INTRODUCTION

Today more organisations are relying on employees for success and competitiveness, and
consequently to find strategies for identifying, encouraging, evaluating, improving and
rewarding employee’s performance at work. In this respect, performance management and
appraisal systems have come to play an indispensable role in helping organisations to reach
their goals of productivity (Stivers & Joyce, 2000).
Human Resource Management (HRM) practices can be seen as signals of an organisation’s
intentions toward its employees, and are interpreted as such by an individual employee
(Rousseau & Greller, 1994). Perceptions and attitudes may mediate and moderate the
relationship between HRM practices and employee’s performance-related behaviour.
Variation may exist in employee’s perceptions of HRM practices even when, in objective terms,
what is offered to different employees is very similar. Individual differences in perceptions and
reactions to what organisations has to offer, for instance, follow from an employee’s previous
experience as well as their beliefs.
It was important that research be conducted or existing research be expanded, on understanding
employee’s experiences and perception of performance management and appraisal systems, in
order to develop a comprehensive performance management system. If employees are not
happy about the system, they are likely to be unwilling to take an active part in the process
because they do not see any value in it. This in turn creates low morale and inevitably affects
productivity. This study attempts to improve employee’s productivity by investigating their
cognitive perceptions of the organisation’s performance management system.

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 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The process of measuring management of organisational and employee performance in order to

improve organisational effectiveness is currently seen as critical to the development and
survival of organisations (Heinrich, 2002). It may be positively dangerous simply to copy
schemes used in other organisations and worse still to introduce a scheme simply because it is
the managerial fashion (Porter & Rees, 2002). Employee perception and attitude affect
employee performance, which in turn affects organisational performance and productivity.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has developed 4 performance
management systems over the past 8 years. Recently a new performance tool was developed,
and was presented to the top management. It appears that staff and union council are still
doubtful and suspicious of the implementation of the new tool. This study seeks to find and
understand descriptions of employee’s experiences and perceptions of the previous performance
management system and its value to SABC employees within the SABC Port Elizabeth region.
The objective is to identify performance standards as perceived by employee, and to develop an
improved, relevant performance management system.

The research problem is defined as follows:

“How can failure in the implementation of the previous performance management system
at the SABC be rectified by the introduction of a new system of management?”

The sub-problems that arose are:

What performance management system model is suitable for SABC employees?


How can buy-in from all the employee and union council be obtained when a new
performance management system is introduced?

Previous studies have mostly focused their attention on appraisal ratings, scales and error
training as a means of increasing the accuracy of performance evaluation. A closer look at the
literature reveals the influence of behavioural factors on the use of the performance
management process has been under-exposed in scientific and professional literature (Vagneur
& Peiperl, 2000). This indicates that there’s a gap. Therefore, the focus of this study is centred
on employee’s cognitions of the previous performance management system used by the SABC,
to find how employee see, make sense of and interpret their everyday experiences with such a
system, with the objective of developing a suitable improved performance management system.

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 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

It seems to be that the SABC staff and union councils were still doubtful and suspicious of the
implementation of the past performance management system and the one being proposed by the
Human Capital Services [HR department] in SABC. Thus, the objective of this study was to
investigate the challenges around the previous performance management system at the SABC.
The challenges given below were identified during various discussions with management and
staff and were investigated in order to contribute to an improved performance management
system:
 Employees and union council were not consulted when a new performance management
system was being developed.
 There were lack of buy-in from the employees and union council when a new
performance management system was being introduced.
 There were 2 different performance management system used at the SABC, one for
middle to senior managers and the other for the rest of the employees.
 Middle and junior managers or supervisors didn’t understand either the previous or the
proposed new system.
 Staff perceptions were that performance management system are intended to punish the
employees.

The additional sub-challenges are:

 Management wanted to link the proposed performance management system to their
existing annual bonus pay-out,
 The performance review process wasn’t clearly explained,
 The reward system wasn’t clearly explained.

Hence, the study aimed at providing a better understanding of employee’s cognitive thought-
process, which could contribute to the tailoring of a suitable performance management system
that would have buy-in from all stakeholders.

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 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The primary aim of the study was to improve the effectiveness of performance management
system. This was done by exploring employee’s experiences and perceptions of the current
performance management, appraisal system that was in place and assessing its value to the
workers in the SABC Port Elizabeth region. The performance standards as perceived by staff
members were identified.
Adding on to the above-mentioned primary objective, the following objectives were pursued:
 To present a group perspective of employee’s experiences and perceptions by means of
focus group data gathering methods;
 To compare the findings with related literature that already exists; and
 To present description of participant’s experiences and perceptions of the past
performance management system.

The ultimate aim of this study was to help the organisation in selecting the most appropriate and
effective performance management method and system (Marr & Schuima, 2015). Although the
study was exploratory, it is helpful in identifying causes of resistance for the implementation of
the performance management systems in the SABC Port Elizabeth region.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To achieve this research objective, a qualitative research method was employed, and thus the
following research questions:

Q1: What experience did each of the employees have with the previous performance
management system?
Q2: What were the employee’s understandings of a performance management system?
Q3: Were all the employees effectively prepared for the new performance management
system/s?
Q4: What were the challenges during the implementation of past and proposed performance
management systems?

