Evaluating research is a specific analysis which helps understand some particular processes, their effectiveness, and other particular characteristics of the work performance. Evaluating research is usually used for considering staff satisfaction with a particular issue. Evaluation research may be completed differently each time as depending on the goals and the needs of the company, the evaluation may be based on various aspects.
Grayson is sure that work performance appraisal systems assess the employees effectiveness, work habits and also the quality of the work produced (Grayson) by means of evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of the appraisal instrument (Grayson) applying to several basic research techniques (Grayson). The main idea of such evaluation research is to gather the information in order to use it for improving the working process or employees performance. The evaluation research usually starts with setting the goals.
Then, the appropriate technique is used according to which the research plan is developed. The literature review is to be considered along with the theories applicable to the research under consideration. After all the measures are taken, the evaluation research starts. It is important to inform employees about the future evaluation and about its goals. It is essential that the goals told to the employees and the real ones may differ.
Such trick is done with the purpose not to spoil the research results by intentionally offered requests. The employer is to give employees time during their working hours to fill out the questionnaire (Mawoli and Babandako 1). After all the employees answered the questions, the results are checked, analyzed and synthesized. The conclusions are made on the basis of the results which are further used for the company change and strategic planning.
Briefly Discuss What Barclays Has Done for Evaluating Research
Having taken a specific example, the evaluating change and development of Barclays Edotech, it should be stated that the following processes were completed. First of all, the research was conducted with the purpose to understand which of the marketing techniques are used in the spheres and which of them are the most effective ones.
After a thorough research, the one-off local staff survey was decided to be referred to (Thornhill, Lewis, Saunders, and Millmore 279). The evaluation research was based on three-month team briefings where employees were asked questions and they had to answer them. The results of the briefings were presented in public to make sure that all the employees had an opportunity to check those.
Such measure is taken intentionally to increase the motivation and to make sure that the employees strive for better performance. In case the results were too low, the company managers worked on understanding the reasons and tried to change the situation to improve motivation and to increase working performance. The important step was taken when the evaluating research results of the current process were compared to the annual results to understand whether the changes had already occurred.
The questionnaire was not changed from year to year that allowed the company to compare and contrast the results. The briefing consisted of 80 questions. The answers were created in a form of an evaluation scale and the employees had to assess their perception (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). The evaluation research was completed on a computer that allowed the managers to get the analyzed and synthesized results faster.
Mawoli, Mohammed Abubakar and Abdullahi Yusuf Babandako. An evaluation of staff motivation, dissatisfaction and job performance in an academic setting. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research 1.9 (2011): 1-13. Print.
Thornhill, Adrian, Lewis, Phil, Saunders, Mark, and Mike Millmore. Managing Change: A Human Resource Strategy Approach. New York: Trans-Atlantic Pubns, 1999. Print.
Individual performance appraisal is a way of evaluating the level of an employees performance in workplace. In healthcare, the 360-degree feedback is the commonly used individual performance appraisal tool; also known as multisource assessment or multi-rater feedback because it can involve external organizations in some cases.
Any appraisal system should be relevant and applicable to everyday work, acceptable and fair, and a mutual collaboration between workers and employers (Duraisingam & Skinner, 2005, p. 2), and 360-degree feedback is not different; it meets all these requirements.
As the name suggests, 360-degree is an all-round system that encircles an employee with feedback coming from supervisors, peers, or subordinates. In some cases, individuals carry self-assessment while in other instances outside sources like customers are involved in the evaluation process. After getting the feedback from the involved parties, the evaluator uses this information to plan training, make administrative decisions, or make developments among others functions.
The 360-degree feedback tool operates in a simple manner. An organization is required to form small groups of workers within different departments to fill in essay questionnaires, a task that takes less than 20 minutes. After carrying out the survey, the results are sent to an external organization, which conducts an analysis of the information provided, and gives a feedback.
The external organization/company then sends the analyzed information back to the evaluating company after which it calls for employee meetings to discourse the report and come up with ways of improvement by either designing training programs or any other improvement strategies. This is relatively cheap method; nevertheless, it has both merits and demerits.
Merits and Demerits of this Tool
This method has several advantages. The 360-degree appraisal method provides a wider view of workers performance as compared to the other appraisal tools (Atkins & Wood, 2002, p. 875). This is true given the nature of its evaluation; there are many people involved in the assessment and this may run from top management to peers thus allowing all-rounded assessment It is more comprehensive than other appraisal methods since they may only need the manager to do the evaluation (Seifert, Yukl, & McDonald, 2003, p. 565).
This appraisal method increases the believability of the appraisal result. The many people used in this assessment reduce chances of unfair assessment. Biases are minimized for not all people can be biased towards an individual hence making it a credible tool. Therefore, some administration decisions like promotion are done on merit.
Given the fact that this tool involves ones peers, the individual under evaluation can enhance his/her personal self-development. This factor emanates from the fact that an employee spends more time with his/her peers than his/her manager; therefore, any form of appraisal will be positively taken without the notion of bias.
In such situation, the employee under evaluation will most likely embark on a self-development program for he/she will know the results are true. Finally, through 360-degree feedback, employees get the chance to air their views and complain without following the normal bureaucratic complaint chain (Seifert, Yukl, & McDonald, 2003, p. 565). Employees can indicate their complaints when filling in the questionnaires and this eliminates normal and long procedures of airing complaints.
On the other side, there are also few demerits of this system. This is a time consuming exercise. The element of including numerous people in the process implies more time consumption thus eliminating the possibility of frequent appraisal exercises.
This system may yield cynicism and suspicion in workplace (Smither, London & Reilly 2005, p. 39). Management may fail to cooperate in the appraisal process hence undermining their authority. Staff members may become de-motivated if they do not get positive appraisals from their workmates.
This calls for an honest environment, which may be lacking in many institutions. This system poses the risk of revealing confidential information to other companies (Pfau & Kay, 2002, p. 56). This factor comes because of outsourcing the analysis stage of the evaluation process. The external company receives all the information about a given company and this is dangerous in confidential matters.
Effects on Employees
This personal performance management system draws mixed reactions from employees. These reactions are tied in the merits and demerits of the same. If well implemented, employees serve customers well and become gratified by their work.
Employees are able to know their performance quite well if they take 360-degree feedback results positively. If employees choose to focus on the positive side of the results then they can develop themselves quickly by working on their weak points as indicated in the results. Areas where an employee scores poorly are areas that call for attention and improvement and by so doing, personal performance improves significantly. Nevertheless, some employees will fail to admit the results and resort to complaining citing sabotage.
In this case, the effects will be debilitating and personal performance may drop significantly due to loss of focus and self-confidence among other issues associated with negativity. Therefore, the effects of this system on employee depend on how the employee in question views and responds to the results.
Effects on Departmental Performance
The effects of this appraisal method on departmental performance are similar to that of individual performance. This is true given the fact that individuals make departments and the outcome of any appraisal depends on how people in those departments view the results of the same.
However, these appraisal effects falls on the departmental heads feel they are responsible of running departmental matters. Therefore, any effect at departmental level will be determined by the perception of departmental heads towards the 360-degree appraisal system.
According to Full Circle Feedback, (2004), the entire department will then react to the heads perception; if it is positive, it will build the department but if it is negative it will call for drastic measures causing tension within the involved department in most cases.
Improvement Suggestions/ Conclusion
Taking into consideration the challenges facing this system, people may consider using technology to avoid the issue of time wastage. Designers of questionnaires may decide to do it online.
Moreover, institutions should consider encouraging individuals not to personalize appraisal results but to work on them for they are honest. However, this calls for honesty and openness in the whole process. The 360-degree feedback system is an all-round appraisal system involving several individuals who fill questionnaires concerning different issues.
After filling in the questionnaires, they are sent to an external company for analysis before coming back to the evaluating company for discussion. This system has both merits and demerits; like offering wider view of employees performance and time consumption respectively; nevertheless, incorporating technology and promoting honesty could solve some shortcomings of this system.
Reference List
Atkins, P., & Wood, R. (2002). Self-Versus Others Ratings as Predictors Of Assessment Center Ratings: Validation Evidence for 360-Degree Feedback Programs. Personnel Psychology, 55(4), 871904
Duraisingam, V. & Skinner, N. (2005). Performance Appraisal. In N. Skinner, A.M. Roche, J. Oconnor, Y. Pollard, & C. Todd (Eds.), Workforce Development Tips (Theory into Practice Strategies): A Resource Kit for the Alcohol and Other Drugs Field. National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (Nceta), Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Full Circle Feedback. (2004). 360 Degree Feedback. Retrieved From, <Http://Www.Fullcirclefeedback.Com/Our-Services/360-Degree-Feedback-Explained.Htm>
Pfau, B. & Kay, I. (2002). Does 360-Degree Feedback Negatively Affect Company Performance? Studies Show That 360-Degree Feedback May Do More Harm Than Good. What is The Problem? Hrmagazine, Jun 2002. 47, 6; 5460.
