Effectiveness Of Performance Management & Appraisal In The Retail Sector Of Ireland

Research Title

The title of this research is ‘to evaluate the Effectiveness of Performance Management & Appraisal: in the Retail sector of Ireland’.  

Performance management and appraisal system are one of the crucial focuses in business today. Since, the role of human resources contributes to performance management and training and performance appraisal. Furthermore, performance appraisal can be applied at a particular time while performance management is ongoing, dynamic and continues performance. It is introduced to enhance both the quality and quantity of work done and to bring all activities in one sequence with the objective of the organization. As, the retail business faces high rivalry and deals with a maximum number of workforce hence performance management and appraisal system can be effective to attain the business goal and sustain for a long run in the retail market (Cravens, et al., 2015). The main objective of this study is to identify the Effectiveness of Performance Management & Appraisal on business process improvement.    

Background Of Research

The retail industry is very wide, dynamic and diverges sector the Ireland economy. Further, a large amount of employment is offered by the retail industry in the Ireland. For example, Argos employs 51,000 people with the equivalent data for Iceland; Dunnes Stores are 23,000 and 18,000 respectively in 2016. These retailers are engaged in recruiting and retaining the culturally and socially diverse workers by applying the performance management and appraisal system.    

The main aim of this research is to analyze the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system in the retail sector of Ireland. Following objectives is used to accomplish the main purpose of research:

• To understand the concept of effective performance management and appraisal system in retail industry of Ireland
• To evaluate the effect of performance management and appraisal system on key performance indicators of retail organization of Ireland
• To determine the challenges or difficulties which are encountered by retail organization when implementing effective Performance Management and appraisal systems in Ireland
• To recommend different ways to mitigate the difficulties encountered in implementation of effective performance management and appraisal system

There are different research questions that will be answered through this research:

1. What is the concept of effective performance management and appraisal system in the retail industry of Ireland?
2. What are the effects of performance management and appraisal system on key performance indicators of the retail organization of Ireland?
3. What are different challenges or difficulties which are encountered by the retail organization when implementing effective Performance Management and appraisal systems in Ireland?
4. What can be different ways to mitigate the difficulties encountered in the implementation of effective performance management and appraisal system?

Justification And Significance Of This Research

The rationale behind this research is to assess the effectiveness of performance management in the retail industry in Ireland. Through this research, the retail sector can demonstrate a significant segment of the Ireland economy because retailers will be able to exercise their human capital resources in the most potential effective and efficient manner. Consequently, it will provide the higher levels of customer satisfaction. Moreover, this research report is significant for Companies because it develop understanding about the performance management and appraisal system as Retail Company can develop employees into administrators, and mainly managers into directors.            

According to the Purcell (2014), performance management is the goal-oriented procedure which directed towards making sure that operational processes are in place to increase the efficiency of workforce, teams and the organization. Therefore, in the recent era, business uses performance management and appraisal system to improve the productivity. Furthermore, it is analyzed that role of human resources contained to training, performance management and appraisal which is beneficial to increase the output of the company.

Outline of research topic

In support to this, Stiles et al. (2015) exemplified that performance appraisal takes place at a particular time whereas performance management is self-motivated, ongoing, dynamics and continuous procedures. This is a recognized system of appraisal and estimation of individual and team task performance. A critical point in the performance management is that manager review the performance of the employees on the dynamic basis.     

In the view of DeNisi and Smith (2014), different theories can be used by the company to manage the performance named goal setting theory and expectancy theory. In this way, goal expectancy theory defines that goal of the individual has been developed by the employees to motivate themselves to a superior position. According to this theory, workers follow their goals to get success. In case, employees are unable to attain their goals then they can modify their goals as per the needs. It would be beneficial to make more realistic goals and also helps to meet the aims of performance management system.

In contrast to this, Bernardin and Wiatrowski (2013) stated that expectancy theory is based on the assumption that how a person makes an adjustment in their attitude in the organization. It is based on the projected satisfaction of valued goals. As per this theory, an individual can their attitude to accomplish the goal in a specified time. Moreover, this theory describes that performance of employees is influenced by the future expectation.  

According to the Gomez-Mejia et al. (2014), performance management and appraisal system have a positive impact on the key performance indicator. It is analyzed that employee can have both direct and indirect impact on the sales. The indirect impact arises from their interactions with the customers. Consequently, it has an impact on the customer loyalty in the retail sector of Ireland. If an organization creates a goal by focusing on customer services objectives and also focuses on performance assessment in the job description then it can encourage the employees to facilitate the maximum level of customer service.  

In support to this, Sanchez et al. (2017) stated that performance management has a favorable impact on the company’s key performance such as it improves the reputation of the company. Retail employees have clear goals and regular performance appraisals. Therefore, they do not have the complexity to understand how well they are performing and what is an expectation from them. As a result, the company attracts the potential employees which enable them to pool wider talent. 

