Reference no: EM132379323

Question

The majority of professionals participate in regular performance appraisals, either by appraising employees or being appraised by supervisors (Cardon, 2016). As the plant manager, it is my responsibility to perform written and verbal quarterly performance reviews for each of my employees.

I have been asked by the corporate office to address some issues with one of employee in particular, Bob. Bob and I have an excellent working relationship but there have recently been some issues with his performance that will have to be addressed in his review. Bob is in charge of outgoing shipments and is tasked with ensuring the shipments are complete, all the items are free of defects, and the inventory has no discrepancies.

Recently, there have been some customer complaints about shipments where the majority of the orders have contained defects. Additionally, major discrepancies have been found in the inventory. The orders containing defects have been under Bob's supervision. This will necessarily mean that Bob's quarterly performance has been poor. Corporate would like me to troubleshoot some solutions to address the issues Bob has been having.

Since the company has been receiving customer complaints which could potentially impact our business negatively, Bob's quarterly performance review will focus on the defective items that have been included in recent shipments. Shipping defective items will hurt our business because it impacts our reputation and the trust our customers have in our company.

Customers will be unlikely to do business with us if we ship them incorrect, incomplete, or defective orders. Because defective items were shipped, the company also has to do extra work to ship new items free of defects. This will cost the company extra money. I will perform a face-to face interview with Bob and follow up with a written summary of the quarterly review, as per company policy. Face-to-face reviews can be very stressful for both employees and managers, especially when the review is negative (Cardon,2016).

In my review, I will be clear about Bob's need to improve and list in detail the areas where improvement is needed. I will offer clear and targeted feedback, focus on Bob's actions and his results, and work to establish realistic expectations (Cardon, 2016). This will help Bob to understand what is wrong with his performance and give him the tools to improve.

I will explain to Bob that there have been instances of defective items being shipped to customers, who in turn have lodged complaints about the shipments. In some cases, almost all of the shipped items have been defective. I will remind Bob that it is his duty to see that shipments are free from error, particularly in terms of defective items being included in the shipment. It's important not to sugarcoat Bob's poor performance, especially in light of our good working relationship. Bob has to understand the he must improve in future quarters. He should understand that the defective items have hurt the company's performance and that if his poor performance continues, then his employment opportunities will be impacted (Cardon, 2016).

Bob should be reminded that he is part of a team and everyone needs to work together to maintain excellent service and ensure all correct and non-defective items are shipped. I will make sure to ask Bob why he thinks the defective items have been shipped and how we can ensure this doesn't continue to happen in the future. It can sometimes be possible to identify the root causes of issues and find solutions that can eliminate the problem (Cardon, 2016). This can help Bob to improve his future performance and help the company by shipping correct and complete orders and deliver as promised.

Once Bob and I have decided on the changes, I will work to support him through the principles of change management. It is important to have an understanding of the alignment of culture, values, people and behaviors of a company in order to help achieve the preferred outcome (Jones, Aguirre, & Calderone, 2004).

Bob and I will decide on a strategy to prevent defective items to be shipped. We will work on involving every layer in the process, from me to Bob to the workers under Bob who physically prepare the shipment. I will present a formal case to Bob to describe what change is needed and form a plan for how to achieve it (Jones et al., 2004). While I will emphasize the issues with Bob's performance and impress on him the need to change, I will try to maintain a positive tone and belief that a solution can be found.

Required

Describe how the changes proposed in the above post could be implemented on a larger, department-wide scale to ensure all employees are informed and the issues can be avoided. Would the same change management principles work when applied to the organization, or would changes have to be made?