Seifert, C., Yukl, G., & McDonald, R. (2003). Effects of Multisource Feedback And A Feedback Facilitator on the Influence of Behavior of Managers Toward Subordinates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(3), 561569.
Smither, J.W., London, M., And Reilly, R.R. (2005). Does Performance Improve Following Multisource Feedback? A Theoretical Model, Meta-Analysis And Review of Empirical Findings. Personnel Psychology, 58, 3366
Dnata is one of the subsidiary companies that work for Emirates airlines (Peevers 178). In order to evaluate how certain factors affect Dnatas operations, a research was conducted on the same. The research focused on the price of oil as a factor that negatively affects the companys performance.
On the same note, the research focused on the impact of reward strategies and how it affects employee performance in relation to organization performance. This research was prompted by the fact that Dnata Company was performing poorly in finance. This led to a negative impact on the companys performance on logistics, operations and financial management.
On the other hand, the companys employee performance was deteriorating as evidenced by a staff strike of Dnata staff members at Geneva airport in the year 2012. Such employee actions can be a bad precedence to other staff members across the globe.
From the two scenarios, it is evident that the companys performance as a global company in the airline industry was at stake. From this context, a research on factors affecting the companys operations and employee performance was initialized.
The research conducted used both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. By administering questionnaires to the Dnata employees, the research was to understand the employees perspective on issues affecting the company operations. In addition, the questionnaires revealed the plight of the staff members and factors that influence their performance. By using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques, the research was done in an integrated manner.
This made the data analysis easier by using descriptive statistics and analysis of the inferential data (Maxwell 133). Such data analysis methodologies are effective as evidenced when analyzing the impact of high oil prices on the Dnatas performance. Additional techniques included the use of graphs and charts in analyzing data. On the other hand, the research on employee performance was done through open-minded questionnaires. However, the results were analyzed by use of descriptive statistics.
The results of the research indicated that the fluctuation of oil price in UAE led to the slackening trend of Dnata performance between the year 2008 and 2012. In fact, as the oil prices increased, the company became vulnerable to other risks associated with high costs of operations management. In this respect, the research recommended that Dnata Company engage in outsourcing some of its operations to reduce the cost of operations.
On the other hand, the research on the impact of reward strategies on employee performance indicated that employees tend to perform better given rewards (Musses 54). The research indicates that employees preferred monetary rewards and better working conditions to improve on their performance (54).
Employee welfare became a critical issue from the research. In this respect, the research recommendations were that the Dnata Company should use reward strategies. The result expectations of this research were that the company will avert future industrial actions through reward strategies. Moreover, the company managers will use a good employer-employee relationship to ensure that the overall organizations performance is not affected.
Both studies are fundamental in ensuring that Dnata Company is able to evaluate its performance from all dimensions. In this case, better managerial concepts to avert a financial crisis from oil prices are recommended. On the other hand, better management of employee expectations is critical in improving employee performance and averting industrial actions. Basically, all these factors are significant in evaluating the overall organizations performance.
Works Cited
Maxwell, A. Joseph. Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. California: SAGE, 2005. Print.
Musse, Abdifatah. The influence of rewards and satisfactions on employees performance in organization: Rewards and employees performance. Berlin: Grin Verlag, 2012. Print.
Basically, ABC is a remedial strategy for resolving cost mix changes through the implementations steps contained in it. The ABC program can identify the main elements of costs in an organization. Reflectively, this aspect is critical in the proactive costs assessments through classification of the costs to distribute them in line with the accurate focus.
Nevertheless, the cost brackets identified and classified should be placed on the premise of categories or elements rather than by the shallow organization or product function. For instance, maintenance, fixed, and definite but slightly flexible costs are but examples of the ideal ways of cost classification in the ABC program.
On the other hand, the ABC program offers an opportunity for the easy identification of the vital cost elements that demand attention and control planning in the product cost identity mix. From this, the cost pool strategy will give room for summation of the activity rate for each identified activity through application of planned driver.
Thus, a company may use this program simulation to carry out comparative costing to accurately track and monitor the flows in costs since the ABC simulation offers the application that can facilitate activity-based costing for the purpose of timely planning and business insight within the rationale of optimal performance. Thus, the ABC simulation offers a proactive tool for tracking uncertainty, variability and interdependence of costs and activities against available resources.
Why the balanced scorecard (BSC) is a necessity in Midal Company
Reflectively, a BSC system offers the opportunity for an organization to fill the vacuum that often exists between company actions and strategies adopted. At the same time, the system engages a multi faceted user board in planning for the immediate, midterm and long term strategies.
Also, the system has application for tracking feedback against progress of each strategy and records any changes in the dynamic business environment. Thus, the BSC system can be described as a necessary tool for system evaluation of the strategies in place against future focus in order to successfully translate the strategies into deliverable variables that can be quantified. In relation to Midal Company, the proposed BSC system will fasten efficiency and optimal productivity.
Applying the BSC system at Midal
When successfully implemented, the BSC system is likely to transform the Midals corporate plans into quantifiable action plans that can be tracked from one period to another. Thus, the current traditional approach to strategic planning in the company will be transformed into easily identifiable specific, actionable, measurable, time bound and realistic through the BSC system.
For instance, the BSC system facilitated complete transformation of the Geon Forex Capital into a very efficient company with tracking devises for measuring performance.
How BSC can be integrated in Midal Company
From the above reflection, the BSC system will facilitate scientific management of the company through effective planning and excellent execution of strategies into measurable results. The BSC system will facilitate rational decision making among the executive managers since they will be empowered to support their decisions with quantifiable and justifiable action plans in line with the main goal of quality performance and optimal service delivery.
Customer measurement is critical in planning for product design and delivery in a company. In the case of Midal Company, customer measurement will facilitate maintenance of customer preference since the company will be in a position to benchmark customer measurement results to provide up-to-date services.
Process management
Process management is central in a production process. It ensures that goods or services produced are of superior quality. Also, process management helps in identification of areas for improvement. This improves customers satisfaction. Process management consists of three processes these are, design, control and improvement.
Provision of quality goods and services is of essence in business. The process of developing quality products is a complex interrelationship of various attributes. It entails identification of customer requirements, identification technical requirements, relating the customer requirements to the technical requirements, evaluating competing products or services, evaluating technical requirements, developing targets, and determining the technical requirements to deploy in the remainder of the production/delivery process.
This process design is comprehensive since it takes in to account all necessary functions of process management. It improves the quality of goods and services produced.
Since inputs are critical in determining the quality of output, companies use special devises for quality assurance and control. These devices detect mistakes early and enable the company to correct. Other than checking inputs, the management also uses these devices during the entire production process.
Use of these devices in the entire production process helps in the detection of human or machine error, such as forgetfulness, misunderstanding, absentmindedness, delays, malfunctions, or errors in identification. This helps in correction of the errors early.
The final stage of process design is critical. It entails evaluation of the entire process with an aim of pointing out areas for improvement. Besides, during this stage the management can compare targets with outcome and note variances. Generally, performance management is critical in quality assurance, planning and implementation of different business management models.
This paper aims to discuss such topic as quality and performance management, and particularly its relevance to the concept of value chain. Furthermore, it is necessary to explain how the increasing customer focus and business process perspective influence these fields of management and how the tasks of quality and performance managers have changed over recent years.
We also need to show this theoretical knowledge can avail modern organizations in developing new business strategies. This topic has been selected for the discussion because it manifests itself practically in every element of the value chain that consists of inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing, and sales (Porter, 1998, p 86).
Moreover, the idea of value chain is applicable to various kinds of businesses, either manufacturers of goods or providers of services. Overall, the findings of this report can better explain the problems, faced by present-day companies, for example, the inability to understand the customers perceptions of the product and his/her requirements.
Finally, this paper will demonstrate that Porters model of value chain must not be taken as some step-by-step instructions; more likely, it is a generic description of the businesses process within and outside the company. In many cases, the mechanism of value creation has to be designed specifically for the needs of a certain company.
The importance of performance and quality management for value chain
In this section of the paper, we should first define the notion of value chain, as it is crucial for our understanding of various organizational processes. It was introduced by Michal Porter, who viewed it a series of activities through which the company adds extra value to their products and services (1998, p 36). Value chain shapes the pricing policies of the company. Thing is that the majority of modern businesses, estimate the price of the goods not only on the basis of production or labor costs.