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 SCOPE OF STUDY

The analysed data compiled from the focused group discussions was discussed with reference
to 3 major categories and related sub-categories. The categories were understanding of the
performance management system; experience and observation of previous performance
management system; and attitude reflected during the study and towards the subject of
performance management.
These were categorised into the sub-categories development, effectiveness, transparency
and implementation of the previous SABC performance management system, as well as the
managers and supervisors and employee’s attitudes towards the system.
All the managers and employees showed a clear understanding of performance management
system and proposed some improvements and addition of other key performance
management issues namely rewarding excellent performance and improving relationship
management during review. The conclusion was that a revised performance management
system should have a stronger emphasis on effective management, monitoring, reporting and
reward for high performances and correcting low performances.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The study focused on exploring and finding the ideal performance management system
suitable for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) by establishing an
understanding of employee’s experience and perception of the previous and a proposed
performance management systems and their value to the SABC employees. This was done by
eliciting how an employee see, make sense of and interpret his/her everyday experiences of
performance management systems, in order to develop a more suitable performance
management system.
A qualitative study was used to seek answer to the research questions.
Credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability everything were used as the
main components in the model, in-order to determine the truth-value of this study.
Findings indicated that there was a fair understanding of the past performance management
system but there had been poor implementation of the systems. The previous performance
management system in the organisations were not adding any value to any of the employee’s
life. They pointed out that there was no reward in place for the high performers and no action
taken for the non-performers and this impacted negatively on how implementation was
perceived and experienced.
The recommendations are that the revised performance management systems should have a
stronger emphasis on effective management, monitoring, feedbacks and rewards.
Furthermore, the system should close the current gaps of reward for high performances and
correction of low performances. It was further concluded that for the performance
management system to be effective it should incorporate updated job description,
performance measures and standards, as well as the evaluator trainings and guidelines for
improvement, employee inputs, compensation and rewards.

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 TIMELINE AND BUDGET
DURATION OF THE PROJECT / STUDY:

STUDY THAT IS CONDUCTED DURATION OF THE STUDY

How can failure in the implementation of the Study conducted requiring four-month
previous performance management system at duration.
the SABC be rectified by the introduction of
a new system of management?

BUDGET REQUIRED TO CONDUCT THE RESEARCH:

STUDY THAT IS CONDUCTED BUDGET FOR THE STUDY

Tools used to analyse the impact of different 52,000 /-

platforms.

CONCLUSIONS ON THE RESEARCH

The biggest problem that led to this failure in the implementation of the past performance
management at the SABC was lack of buy-in by employees. The employees perceived the past
performance management as a procedural activity with no value adding, no transparency,
unclear performance processes and no link to any rewards.
Organisational effectiveness is measured in many different ways; 2 broad outcomes are
financial success and employee’s growth and satisfaction (Lelissa & Boru, 2016). Employees
spend much of their lives at work in their organisation; their satisfaction, happiness is important
not only for the employee themselves but also for the organisation where they work. Poor
working conditions or unfair employee practices lead to high turnover, job alienation, sabotage,
and absenteeism, all of which contribute to poor morale, which in turn leads to lower
productivity, quality problems and reduced sales. Consequently, the main challenge for good
managers is to maintain a well-motivated workforce.
From the research, can be concluded that an effective performance management system is one
of the solution in motivating the workforce. From a focus group there is sufficient factual
evidence to support the conclusion that the proposed performance management system would
yield the desired results.
Based on the findings of this study, further research is advisable to provide an organisation wise
exploratory study, to develop a more comprehensive performance management system. It
should in-corporate updated job descriptions, performance measures and standards,
development training, and guidelines for improvement and reward achievements.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works Cited
Heinrich, C. (2002). Outcomes-Based Performance Management in the Public Sector: Implications
for Government Accountability and Effectiveness. Public Administration Review, 62(6), 712-
725.

Lelissa, M. B., & Boru, T. (2016). The Link between Performance Management System and
Employee Effectiveness: The Case of Ethiopian Banks. Journal of Poverty, Investment and
Development, 23.

Marr, B., & Schuima, G. (2015). Business performance measurement – Past, present and future.
Management Decision, 41(8), 680-687.

Porter, C., & Rees, W. D. (2002). Management by panacea-the training implication. Industrial and
Commercial Training, 34(6), 229-232.

Reconsidering performance evaluative style. (2000). Accounting Organizations and Society, 25(4-5),
511-525.

Rousseau, D. M., & Greller, M. M. (1994). Human resource practices: Administrative contract
makers. Human Resource Management, 33(3), 385-401.

Stivers, B. P., & Joyce, T. (2000). Building a Balanced Performance Management System. SAM
Advanced Management Journal, 8.

Vagneur, K., & Peiperl, M. (2000). Reconsidering Performance Evaluative Style. Accounting
Organizations and Society, 25(4-5), 511-525.