Optimizing Performance: Teams, Learning Organisations, and Ethical Appraisals

Team Performance

A team is a group of people working together to achieve a common objective. Mostly all teams have a leader or a manager to oversee the day-to-day operations and performance of that team. The manager is responsible for the team’s performance.

Each team functions as a separate unit – a part of a whole but functions independently as an organisation in itself. But like any organisation that depends on the internal and external environment, each team is also dependent on other teams and external environment.

Like an individual employee, a team has some common goals to achieve. The team performs certain recurring activities to achieve those goals.

A team has some common goals that need to be achieved. The goals are divided in individual goals based on different roles. Team as a unit performs some recurring activities, which are its day-to-day responsibilities.

The performance management system that is followed for individual employees is the same for team performance management too. Goals are set, outcomes are monitored, goal and action modifications are done (if required) to achieve common goals.

However, overall goal of team performance management should be to ensure that all the team members are working together to their optimum capacity to achieve desired results.

Steps in Team Performance Management

Just like any performance management, team performance management also follows three steps:

• Team performance planning: Like performance management system in the organisation, team performance is planned by cascading organisational goals into team goals, defining and agreeing to SMART goals, performance indicators and performance measures.
  
  It is team’s manager’s responsibility to ensure that a performance plan is documented and communicated to all the team members.
  
  
• Team performance appraisal: As part of this step, the manager needs to review, monitor, evaluate and manage the performance of his/her team. Since team performance is reviewed, the manager must review the performance by holding periodic meetings.
  
  Compensation and Rewards decisions for individual team members as well as for the whole team will be based on the annual performance appraisal of each team.
  
  
• Team performance improvement: After the performance appraisal is conducted manager needs to address the performance gaps, if any. The development plan for individual team members as well as for the team as a whole (if required) needs to be designed and documented by the manager.
  
  
  Action plan must be written mentioning actions to be taken, by whom, by when, which resources are required and what guidance/support needs to be provided to the team. Training, coaching, mentoring, competency development, project work and then reviews and guidance are necessary to ensure performance improvement.

Each team goes through certain stages. New members join the team and old members leave the team. New members bring a different set of competencies and their personalities and behaviours also have a direct impact on relationships within team members and therefore has direct relation on team’s performance too.

An effective team is one that yields high performance, high team member satisfaction, and team viability consistently. A manager plays a key role in leading the team to perform better each time.

Therefore, performance management is crucial for any team. Without performance management, team members will not be able to understand what is being expected from them and work as a team, which in turn, hampers the accomplishment of organisational goals.

Vision boards, dash boards, charts, graphs, software/apps, etc. tools/ techniques may be used by the team manager to ensure team is working towards a common goal. Apart from the team meetings, it is important that the manager meets all the team members individually too. As the overall organisation has a culture, each team has its own culture too.

The team culture has a direct impact on team performance too and, therefore it is manager’s duty to imbibe the culture of mutual respect, trust and transparency amongst all the team members. A team that works together cohesively and collaboratively performs better. And a manager must lead his/her team towards high performance by motivating and coaching all the team members.

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Performance of Learning Organisations

Peter Senge and his colleagues coined the term ‘learning organisation’. Various scholars from the field of psychology and management have since then defined ‘learning organisation’ from their point of view.

Let us see some of the famous definitions:

Learning organisations are organisations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together – Peter Senge

The Learning Company is a vision of what might be possible. It is not brought about simply by training individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning at the whole organisation level. A Learning Company is an organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself – Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J. and Boydell, T.

Learning organisations are characterised by total employee involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively accountable change directed towards shared values or principles – Watkins, K. and Marsick, V.

Thus, a learning organisation is an organisation that has developed a learning culture. Senge believed that organisations are dynamic systems that adapt and improve continuously.

Senge’s model may be helpful to understand how performance in learning organisations travel from individual to organisation:

• Personal Mastery: Individual commitment to the process of learning.
  
  
• Team Learning: Individuals share what they have learned so the team becomes more knowledgeable
  
  
• Mental Models: Exchange unwanted values for new and applicable vales
  
  
• Shared Vision: Everyone owns the vision and has focus and energy for learning
  
  
• Systems Thinking: Interdependence among all people and processes, working together as a whole system

Learning organisation strives to perform better always. The organisation as a whole invest time and efforts to improve performance. This helps the organisation to remain up-to-date with market trends, tools and technologies. The people of the organisation strive to develop newer competencies that are required for the current as well as future of the business.

Being a learning organisation is not only about providing training but also about performing – taking action to bring a change. If the organisation as a whole focus on improving knowledge, learning new skills and implementing better processes, it will be safe to say that the organisation is a high performing organisation.

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Performance of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are teams that work remotely for a common goal. Until 2019, many professions, businesses and managers and believed that ‘working from home’ mean ‘taking leave’! However, post-pandemic in 2020, almost everybody has been working remotely. People have adapted to this new normal and so has the management in general.

In a virtual work environment, people don’t physically sit in one place, they work from outside their formal offices and may even work at different time zones. They are connected through technology – cell phones, computers, emails, virtual meeting options and even text messages.

For a manager of a virtual team, it could be difficult to monitor each action and behaviour. In fact, ‘observing the behaviour’ as a way to monitor and review and evaluate the performance may not even be an option for a manager of a virtual team. However, through team meetings, communication style and overall discipline and goal achievement, a manager may still ‘virtually observe’ and monitor his/her team members’ performance.