As a rule, they try to take into account the perceived value of the product, in other words, the amount of money, which the customer is ready to pay for it. The critical issue is that in many cases there is a great difference between the actual cost of production (procurement of raw materials, employees wages, transportation and so forth) and the perceived value (Graph, 2001, p 204).
It should be pointed out that the idea of value chain value is applicable to both goods and services (Graph, 2001, p 204). In other words, those organizations that render financial, educational, or healthcare services to the customers should also consider the idea of value chain.
In this case, the value chain will comprise such elements as the design of service, knowledge management (identification of customer needs and expectations), the actual delivery of services, and competition (Gabriel, n.d. p 11). Thus, it will not resemble the model, which was introduced by Michael Porter, and in point of fact, it is not supposed to do it.
While estimating the price for the product, the management tries to take into account those properties of the product that are of the greatest importance for the customer, for instance, the serviceable life of the product, its design, its reliability, functionality and so forth. While discussion service sector, we may point out such value-adding elements as politeness of the employees, their willingness to pay attention to the customers needs, their expertise, their timing and so forth (Brotherton, 2003, p 19).
On the whole, these examples indicate that quality and performance management are indispensible components for the functioning of value chain. The next section of the paper will show how these elements interact with one another.
Another issue, which we need to clarify in this section, is the difference between quality management and performance management. To some extent, they can be regarded as the part and the whole.
For a very long time, the term performance has been used to refer to some numerical characteristics such as the sales rates, the volume of output, revenues, operational costs, etc. Such interpretation has been rejected several decades ago, because it became evident to both scholars and management that performance also encompasses qualitative information.
More importantly, performance management has become more customer-oriented. In particular, while assessing the companys performance, modern managers focus not only on revenues and costs, they also include such data as the number of acquired and lost customers, and the reasons why clients customers decide to use the companys goods and service (Singh, 2004, p 25).
Therefore, it is quite possible to argue that customer retention is one of those measurements, according to which the performance of an enterprise is assessed nowadays. In addition, performance evaluation includes such a parameter as the level of customer satisfaction (Singh, 2004, p 25).
Thus, the duty of performance managers is not only to increase the profitability of the enterprise, but also to make internal operations within the firm more convenient or appealing to the customer. Namely, they focus on such issues as speed or confidentiality as they are very important value-adding elements. This is why leading corporations regularly conduct customer polls in order to find out which properties of the products and services require improvement.
It should also be mentioned that both performance and quality measurement have been strongly affected by the business process perspective; this means that while evaluating the quantitative and qualitative aspects of performance, modern managers usually single out very specific tasks or activities such as procurement, transportation, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and so forth.
They view the functioning of the enterprise not as a whole, but as a set of related activities. The major advantage of this approach is that it enables the managers to identify those elements or processes, which should be optimized, redesigned or eliminated in order to reduce operational costs or to increase the level of customer satisfaction (Doumeingts & Brown, 1997).
In the majority of cases, performance management only supports value chain, because the customer is not directly affected by the companys internal policies since he/she is primarily concerned with the quality of the product. However, the role of performance management becomes conspicuous, when we are referring to the service industry.
Quality management and Performance Management
Products
Quality management consists of the series of activities, which include the monitoring, assessment, and improvement of the quality of products or services (Miltenburg, 2005). It can be traced practically at every element of the value chain chain. At first, we need to analyze inbound logistics, which can be interpreted as procurement of raw materials or components. This issue is of great importance to the representatives of food industry and pharmaceutical companies (Schnoll, 2008, p 64).
These companies pay special attention to the selection of suppliers; more importantly, they continuously ensure that their suppliers always meet the highest quality standards, set by the industry. In part, such attitude can be explained by the willingness to create a perceived value for the customers, yet, one should not forget that these enterprises may also face a legal action if they begin to procure raw materials from law quality suppliers.
This argument is particularly relevant when we are speaking about pharmaceutical companies (Schnoll, 2008). Similar situation can be observed in automotive industry, for instance, Ford Motor Company prefers to merge with its suppliers in order to better control quality (Shah, 2009, p 6).
These examples indicate that inbound logistics can become an element of value chain only the company establishes certain quality standards, which has to be met, and ensures their suppliers are actually willing to do it.
We can also refer to such elements of value chain as operations and outbound logistics, in other words, the manufacturing process and delivery to the customer. At this stage, quality management plays the most crucial role for every company, irrespective of its specialization.
When speaking about manufacturing process and quality management, we can refer to the representatives of various industries, which create the perceived value for their products precisely at this stage, for example IT industry (Hewlett Packard, Apple, Adobe, etc), automotive industry (Toyota, General Motors, Ford), textile and fashion industry like Kelvin Klein.
Among numerous quality management techniques, it is possible to single out the so-called quality circles (Dahlgaard, Kristensen & Kanji, 2005). The main advantage of this method is the wide range of its applicability.
The essence of this technique lies in the following: the company organizes groups of volunteers, whose task is to detect, analyze and avert the problems, connected with manufacturing process. These groups of volunteers usually consist of the companys employees, working for the company for a long time and know every peculiarity of the manufacturing process (Dahlgaard, Kristensen & Kanji, 2005, p 74).
Usually, every department or business unit has such quality circle, and by sharing information with one another, the representatives of these quality circles are able to improve the business processes within the company and raise the quality of the product.
The most important thing, which must not be overlooked is that both value chain and quality management have been strongly affected by customer perspective. This means that the companies try to view their products from clients point of view in order to find out which properties are of the greatest value for the consumer; it may be the user-friendliness, functionality, design, and so forth.
One of the most widespread methods is the so-called Kansei engineering. Its major objective is to identify the customer expectations and translate them into certain technical features (Nagamachi & Lokman, 2010). On the basis of this analysis, they set quality standards and develop the strategies of quality management.
Furthermore, one should not overlook the importance of post-sales services as the final element of value chain. As a matter of fact, a great number of customers view it as the most important component. They evaluate the quality and scope of post-sales services prior to making any purchasing decision. Therefore, the management of modern companies pays attention to the qualitative characteristics of any service, namely, timing, competence, responsiveness, and politeness (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985 p 48).
These are the key characteristics to which both managers and scholars attach importance. One of the most difficult challenges, faced by the providers of goods and services is the identification of those qualitative elements that add real and perceived value to the product. In order to do it, the company has to carry out a great number of customer surveys. This approach enables them to better describe the clients expectation and their decision-making.
In this section, we have examined the qualitative aspects of value chain. Yet, one should not underestimate the importance of performance management. Performance management is based on the idea that value chain can be decomposed into a set of distinct processes, namely, sales, procurement, production, distribution, etc (Ijioui, Emmerich, Ceyp, 2007, p 119).
Thus, the managers can develop strategies that would enable them to reduce the number of operations needed for the creation of value chain. Furthermore, they are able to eliminate costs, associated the value chain creation. Currently, a great number of enterprises have adopted this approach; perhaps, the most eloquent example is chemistry industry (Ijioui, Emmerich, Ceyp, 2007, p 128).
The majority of these companies use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems in effort to monitor the key business processes, inventory, costs, customer orders, production processes. The key task of the manager is to increase the speed of operations, and to reduce the production costs, while retaining the quality of the product.
Service industry and value chain
Many scholars and managers have long debated the applicability of Porters value chain to the service industry. The thing is that this model was designed for the needs of those enterprises that manufactured some tangible goods: cars, clothing, medication, computers and so forth but not services like healthcare, finance, hospitality industry and so forth.
Thus, one of the most difficult questions was how it could be adopted by the representatives of service industry such as airline companies, banking institutions, hotels, restaurants, and so forth.
The problem was that such activities as inbound logistics or post-sale services, which are the basic elements of Porters value chain, do not correspond to the activities of these service businesses (Hollenson, 2007, p 27). In this paper, we can refer to the model, proposed by Professor Elisante Gabriel (n.d). According to him, the value chain of service industry has to comprise the following components:
The design of service: at this stage, the management identifies the needs of the customer, develops the strategies of addressing the needs and sets the pricing policies;
Knowledge management: it has to perform two functions, namely to increase the companys knowledge about the customers and two raise the clients awareness about the company;
Delivery management, which aims to make the service both affordable and accessible to the customer;
Moment of truth: the actual point, when the service is being delivered to the customer.
Service competition (Gabriel, n. d., p 20).
We have discussed this model because it can better explain for us the tasks of quality and performance management. This framework is by no means universal, but it can act as the stepping-stone for those managers, who work in the service industry.
