”
8-7. Explain how you would use the alternation ranking method, the paired comparison
method, and the forced distribution method. The alternation ranking method would
be used by listing all employees to be rated, deciding who is the best in a trait to be rated,
and which employee is the worst. Then decide who is the second best, and the second
worst ... the third best and the third worst ... and so on until all the employees have been
ranked for that trait. Then do the same with the next trait to be rated.
With the paired comparison, for each trait to be rated, the supervisor would have a sheet
with employee names in pairs. For each pair, the supervisor would circle the one of the
two employees that is better in that trait.
Forced distribution gives the supervisor a set rating scale (such as 1 through 5). The
supervisor is limited to giving a pre-determined percentage of his or her employees'
rating. For example: 15% can get a 1; 20% can get a 2; 30 % can get a 3… and so forth.
8-8. Discuss the pros and cons of using different potential raters to appraise a person's
performance. This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.
INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTIVITIES
8-9. Working individually or in groups, develop a graphic rating scale for the following
jobs: secretary, professor, directory assistance operator. Job characteristics may
include, but are not limited to: Secretary ⎯ quantity of work, frequency of errors,
attendance, and initiative; Engineer ⎯ initiative, significance of contribution to the
organization, problem-solving skills, frequency of errors, and communication skills;
Directory Assistance Operator ⎯ speed, attendance, accuracy, and friendliness. In each
case, the students should come up with a defining statement that clarifies what the job
characteristic means.
8-10. Working individually or in groups, describe the advantages and disadvantages of
using the forced distribution appraisal method for college professors. Students