Aims and Objectives of the Research

There are different challenges which are encountered by the retail organization when implementing effective Performance Management and appraisal systems in Ireland. As per the view of Rekha (2014), lack of alignment is the key challenge to implementing performance management and appraisal system because different organizational processes are being created in separation. Furthermore, a relationship developed by different age group’s manager between the budgeting, Strategy developments, and operational plans by using different frameworks. In this way, it is analyzed that there is a lack of alignment among departmental, individual performance and organizational freedom while a retail organization implementing the performance management and appraisal system. Consequently, all system is a failure to pay back to financial instruments. 

In the view of Cappelli and Tavis (2016), leadership and management challenge has an enormous impact on integrating and aligning the management system to provide the inclusive performance management system.  Furthermore, it is analyzed that retail organization faces difficulties to understand the leadership and employee’s engagement as a result, implementation of performance management and appraisal system is critical to performance success.  

In oppose to this, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) stated that a prospect difficulty of traditional performance appraisal method is that lack of objectivity. In the rating scale method, there are different factors which are difficult to measure such as attitude, appearance, and personality. These factors may have an impact on employee’s job performance.  Since, appraisal method considered the subjectivity hence employee appraisal may place the company on unsustainable position due to guidelines regarding employee and equal employment opportunity.  

As per the Sharma et al. (2016), retailers should remove the bias and latency from the information because it would be beneficial to improve the alignment. Further, the company should try to move the information cross functionality by declining the biases as possible. Together with, company should measure the performance by using the different method such as rating scale method, 360-Degree Feedback Evaluation Method, and Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale Method. Because, it helps to improve the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system hence company can get success.   

In contrast to this, Purce (2014) evaluated that Retail Company should use standardization performance appraisal method as compared to tradition method because it helps to overcome the challenges which are faced by the organization. Moreover, the company should use the same evaluation instruments for the entire workforce in the same job division who work for the same administrator. In this way, the administrator must obtain appraisal including the homogenous products for these workforces. In addition to this, HR manager should make regularly scheduled feedback session and appraisal system for the entire workforce because it helps to overcome the challenges that encountered to implement the performance management and appraisal system.  

Research Question

A conceptual framework is a technique to assess and arranges the information related to the concept. It provides the way to perform the research in a methodical manner and to gain the knowledge about the research issue (Aggarwal and Thakur). Following conceptual structure is created on the behalf of literature review regarding the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system on the organizational performance in the retail sector of Ireland.  

From the above discussion of literature review, it can be summarized that performance management and appraisal system is effective to improve the performance in the retail sector of Ireland. Moreover, it can be evaluated that performance management has a positive impact on the different key performance indicators such as sales, customer service, customer loyalty and company’s reputation. But, at the same time, it can be illustrated that there are different challenges encountered to implement the performance management and appraisal system named lack of alignment, management and leadership challenges, and lack of objectivity. It can be also summarized that there is various strategy is used to overcome the challenges named remove biases, proficiency to handle daily performance and uses of standardized performance appraisal method.

For this research, survey through questionnaire will be performed by the researcher to support with qualitative research. Further, this will be utilized by managers to gain insight into their opinion regarding performance management and appraisal system which have occurred in their retail organization. The survey through questionnaire will involve the researcher to take the subjective approach and the research will be performed in an interpretive manner. For this researcher, interpretivism philosophy is selected because it is underpinned by the belief that social reality is not based on the objective as it is highly subjective. This methodology will be chosen by researcher because it is outlined by the opinion of managers in Ireland retail industry (Mackey, and Gass, 2015). Under this philosophy, the researcher will inter-relate the belief of selected managers with the researched matter because it enables to define what occurs in the social world and to define what is in mind of the researcher.  In contrast to this, positivist research philosophy will not be used because it is used for objective nature of research topic.

The research approach is considered as the establishment of data and to collect the information on a particular subject. There are different research approach is used by a researcher named inductive and deductive approach. For this research study, the inductive approach will be used by researcher because this theory is used to generate the theory from the gathered information. Together with, this approach relevancy is associated with interpretivism philosophy. This approach will be also appropriate for a researcher to obtain the facts and findings and opinion of respondents in a significant manner (Taylor, et al., 2015). In contrast to this, the deductive approach will not be selected by researcher due to its objective nature and it is also utilized to generate the hypothesis for this research.

Literature Review

The research is generated for this study will be based on both qualitative and quantitative data, which is relied on meanings produced through words and numeric data. Further, the collected outcome will provide specific information and will be structured into categories. The investigation will be performed by using different concepts. For this research, survey strategy is used to understand the opinion of participating managers regarding the current perspective of the business and research issue. Although, this method is more time-consuming and expensive yet, it provides the valid and reliable outcomes (Flick, 2015). As a result, it can be stated that survey strategy will enable the researcher to develop an understanding of whether the performance management and appraisal system is effective by the opinion, attitudes, and response of the respondents as the survey through questionnaire will be heavily structured.    