First, one has to know which elements of the value chain have to be monitored and what the qualitative and quantitative aspects are, and, more importantly, how they should be measured. In the previous section of this report, we have pointed out those qualitative characteristics, which add value to the service: competence, credibility, reliability, responsiveness, security, privacy, accessibility, courtesy etc (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985 p 48).
Under the circumstances, the main responsibility of a quality manager is to make sure the services meet the standards, set by customers. It should be borne in mind that many providers of services spend much effort to examining customer perceptions of their services. Overall, customer survey is considered to be the reliable or valid tool for the evaluation of services.
In contrast, performance managers, specializing in service industry, tend to focus on slightly different parameters. They attempt to simplify the functioning of the company so that to make it more convenient for the client, for example, they may introduce information technologies in order to eliminate certain operations (Doumeingts & Brown, 1997). One of the most common examples is the development of websites through which clients can purchase airline tickets or reserve rooms in the hotel.
On the one hand, this change aims to reduce operational costs, while on the other, it strives to make the service more accessible to the customer and ultimately increase its real and perceived value. Thus, in the case of service industry, the role of performance management is greater importance to the customer, and it directly affects his/her perception of the company. This feature distinguishes service companies from the manufacturers of products.
One should take it into consideration that there is no universal value chain model that could be used by each representative of the service industry. More likely, this model has to be designed on an individual basis. The framework, proposed in this paper should be regarded only as the starting point for the managers.
Discussion
These findings indicate that the majority of modern organizations have become customer-driven and that many business processes within the firms are now oriented toward the creation of the products real and perceived value.
The model of value chain, proposed by Michael Porter should not be regarded as the ultimate guideline for top-managers, because in many cases, it can be of little use, especially if we are speaking about the service sector. Still, it gives a good idea of how the customers view the products and services and how the construct value.
The work of quality and performance managers is based on the analysis of these perceptions, because in this way they can establish the standards of quality and assess the performance of the employees. One of the examples, which we have discussed in the previous section, is Kansei engineering which relies on the premise customer perceptions and expectations can be translated into technical specifications.
Thus, we can argue that one of the greatest difficulties, encountered by modern enterprises is the inability to understand customers perceptions of the product or service. The thing is that in order to map out quality management policies, one should primarily define and list those qualitative characteristics of the product or service, which are of the highest value to the customer.
Furthermore, one should not forget that value chain is a set of distinct operations, which can be either accelerated or optimized, while others can be eliminated at all. This is the domain of performance managers, who have to analyze these operations, simplify them, and make them more cost-efficient and attractive to the client. Only in this case, the concept of value chain can avail the company.
References
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Parasuraman.A. Zeithaml V. and Berry. A (1985) Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research. Journal of Marketing. P 41- 50.
Porter M. 1998 Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance: with a new introduction. NY: Simon and Schuster.
For e-business to be successful, it is important to market the most significant tool it posses, the website (Amor 1999). It is impossible for a random consumer to buy the products online if there is limited attraction on the site. Getting customers or traffic in a site is the most significant challenge Internet marketers or web designers face in e-business.
The fundamental principle is if the products cannot be seen, then they cannot be bought (Jones 2011). To improve how potential online shoppers can find the site, it has to be highly ranked on search engines like Google (El-Aleem, El-wahed, Ismail, & Torkey 2005).
To secure high ranking in Google or any other search engines, it is important to provide as many links as possible to the site. A highly linked site produces more and specific results on a search engine (Barnes 2000). When designing a site, it is important to consider exchanging links with other webmasters depending on the nature of e-business.
On a site, links that depict active interest on another site are called back links. Getting as many back links as possible will persuade search engines that the website is important. It is also important to choose the key words carefully; it should reflect the content of the website (Jones 2011).
The most applicable way of getting back links is by writing articles based on relevant keywords. The next step will be signing up to blogs, article directories and other related sites and posting the articles. The biggest challenge is that the search engine has to see new links on a regular basis; the articles therefore will be continuously posted. However, the process can be automated, a key concept of online marketing (Brinck 2002).
Another method of improving how potential customers can find e-business site is through social networking. Social networks connect millions of people around the world where they interact and share information. A new research indicates that social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are defining the next competitive generation of online marketing. Studies indicate that a good number of social networkers trust their friends before making a major online shopping (Jones 2011).
Metrics for measuring the success of e-business site
Many businesses can easily measure the income and profits but find it hard to measure the success of e-business (Barnes & Hinton 2004). To measure the success of e-business sites, some metrics have been identified to give specific counts of particular elements (Jackson 2010). In traditional business metrics, financial reports give a steady stream of calculations that allow businesses to compare their performances from one period to another (Chaffey 2004).
E-business is primarily different from traditional business and is the reason why inexperienced online companies have augmented market valuation (Cohan 2000). E-business allows easy connection between buyers and sellers and this decreases the cost of doing businesses (Barnes & Hinton 2004).
Market trends indicators are recorded continuously as they continue to happen. For instance, an advertisement in form of a banner placed on a portal site develops click through statistics in seconds. Navigation enhancement in a website for e-business alters shopping activities on the site instantly (Afuah 2000).
In addition, a media awareness of a new brand that used to take weeks or months to impact the consumers can now take a few hours. E-business is essentially a platform of all kinds of businesses that can be conducted with decreased costs to give a significant return on investment (Jackson 2010).
E-business metrics are designed to give insights in the behaviors of e-business consumers. E-business metrics, sometimes called e-metrics include stickiness, focus, slipperiness, seducible moments and velocity. All these metrics shed some light to a different aspect of e-business. Stickiness is an e-business metric that is related to both duration and frequency. Stickiness holds the site visitors consistently to capture the effectiveness of the sites content. Basically, stick e-business sites are more effective than non-sticky sites (NetGenesis 2000).
Slipperiness highlights some sections of the site that have very low stickiness. For example, the e-business management requires consumers to spend minimal time in consumer support areas. It is in the best interest of the business for the customer to visit the site, get what they are looking for and then get out very quickly. Another section that requires slipperiness is the check-out portion since it means that an additional click might give potential consumers opportunities to change their minds (NetGenesis 2000).
Focus is an e-business metric that is related to page visit behavior within an e-business site. A focused visit in a site will touch less number of pages in a section. Focus is categorized into narrow and wide focus representing smaller values and large values respectively. Interpretation of focus is based on the section applied; for instance, a narrow focus is desirable in the customer service area. On the contrary, a wide focus is desirable for an online auction section in an e-business site (NetGenesis 2000).
Another metric in an e-business site is called velocity and it provides the information required for site improvement. Velocity gives a measure of the speed taken by a consumer to move from one cycle to the next. The final metric of e-business site is called seducible moment. This is a juncture where a prospect is remarkably susceptible to an offer. Consumers profiles from various market segments reveal different characteristics of fast and slow buyers (NetGenesis 2000).
Jackson (2010, p.1) identified five e-business metrics that can serve as warnings when e-business site is not performing well. According to Jackson, exercising control over these metrics can improve the bottom line of e-business as an enterprise. The first metric is average sale price; the business person can directly change the price of the products to affect the average sale price.
The second metric is the profit margin in that, the overheads can be reduced or sales increased to improve the profit margin. Jackson suggests that margin can be reduced if it is necessary to reduce the price and there are no other options. More visitors will buy on the site due to low prices and this means higher net profit.
The third metric is overhead in that by reducing the overheads, profit margin is improved. Low overheads can enable an e-business site to lower the average sale price while the profit margin is retained. The fourth metric that Jackson (2010) identified is the conversion rate. This can be controlled by use of good web analytics tools that determine the consumer behavior on the site. Problems can be identified and fixed to give the consumers enough reasons for buying the products (El-Aleem, El-wahed, Ismail, & Torkey 2005).
The fifth metric that Jackson identified is the visitors. The level of visitors obtained in a website depends on the marketing that has been conducted. Search can be optimized with critical key words in the site. A press release and an advertising banner can also improve consumer awareness. The bottom line is obtaining the relevant traffic that is interested in buying the products (Jackson 2010).
Technical issues that affect the performance of e-business sites
E-business sites are faced by a number of technical issues that directly affect the performance of the e-business. Sites visitors in many e-business sites have complained about slow websites, crashed websites, temporarily down site, and sites that cannot complete transaction (Reiss 2001). All these challenges give the traditional business scenario a competitive advantage over e-commerce and affect the performance of e-business (Smith 2001).
To improve the performance of e-business, the manager must be keen on a number of technical factors. These include in comparison to performance ratio (Parreiras 2010).Technological obsolescence is a product of evolution in technology making the old technologies to become less useful.