The manager must ensure that out of sight doesn’t become out of mind for anybody in a virtual team. Following actions will help a manager of a virtual team to ensure his/her team is performing as per the standards expected by the organisation: ‰‰

SMART goals are defined, expectations are set, KRAs (Key Result Areas) are defined, documented and communicated to all team members

• Periodic reviews through virtual as well as face-to-face meetings
  
  
• Individual as well as team performance reviews
  
  
• Using software and apps to track performance
  
  
• Use virtual communication channels effectively to keep in touch, monitor performance, coach and even train your team members whenever required
  
  
• Motivate and engage with team members frequently on a personal level too
  
  
• Make video calls as many times as possible
  
  
• Be online on time, set an example in discipline and manage time
  
  
• Arrange face-to-face meetings sometimes during the year. This helps develop productive working relationships
  
  
• Be cognisant of various cultures, use language that is understood by all
  
  
• Be approachable and available for team members Don’t forget to have fun – organise fun activities virtually, have break and close the day on time

There are multiple tools available in the market now for performance management. Based on the available budget and ease of using a tool, organisation may invest in some of the tools mentioned below:

• For end-to-end performance management (planning to reward): Workday
  
  
• For performance management, employee engagement, one-on-one meeting tracking, weekly meetings, and real-time feedback: 15five, Impraise (available on cell phone and computer)
  
  
• For tracking goal achievement, organise KRAs, real time feedback: Asana, Jira (available on cell phone and computer)
  
  
• For project management, performance tracking, review and evaluation: Gnatt chart
  
  
• For performance management, competency management, 360-degree review: ReviewSnap

Virtual teams save a lot of costs (travel, real estate, electricity, fringe benefits, etc.) but they are expected to perform as per the performance standards by the organisation for different roles. In fact, trust and transparency need to be even more functional in a virtual team to ensure high performance.

A manager must trust the team members and also give them space to Lack of face-to-face interactions removes entire non-verbal hints/ signs and people may also feel disengaged. Working remotely may add distractions and also slow down the decision-making and action.

Sometimes the team members of a virtual team may feel isolated and therefore demotivated. In such a case, performance management plays a critical role in keeping employees motivated. For example, periodic constructive feedbacks make employees aware of their job expectations and improve their performance.

At the same time, a manager should keep on conducting team activities, providing individual tasks to team members and appreciating for good work. In this way, employees feel valued in the organisation and work together with other team members.

However, the manager should be aware of the fact that too many follow-ups and controlling behaviour may demotivate the employees. Moreover, the manager must trust the team members and give them space to finish their goals while working remotely.

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Performance Management and Learning Organisations

As seen in an earlier chapter, performance management is the process of identifying, measuring, managing and developing the performance of individual employees in an organisation.

Mahapatro (2010) defined organisational performance as the ability of an organisation to fulfill its mission through sound management, strong governance and a persistent rededication to achieving results. Performance management thus helps identify the learning needs and the learning aptitude of individual employees in an organisation.

The organisation can then devise a strategy to fill the gap through various learning interventions. Few studies from recent past show that there is very little relation between a learning organisation and organisational performance. Organisational performance is better for a learning organisation but it may not be necessarily due to the learning culture of the organisation.

Performance management system of a learning organisation is same as that of any other organisation. Performance management nurtures high performance culture just like the learning organisation.

According to Senge, people are agents, able to act upon the structures and systems of which they are a part. All the disciplines are, in this way, ‘concerned with a shift of mind from seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their reality, from reacting to the present to creating the future.

Thus, just like performance management, the learning organisation also looks at the whole organisation as one unit, appreciates the fact that it is a dynamic system and complex processes are involved.

However, in a learning organisation, performance management is more passionate and is internally driven, people are motivated to perform better, the system provides a safe space for employees to learn from mistakes, get feedback and improve.

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Ethics in Performance Appraisal

Ethics, by definition means moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

Performance management system involves everyone in the organisation and is a complex system. One measurement doesn’t fit all and inspite of training and coaching, human tendency to generalise and be subjective cannot be fully removed while implementing the performance management system. Managers may end up becoming biased and judgmental towards certain employees.

Therefore, it is important for any organisation to set some ground rules and imbibe some ethical principles while designing and implementing the performance management system.

Ethical principles before performance appraisal:

• Ensure formal standardised performance appraisal system is implemented for all employees Uniformity of performance standards across the organisation
  
  
• Uniformity of rating scale across the organisation Goals are set based on individual roles
  
  
• Communicate the whole process in advance to all employees – standards, rating scale, timelines, SMART goals, etc.
  
  
• Train managers periodically through experiential learning about different types of personal
  biases and its impact on performance appraisal process and overall motivation of employees.
  
  
• Ensure healthy relations are built at workplace – no friends and relatives to be in direct reporting relationship
  
  
• Educate all decision makers about anti-discrimination laws

Ethical principles during performance appraisal:

• Appraisal to be conducted one-on-one in closed rooms
  
  
• Ensure documentation of performance appraisal
  
  
• Ensure objectively verifiable data is available
  
  
• Things outside the control of an individual to be considered while evaluating performance
  
  
• Uniformity of formats, rating scale, reasoning to be maintained by all rating managers in the organisation
  
  
• Use 360-degree appraisal to avoid biases (whenever and if possible)

Ethical principles after performance appraisal:

• Have a grievance redressal system in place – employees facing unfair appraisal should get an opportunity to share their experience and an opportunity to receive objective evaluation
  
  
• A thoroughly written record of evidence leading to termination should be maintained Similarly, a written record of high ratings should be maintained too

Ethical behaviour should be intrinsic to an organisation culture. Top management must display ethics through their behaviour. Only then will it become part of an organisation’s DNA.