This is a technical issue that can make e-business sites to perform poorly (Barreca 2010). For instance, evolution in media for storage of digital data will affect the way consumers will access information in the site. Software developments render the old systems obsolete and therefore e-business sites are forced to abandon not only the old software but also the hardware due to compatibility issues (Parreiras 2010).
Increased innovation of new technologies is related to technological obsolescence. It is important to ensure that e-commerce website is not running on outdated technologies since information might become inaccessible (Parreiras 2010). Information overload is a technical issue that happens to sites which have been overloaded with a lot of information more than they can handle. This makes it hard for consumers to navigate through the site and reduces their chance of buying (Barreca 2010).
A lot of effort is applied to attract the customers to e-business site. Poor performance of the site does not only result in loss of brands but also result in loss of revenue. Studies have identified the causes of these problems as poor coding of the website, inability of web hosting service to handle the load, poor coding of the shopping cart, and lack of proper indexing of the database (Brinck 2002).
Poor coding is caused by inexperienced programmers who might produce poorly performing sites. Slow ability of sites to accept updates, read and write instructions is caused by lack of proper indexing (Kalakota 2000). Inability of web hosting services might be caused by shared hosting and high traffic. A busy site will also be affected if consumers add a lot of products on the cart; the database will be slow in responding (Lord 2002).
Software
A software system that can be use to improve how e-business websites can be found is NetSuite E-commerce Solution Software. This software can be used to optimize the websites through search engine optimization. Interprise suite is fully integrated ERP software that can be used to solve the technical issues in e-business sites. The software can also be used to monitor the performance of the site. Epicor Web 2.0 and abas eB provides solutions to e-business by providing a good webshop and a highly flexible Internet solution.
References
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Barnes, J 2000, Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: Its All About How You Make Them Feel, New York, McGraw-Hill Companies.
Barreca, S 2010,Technology Life-Cycles And Technological Obsolescence. Birmingham, Alabama, BCRI Inc.
Brinck, T 2002, Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work, London, Academic Press.
Chaffey, D 2004, E-Business and E-Commerce Management, Second Edition, London, Prentice Hall.
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Performance management is a step-by-step process that involves planning work and aiming at specific expectations; monitoring performance at a regular basis; availing the required capacity to preform; deservingly rating performance based on merit; and motivating performance by rewarding the highly rated performers.
As a generic phrase, performance management indicates effectively utilizing interconnected strategies and events to advance the performance of various individuals, organisations and teams.
A successful performance management would put together and support organisational, business and individual setting up and performance. It also helps in recognizing and compensating good performance, while at the same time aiding in dealing with deficit performance of staff (Bacal, 1999).
According to Rao, T and Rao, V (2004) supervisors and managers are required to manage employee performance by ensuring employees are focusing their energy in activities that are directly leads to the achievement of organisations mission and goals. However, employees ought o be well versed with what they need to do in order to do their jobs as expected.
As such, employee performance plans outlines the expectations for employee performance. Employee performance plans can either be written or recorded performance elements that determine expected performance expected.
Therefore, for successful performance management, greater emphasis is placed on performance in comparison with performance expectation. In addition to performance elements, performance plans also include critical/non-critical elements and performance standards (Desslers 2000).
Performance elements, while being used to outline the expected performance from employees, deals with the What that they have to do. On the other hand, performance standards handle the How of doing the expected activities. Bacal (1999) points out that the effectiveness of most performance management processes depend on performance elements and standards that are attainable, understandable, fair and measurable.
Statement of point of view
According to Atkinson (1997), organizations develop a performance management that is suited to the organizational culture, structure, competitive strategy and key performance requirements because of the longing to attain an effective performance system.
As a result, effectiveness is attained when organizations values and code of conduct are upheld and followed by the bosses. In the same way, employees are required to uphold organizational values and act in accordance with the code of conduct (Armstrong & Appelbaum, 2003).
Constitutes and Effectiveness of a performance management
According to Stone (2002), performance management is a tool that helps to measure the organization performance, employee performance, and even long-term assets performances. Emma and Bryman (2003) believe that it provide guidance in measuring the level of performances in any given organization or company.
Performance management involves three steps: (a) setting of employee performance expectation, (b) ensuring communication exist between supervisor and employer to make sure performance is as planned, and (c) comparing actual performance attained to performance expectation (Schneider, et al, 1995). Consequently, organizations that embrace performance management benefit from a number of benefits.
Firstly, the advantages include professional development aimed at establishing the weaknesses and strengths affecting performance, which also aids the implementation of strategies that prove beneficial to the organization. Secondly, decision making and validation of actions that directly impact on the administration, such as termination, recruitment and promotion.
Thirdly, identification of organizations needs for employee training and development; and lastly, outlining the systematic factors directly associated with performance management whether or not they hinder or facilitate effectiveness (Rothwell, 2001).
In their view, (Bratton & Gold, 2001) believe that the effectiveness of the process is often times affected by the presence or absence of good design and planning. Although a percentage of employees can perceive performance management as threatening and intimidating, proper design and planning transforms performance management into a rewarding and constructive process for both employees and managers.
Employee motivation, retention and productivity are positively affected when performance management is attached to rewards ain recognition within organizations (Grote, 2002).
Richard (1996) suggests that supervisors and managers are required to be in charge of performance of the employees under their jurisdiction. Every organisation set policies that help to identify and guide the activities and conduct of performance management.
Therefore, each organisation must develop policies that dictate how the three phases of employee performance management will be conducted (Ashton and Felstead, 1995). Organisation ought to acquire performance management patterns that are in line with the demands of labour laws and companys strategy.
This will ensure that the company achieves its mission and objectives without contravening labour laws and its own policy (Armstrong, 2000). The steps followed in developing employees performance management are discussed in detail below:
Setting employee performance expectations
Fundamentally, Murphy and Cleveland (1995) believe that managers and supervisors are mandated to identify and respond to the concerns raised by employees concerning their duties. This will eventually guide them in setting up employee performances expectations. There are three steps used to set employee expectations. The first one is to involve employees in the process.
The managers and supervisors fix meetings with their employees at the beginning of the work cycle. During the meeting, employees are shown clearly how their actual performance will be rated and achievements measured. Employees are told that if they achieve their individual goals, the organization will also achieve its overall goals.
The employee managers and supervisors move ahead and set goals for each employee. The second step in setting employee expectation is to write and document employee expectation as per the companys work plan. The third and final step requires the supervisor and employee to append their signatures and the dates as per the work plan (Atkinson, 1997).
Sustaining the current performance dialogue
In Desslers (2000) view, attainment of performance expectation is the responsibility of the employees. Therefore, they are encouraged to meet requirements as rated. In addition, employees should report and record their level of performance at all times in their work cycle. This will help both the employees and the supervisors to track down performances in their departments.
Supervisors should be proficient in their supervisory skills in order to handle their employees well. Therefore, they need to be professional and emotionally intelligent to be able to guide employees successfully in the performance appraisal. Supervisors are also required communicate with their employees during the work cycle.
Consequently, Roberts (2002) points out that supervisors should inform employees about the changes affecting them and their work as they happen. Finally, the supervisor and employee must sign and date any alteration made to the performance evaluation system (Taylor, 2003).
Carrying on yearly performance appraisals
When the work cycle ends, Emma and Bryman (2003) point out that supervisors are required to evaluate performance of employees under their jurisdictions for the past year. Employee evaluation is conducted by comparing actual performances with the planned performances set earlier in the performance management.
Supervisors should then use affirmable data collected and recorded all over the work cycle to gauge the level of performance of their employees. Evaluation is recorded in a standard form as stated by the organization (the number of standard appraisal form chosen by an organization is based on nature of work being).
The organization annual performance appraisal uses a 5-level Likert rating scale to give an account of overall performance. Rating at midpoint of the scale shows that employees performance met the set goals. While ratings that fall to the far left indicate that the employee performed below expectation.
The organization requires the supervisor to consult next level manager for review to make sure ratings are suitable and in order before discussing a completed performance appraisal with an employee. Thereafter, both supervisor and employee talks about the appraisals. Finally, the finished performance appraisal showing discussion that took place is signed and dated by relevant persons (Atkinson, 1997).
Effectiveness of a performance management
According to Thomson and Steve (1997), it is important to address poor performance, in case employees performance does not meet the set expectation at the period of performance cycle. Next, the supervisor records the performance inadequacy and the rightful action is taken and if necessary disciplinary action will be carried out to ensure performance expectation is met within the required period.
It will involve documenting performance that is below expectation by creating a corrective action plan. The documentation will state (a) Performance problem (b) period set for betterment of performance (c) the aftermath of failure to improve and date is set for follow up. When employees actual performance has become better and expectations are met, a corrective action plan is taken to be successfully accomplished (Bratton & Gold, 2001).
The organization performance management plan is important as it states the action of connectedness between disciplinary plan of action and performance management. Therefore, performance inadequacy that happens during the performance cycle will be cited in the yearly performance appraisal (Kaplan & David, 1996).
For instance, CitiStat as a leadership strategy used by mayors in mobilizing city agencies produces specific results. Of importance to note is the operational components of CitiStat that are entrenched in the meetings and questions that are geared towards its targets and data (Ab. Aziz, 2003).
Therefore, employee performance is important because it will point out areas of employee weakness and thus help in developing appropriate curriculum for employee refresher courses if it needed. The system will also assist the supervisors to manage the employees of the company under their jurisdiction with a lot of ease.
The system will require organization to train managers and supervisors on management of employees performance and that obligation for coordinating the fundamentals of the performance management be distinctly allotted. As a result, the managers will be able to administer the performance system. The performance system dictate to a greater extend the actual performance of company employees (Brown 1996).
Additionally, Losyk (2002) suggests that performance management shall define the roles of key personnel and committee who shall be responsible for ensuring that the system is working as planned. As a result, there shall be a performance management committee mandated to monitor the performance management in addition to complying with the companys policy and countrys labour laws.
In addition, the human resource director shall report to the companys management board after every six months on the activities of the performance management s. This will ensure that the performance management is supported from the top before it trickles down to the supervisors and employees in the organization.
Every department shall evaluate own management system every eighteen months to determine if it is efficient and effective. Incase of inefficiencies, remedial measures shall be taken to improve the performance management.
The departments shall also offer recommendation to the managing board as to how the system shall be improved. The findings from evaluation would be reported to the companys managing board annually (Bratton & Gold, 2001).
Conclusion
The performance management shall provide clear and concise way of setting employee performance expectation, sustain present performance discussion as well as carry out yearly performance appraisals. In addition, the performance management shall be able to calibrate employee performances in accordance to companys policies and expectations.
The system will provide clear guidelines to the employees about the quality and quantity of work they are expected to deliver to the company. In addition, the employees will have the capacity to evaluate their own performances and determine whether they are performing as per the required standards.
Consequently, the employees will be able to rectify inefficiencies and ineffectiveness present in them at any given time in their duties. The system also helps the employees to identify their area of weakness during discharge of their duties and provides suggestion for further training to correct the anomalies that exist in them. Therefore, employees shall have their opportunity to improve knowledge and skills in their area of engagement (Butcher, 2002).
The performance management has clear guidelines on when and how the employee shall be rewarded for their service to the company. This assures every employee fair distribution of monthly rewards and increments to their monthly earnings in line with their efforts and productiveness to the company.
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The general definition of auditing is the organized, independent and documented procedure for gathering audit evidence and appraising it objectively to resolve the level of the organizations compliance with the international safety regulations. The audit procedure, in an organization dealing with nuclear reactors, involves doing a number of actions.
Such an audit would be incomplete without investigating the security procedures, checking out the emergency exits and fire alarms, ensuring that there are regulations regarding the areas of the organization where it is safe to have the phone on and whether there are sufficient facilities such as washrooms, emergency handling department and a safe place for taking meals.
Such thorough scrutiny ensures that the people in that organization are safe from the danger posed by the hazards, which might include inhaling the dangerous substances, food poisoning as well as the danger of fire outbreaks. A good example of a case, which could have been prevented by carrying out an audit, includes the Texas City refinery fire outbreak.
The fire was fatal as it led to a considerable loss in property and peoples lives. Suppose an effectual audit and investigation had been performed, the problem that caused the accident could have been identified prior to the loss and necessary measures could have been taken to prevent it.
This is the main reason why the world association of nuclear operators insists on having in place an audit and monitoring system. There are specific procedures to be followed when doing an audit. Agius (2010, p 35) notes, These procedures identify unsafe acts and conditions before the occurrence of the accidents .
The importance of this system was brought about by the increased intolerance to risk in the society, the increase in the compensation tendency, public demand for transparency in the operations and the tendency for the media to cause retribution on the people who cause harm to human life and property.
Organizations handling dangerous chemicals are therefore expected to uphold serious audit and monitoring standards which are in accordance with the international auditing standards and which ensure that the people working in the organization are safe.
Performance indicators in the audit environment are used as reference points to check on the effectiveness of the safety management system in the organization. Generally, performance indicators are classified into three broad categories, which include the safety indicators, operational performance indicators and management performance indicators.
According to Bozidar (2009, p 12), These indicators represent the most important factors in the linkage between a possible cause of an accidental occurrence and its consequences . The safety management systems in the organizations that deal with chemicals include the structure of the organization, responsibilities, performances, processes and the resources required in the determination and implementation of the most crucial accident deterrence policies.
Such organizations are required to come up with written policies, which set the general goals and standards with regards to preventing and controlling the occurrence of key accidents hence ensuring that the people working in the environment are safe in an appropriate manner.
The main purpose of the performance indicators is to act as tools which are used as input values in the context of the safety management system (Blandford, 2006, 7). Safety is a complex idea since it mostly impossible to be a hundred percent assured of it, yet it is the most essential element in any organization.
It involves both the external and internal factors, which can be either intangible features or measurable parameters. Performance indicators just work towards determining the reference policy objectives illustrating the extent that the safety management system is varied from the desired level. Besides this function, the performance indicators also supply the organization with information on the possible problems that may affect safety in the environment.
This ensures that the management takes any possible precautions to safeguard against these safety threats. It offers support to the policy development procedure by providing the information on the major factors that pose any given risk. It also assists in the development of the action plans and finally it provides a monitoring system on the effects of the policy responses.
The performance indicators that are currently in place in the WANO industry include the chemistry performance indicator, the chemistry effectiveness indicator, unplanned automatic scrams indicator, unit capability indicator, fuel performance indicator, collective radiation exposure indicator, total industrial safety accident rate, safety system performance and the forced loss rate.
The chemistry performance indicator examines the efficiency of the general control in the chemistry department based on the level of impurity concentration and corrosive products (Agius, 2010). The chemistry effectiveness indicator is a more inclusive indicator, which measures the general chemistry performance in relation to the long-term effects of material degradation.
Unplanned automatic scrams indicator measures the level of the unanticipated run off. Industries with a low rate of unplanned scram are considered to be operating in efficiency. The unit capability indicator on the other hand determines the period of time over which the industry is in operation and producing electricity.
A high rate is an indication of success in the reduction of the unplanned incidents. The other indicator, which is the fuel performance indicator, indicates the total percentage of the units that are in operations without failure, which safeguard the containers handling fuel substances. The long-term goal in any industry is to operate with a no possibility of developing fuel failures.
The collective radiation exposure is the measure of the effectiveness of the operations that lower the exposure to radiation emitted by the reactors. If the rate of exposure in low then the attention of the management towards radiation protection is considerably high.
This means that measures have been taken to reduce the dangers posed by the radiation emitting operations such as the boiling water reactors and the pressurized water reactors.
The total industrial safety-accident rate indicator provides a record of the rate of accidental occurrences. It also indicates the consequences of these accidents, which may include the number of fatalities brought about, by these accidents in a specified period of time, the loss experienced in work time and the restricted working conditions, which are because of the accidents.
The safety system performance indicator measures and monitors the accessibility of the safety systems in times of emergency (Bozidar, 2009). Finally is the forced loss rate indicator that determines the outage time and failure in the power supply resulting from human errors, the unanticipated failure in equipment and other unavoidable conditions, which come in the way of the power generation and distribution.
The performance indicators that are in operation in WANO industries are effective in ensuring that there is sufficient safety in the organization. This however does not imply that they are the most effective policies. In order, therefore, to strengthen these policies, further regulatory indicators should be included in the safety system.
On top of this list is the economic loss indicator. This measures the level of loss in profits that is brought about by the hazards in the organization. If the operations endanger the lives of the employees, then the level of productivity will reduce owing to the shortage of labor.
The result of this is that the few employees in the organization will be overworked hence exposing them to more risks especially in relation to their health. This affects the output and makes it difficult for the organization to attain its economic objectives. The economic loss indicator should therefore be included since it will safeguard against many economic failures that may be experienced in the long term.
The second performance indicator in hierarchy is the operation hours indicator. This determines the amount of time that the plant can be in operation and producing at its optimal level. This is an important indicator of performance since it provides the management with information regarding the optimal plant functioning hence enabling them to plan a sequence of machine operations.
This ensures that their production level is high at all times owing to the fact that the plants operate within the time at which they are at their best (Bozidar, 2009). This also ensures that fuel is not wasted on plants that have already reached their maximum operation time, beyond which the level of output will begin to decrease.
Plants with a high rate of operation hours indicator are the most effective since they will produce at their optimal capacity for a long period of time before beginning to reduce the level of output produced.
The third performance indicator is the quantity of spilled substances indicator. This measures the level of resources that spill to unproductive areas. The most likely example of this can be a leakage in the fuel containers leading to a considerable loss. A high rate of this indicator implies that there is a high level of spillage and this may lead to a loss in profits besides the danger it possesses to the people working in the vicinity.
Fuel leakage is one of the major causes of fire outbreaks in the organizations dealing with chemicals. WANO specifically faces this risk since it deals with nuclear reactors and any leakage in this can lead to a serious disaster, which involves explosions.
The result of this could be an explosion of the whole plant and loss of many lives since it might be impossible to evacuate the workers from the premises and to rescue any property. This indicator therefore determines the likelihood of such occurrences based on past experiences and the measures taken by the organization to prevent spillage.
Fourth on the list of performance indicators is the component malfunction indicator. This measures the possibility of failure in the performance of the components, based on the useful lives. It categorizes the components in the organization according to the time of acquisition and the anticipated life years.
The components that are expected to fail depending on the number of years of its operation should be used to carry out the simple operations while the recently acquired ones can handle the difficult tasks. The component malfunction indicator provides the measure for determining which components are still effective and which ones are almost through with their useful period.
As a result, the management will be in a position to make wise and relevant replacement decisions. If the rate of this indicator on any given component is high, that is an indication that the component will not be functioning at its best capacity and therefore calls for a replacement.
Next is the contamination indicator, which determines the level of pollution in the environment. This measures the rate at which the substances contaminate the environment hence posing a hazard to people as well as the ecosystem. Contamination leads to the deprivation of the natural resources such as pure air, productive land and clean, resourceful water bodies (Porter, 1999).
If the contamination indicator reveals a high rate of contamination, then the management of the plant is expected to come up with measures of reducing if not completely eliminating the contamination. The level of pollution is determined scientifically by measuring the chemical content in soil, air and water and comparing the resultant values with the previous ones. An increase in these values is an indication that the level of pollution is on the rise.
The other performance indicators include the delay in the maintenance of critical components indicator, non-authorized access indicator and the hospitalization indicator. The hospitalization indicator measures the number of casualties that are hospitalized in a week owing to accidental occurrences such as the danger of falling objects and food contamination, which may result into food poisoning.
If the rate of this indicator is high, it is an indication that there are insufficient safety measures and so action needs to be taken to improve on this. The non-authorized access indicator determines the security level in the organization with regards to the areas that have restricted access.
This indicator measures the rate at which such areas are accessed by unauthorized persons creating a possible threat to the organizations confidential information. If this rate is high, it is an implication that the security level is low and hence calling on the management to beef it up.
Finally is the delay in the maintenance of critical components indicator. This simply measures the time taken to bring a faulty component back to operation. This should be as low as possible to ensure that the level of output is not affected by component breakdowns (Blandford, 2006).
Audit plan
An audit plan is a process developed to ensure that the auditing and monitoring process is carried out effectively and as accurately as possible. The driving force behind carrying out auditing procedures include the duty of care to the environment, risk reduction agenda, provision of an input to training and development of the employees and ensuring an internal interchange of experience and suggestions.
When preparing an audit plan therefore, the management should have in mind the reason why they are taking the action, determine their current position in relation to the whole plan and consider what they want to achieve out of it. They should also come up with the framework and tools that will aide in the achievement of the stated vision and the implementation plan (Heron, 1999).
There should be a specified measure of the current progress and the improvements that should be put in place to ensure a better performance. Measurement and improvement are continuous processes, which need to be to be reviewed from time to time to ensure that the plan is up to date with the current trends.
Before developing an audit plan, it is important to consider the international guidelines for quality and environmental management systems auditing (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009). According to these standards, auditing is performed with the aim of ensuring ethical conduct or professional conduct is maintained.
Auditing is also done with the aim of fair presentation, which creates an obligation for a truthful and accurate reporting. Professional care, which is the application of diligence and fair judgment, is demanded by these standards and independence, which is the foundation of the impartiality of the audit procedure, is very crucial.
Finally, an evidence based approach, which is the coherent method of attaining reliable audit conclusions in a methodological audit process has to be employed (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009).
Audit planning involves three broad steps, which are preparation, auditing and reporting. More elaborately, Audit planning refers to the process consisting of several steps (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009). The first step in audit planning is defining the scope and purpose of the audit.
This is followed by defining the standards that will be used to govern the audit process and understanding the operations that are supposed to be audited. Then the auditor plans for the interviews and the sites that have to be visited and consults with the audit team towards finally preparing the audit schedule (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009).
A properly defined audit schedule is vital in the whole process since it determines the timings and the appointments besides acting as a reminder to the audit team (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009).
The members of the team should have considerable experience in the practice, expertise in the subject matter, knowledge of the locality, experience acquired independently and the suitable levels of seniority (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009). In the cases where the auditor is expected to carry out the procedure single handedly, he should be in possession of most of these qualities if not all of them.
The main responsibilities of the team leader in the audit scenario are to ensure that every other member adheres to the audit schedule and scope and that the relevant evidence is gathered sufficiently and recorded accurately (Porter, 1999).
He is also expected to coordinate communication within the team members alongside ensuring that the relationship between the auditors and the client remains within professional boundaries. Besides these roles, the team leader is expected to support the reports prepared by the members in case they are challenged during the final presentation.
Therefore, he needs to ensure that every member is acquainted to the process, the key personnel are identified, everybody is familiar with the standards, the scope, the audit schedule is accurately prepared, and any necessary relations have been created before the auditing process begins (Porter, 1999).
The auditor in UNROLL is expected to perform audit operation on the operating reactor which I under his control and the decommissioning reactor which is under the control of the UNDOES manager but is still within his overall responsibility. In the first case, he will conduct an internal audit while in the second one he will consider it as an external audit procedure.
The auditor should first come up with the objectives, which he aims at achieving by carrying out the auditing procedure. In this case, the auditing procedure is aimed at establishing the risks on the site and coming up with the measures for dealing with these risks; to either eliminate them or reduce the effects that they can cause should they occur.
The next step is to define the standards for both the internal and external audits an example of this being ISO 9001 for quality assurance audits and ISO 14001 for the environmental based audit and so on (Audit commission, 2006).
He should then prepare an audit schedule for both operations. An audit schedule is a documentation of the entire audit process from the first day of initiation to the final day where the report is presented. The first item on the schedule is the date for the initial meeting between the leader and the audit team members where they are expected to brief each other on their responsibilities throughout the whole process.
At this meeting, they are also expected to schedule the interviews with the auditee, which is the next item on the schedule (Bender and Globe Staff, 2009). In this case, the auditors will plan meetings with the employees of both the operations reactors site and the decomposing reactors site. In the later, they audit team leader will also be expected to interview the manager so as to determine the extent of the safety measures that have been put in place.
After scheduling the interviews, the next agenda on the audit schedule is to review the relevant documents provided by the department that deals with safety in the organization. This can be done concurrently with the interviews since the idea of having an audit team is so that the responsibilities can be segregated.
The next agenda is to review the progress so far. This will require the team to set time for a meeting so that they can bring together the information gathered from the interviews and site visits and the document review. The evidence gathered is what will provide the auditors with the foundation of drawing conclusions and preparing a report.
In fact, the next item on the audit schedule is the development of a report, which is done using the findings of each member with regards to safety issues in the two sites. This is then discussed with the auditees, who are the management of the sites. In compliance with auditing standards, the audit leader should not be part of the team that reviews the operations reactors site since he is the manager (Milton, 2001).
This should be done by independent auditors who can be a part of the whole team. The next thing on the plan is to present the discoveries that have been made and to issue the final report to the relevant authority for implementation.
After scheduling the audit procedures, the next thing is to plan the main audit. This involves making decisions on the type of interviews that should be carried out and the timing of these interviews, arrange daily meeting among the auditors to discuss the progress by the end of each day and deciding on the method to be used when recording the interviews.
The auditors at this point should ensure that they have the necessary understanding of the risk control systems with regards to the nuclear reactors (Audit commission, 2006). They should maintain the scope of the audit, which is to determine the safety levels in these nuclear reactors sites and to find out the solutions to any safety loophole that may be identified. The questions should also be planned to ensure that they are relevant to the scope.
After the audit process has been planned for, it is necessary to consider the significance of the evidence obtained. It should be noted that poor evidence that has no proof can lead to loss of certification to the audit team, loss of other prospective contracts, increased cost of insurance to the organization and job insecurity (Turner, 2006, p 44).
Evidence together with its supporting records should be obtained for each topic that has been identified. Evidence for the findings can be in the form of interview sheets, photos or documents which should be provided alongside the final report. It should be noted that unsupported audit evidence can be challenged in court and the auditing team can end up losing its credibility.
Some of the questions that the auditors should ask themselves when performing the audit procedures in the nuclear reactors sites should be, first whether the systems and procedures in the organizations are appropriate enough and adequate in meeting the necessary standards.
The second question is on whether these systems and procedures are being followed correctly, third, whether prior findings have been considered and fourth, whether the appropriate documentary records are available. The fifth question is on whether the sites are endowed with the required facilities to meet the safety standards and whether these facilities are in good condition.
Next, the auditors should find out whether there is complete awareness on the operation of the health and safety controls and whether the people working in these environments are adequately equipped with the relevant knowledge on the safety hazards around them. Finally, they need to identify how the organization responds to the emergencies that are relevant to the scope of the audit.
In the course of the audit, at times it becomes difficult to determine the actions to take especially when the workers are acting in ways that are not safe. This is where the difference between the internal and the external audit will be identified. When conducting an internal audit such as the one for the operations reactors site, the auditor can address this issue directly by intervening and advising the workers accordingly (Hughes, 2005).
The auditor in this case should observe the situation and get the attention of the workers without creating any commotion, which might lead to effects that are more adverse. Once the workers are out of the danger zone, the auditor should comment about the safety issue addressing the consequences that might have occurred because of the action. He should then suggest safer ways of handling the job to ensure that the mistake is not repeated.
In the case of the decomposing reactor site, it is not possible for the auditor to address the risk as above since he is not part of the organization. He should therefore report such incidents to the management and ensure that action is taken by explaining to them the urgency of the problem.
It is then upon the management to decide on how they will handle this issue, but the auditors should include it in their reports and try to establish whether it is just an independent problem or a part of a more serious safety issue (Milton, 2001). The auditor, in this case, however, also plays a role in the decomposing reactor site and is not a complete stranger.
He works in the organization, and what goes on in the decomposing reactor site is part of his responsibility. The best way, therefore, is for him to handle this issue by discussing the possible solutions with the management and giving way for some other independent individual to do the implementation.
References
Agius, R., 2010. Standards and Audit in Occupational health. Web.
Audit Commission. 2006. Audit of Performance Indicators and Best Value Performance Plan.
Bender, B., and Globe Staff, 2009. Audit: Nuclear Reactors Safer, But Still Vulnerable. Web.
Blandford, S., 2006. Risk Based Safety Performance Indicators for Nuclear Power plants. Web.
Bozidar, M., 2009. Performance Indicators for Monitoring Safety Management Systems In Chemical Industry. Web.
Heron, R., 1999. Audit and Responsible Care in the Chemical Industry. Web.
Hughes, G., 2005. Safety Audit in Chemical Industry. Web.
Milton, J., 2001. UK Indicators of Performance. Web.
Porter, W., 1999. Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. Web.
Turner, S., 2006. Audit Planning and Monitoring. Web.
Best Buy is considered to be the largest US technology and entertainment retailer. Companys vision statement is Making Life Fun & Easy (Walden, 2006, p. 34). The company has managed to achieve this goal and make everything possible to satisfy its clients.
The company has come through a number of conditions which have led it to where it is at the moment. The company was established in 1966 as a single music store and due to the successful practices, like leveraging competencies, implementing low prices, building a hybrid strategy of low end and top end product offerings (Why Best Buy has always had the best strategy, 2008, p. 22), introducing new digital products, blending of building new skills to keep pace with technological change and acquiring new stores in new territories, along with leveraging retailing skills (Why Best Buy has always had the best strategy, 2008, p. 22), and forcing current customer-centered strategy, it has become a leader at the American market among the entertainment retailers.
Customer-Centricity and the Management Ideas for Achieving Set Goals
Therefore, the company has put a goal, to become a customer-centered company by means of achieving the following human resource philosophies, (1) recognizing employees talents, (2) developing HR capabilities for employees personalization, (3) focusing on strategic differentiation, and (4) applying leadership in the business, and directing those at achieving a set aim (Walden, 2006, p. 35). To achieve the set goal, it is important to implement managerial practices and use adequate decisions.
Management Science Theory
The company should implement management science theory in order to make decisions maximum effective and profitable. The use of quantitative techniques in making decisions helps mangers implement necessary tools which perfectly fit the situation (Jones & George, 2011, p. 62). Leverage and building along with Hamel and Prahalad matrix helps the company achieve the goals it has. Living in the modern world, management should use all the possible sources of decision making.
Programmed and Non-Programmed Decisions
Best Buy should use both programmed decision making and non-programmed ones. The main idea of programmed decision making is to use the practices and strategies which were successful for other companies and can be implemented by Best Buy. Non-programmed decisions should also be covered as these decisions are unique and directed only at the specifics of the company functioning (Jones & George, 2011, p. 214).
Planning and Strategy
The contemporary world is changing fast, however, it is impossible to implement desired customer-centered approach without careful planning and constant revision of those strategies. The main idea of planning is identification and selection of appropriate goal, while strategy is a cluster of decisions about what goals to pursue, what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve goals (Jones & George, 2011, p. 247). Best Buy managers should create a plan and constantly revise it with the purpose to understand which goals have already been achieved and which new and more innovative strategies may be used for meeting company needs. SWOT analysis is one of the best techniques to revising company needs.
Conclusion
Management science theory in making decisions, programmed and non-programmed decision making and planning and strategies reconsideration may improve Best Buys performance at the market in case they are referred to in a proper way. To achieve a desired customer-centricity, Best Buy should use innovative developments in management.
Reference List
Jones, G. R., & George, J. M. (2011). Contemporary Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Walden, J. (2006). Best Buy: Customer-Centric Innovation. Human Resource Planning, 29(3), 34-36.
Why Best Buy has always had the best strategy: Two new roads in search of continuous renewal. (2008). Strategic Direction, 24(4), 21 23.
The performance evaluation system of Maple leaf shoes is so ineffective hence affecting the overall performance of the company. Performance evaluation system must be one which creates motivational opportunities to employees. What happens in Maple leaf shoes is discouraging to workers.
More than 75% of companys employee had negative feelings about the system. This means that many workers are not satisfied with the manner in which they get assessed. Supervisors fail to meet their obligations by not conducting the assessment process as expected. It is said that some supervisors fill in appraisal forms in three minutes. In fact, there is no way an employee can be assessed in three minutes. This shows negligence among supervisors in doing their work.
The companys management also has played a role in poor assessment. This is because actions are not taken to reflect employees performance. Since no promotions are effected based on the assessment reports, supervisors consider the assessment as a useless exercise. As a result, they fill in the assessment forms just to amuse their bosses but not for the best of the company.
I would recommend that supervisors receive thorough training in order to understand the essence of carrying out employee assessment. Then management should take actions depending on the reports drafted from the appraisal forms. For example, performers should be rewarded by either promotion or monetary gifts.
Those not performing well should also be involved in discussing their performance, and this can help identify their areas of weakness. Once the weak points are identified management can provide possible solutions hence increasing employees performance. The system of assessing employee performance should be restructured to ensure that employees accept the outcomes. When these changes are implemented, employees can enjoy healthy working relationships hence giving their best to the company.
For the case of Canadian Pacific and International Bank, a 360 degrees performance evaluation system has been faced with opposition from some section of managers. If I were in Mary Keddys position, I would work with the managers supporting the system to pull the rest into supporting it.
The first step is to engage middle managers in a discussion regarding the new performance system. Make them understand the benefits of successful 360 degrees performance evaluation systems. The managers should be allowed to air their fears about the new system and then all issues discussed. She should make sure that all fears raised are satisfactorily addresses and then together with the managers they should lay down strategies for implementation.
The next step should be training employees on how to evaluate their seniors and their fellow colleagues in the right direction. This ensures that backstabbing is not given a chance in the process of evaluation hence concentrating on areas suited for the best of the company. Since this system involves everybody in the company evaluating their colleagues, managers and their juniors, the evaluation forms should be guided by the human resource representatives.
For example, questionnaires meant for evaluating managers should contain areas which concerns performance. This helps control circumstances where workers may be bitter with their supervisors and would like to express all their feelings on the evaluation form. After everyone is convinced about the introduction of the new evaluation plan, Mary can proceed and introduce the evaluation system in the company. She should give details of when assessment will be done and make sure everybody takes part in the process.