For accomplishing the research objective, research will select both primary and secondary data collection method because it will offer the reliable and valid outcomes. In this way, primary data would be beneficial for the researcher because it will provide fresh, new and innovative information regarding research topic. Together with, secondary data will provide the second handed information but it is more accurate and less time taking.  Along with this, primary data is collected from survey through sources and secondary data will be collected from different sources included books, academic publications, journal articles, online and offline resources to get the facts and figures about the research issue (Silverman, 2016). 

For this research, the survey through questionnaire will be used to collect the beliefs and views of managers regarding the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system in the retailing industry of Ireland. Therefore, the research will send the former section mail to the managers of selected companies of the retail industry to get the permit to conduct the survey on the research issue.

There are two types of research named exploratory and explanatory that are relied on the nature of research. For this research study, the researcher will select exploratory research in nature because it enables them to evaluate the respond to the existing issues. This research study would be beneficial to assess the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system in the retail sector in Ireland. In oppose to this, explanatory research will not be used by the researcher for this research study because it is relied on previous facts as compared to existing facts (Panneerselvam, 2014). 

Concept of Effective Performance Management and Appraisal System in Retail Industry of Ireland

For this research study, survey through questionnaire will be selected by the researcher to accomplish the research objectives. For obtaining the survey through a questionnaire, the close-ended question will be selected by the researcher because it takes less time and also encourages the participants to give their response. The close-ended question would be related to research objectives as a researcher will get the information through the attitude, opinion, and perception of participants (Smith, 2015). This question is also based on objective nature in which research will get the answer in one word as compared to depth information.

There are different variable existed in the research included a dependent and independent variable that can be understood by using the small group of people which is recognized as a sample. This sample can be used to get new information by the researcher and which is appropriate to identify a large group of people as a population. The population for completion of this research will be the managers of different retail outlets named Argos, Iceland and Dunnes Stores. These retail outlets use performance management and appraisal system in the organization.  For choosing the sample, random sampling method will be used by the researcher where a small group of people will be selected at random. Consequently, each participant has an identical opportunity of being chosen from the large group of people.  As, this method of selection will provide the fair representation of response (Panneerselvam, 2014). Further, 50 participants or managers are selected from three retail outlets named Argos, Iceland and Dunnes Stores to conduct the survey. 

There are a number of ethical challenges may face by the researcher during the research. It has a negative impact on the validity and efficiency of the research. The researcher will keep the confidentiality of research participants to make sure the sufficient privacy regarding the research information. Along with this, the researcher will avoid to plagiarism because it would be significant to get reliable and authenticate result. The researcher will also facilitate the Bibliography at the finishing point of research along with facilitating the citation to eliminate the copyright problem (Flick, 2015). Furthermore, the researcher will consider the relevant rules and regulation of university to eliminate the problem resulting from violating of university regulation.  

Data analysis is the process to execute the rationale technique which will enable the researcher to assess and describes the information. This is a significant part of this research method due to assess the reliable and valid outcomes. There are two types to analyze the data named descriptive and inferential. For this research study, descriptive statistics will be used by the researcher to offer the description about the population either by the numerical calculation or graph and table. This technique will be used by the researcher like Ms excel and SPSS. Because, it facilitates different tables, graph and charts hence it would significant to recognize the data in a straightforward manner (Silverman, 2016). Moreover, descriptive data analysis would be vital to get the reliable and valid information about the research phenomenon. 

Effect of performance management and appraisal system on key performance indicators of retail organization of Ireland

This research proposal will aid to enlarge the understanding and to assess the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system to make an improvement within retail sector in Ireland. This research will also facilitate the in-depth understanding of the effects of implementing performance management and appraisal system on key performance indicators. This research will also exemplify the challenges of performance management and appraisal system and recommend the ways to overcome these challenges in the retail sector of Ireland. In addition to this, research aims and objectives will be attained by using the methodical data gathering process, findings, and analysis. This research proposal would be significant for the retailers and readers to gain the comprehensive knowledge regarding the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal system to improve their key performance in the retail sector of Ireland.  

A Gantt chart is a visual representation of schedule of the project. It also depicts the beginning and ending dates of the different components of the projects. It included tasks, milestones, dependency, and resources. This chart facilitates the retailers to make a schedule, manage and monitoring the particular tasks and resources in a project. It also defines the timetable that contained schedule and completed performance over the period (Schwalbe, 2015). It also aids the retail managers to communicate the project status and plans and also ensure that project remains on track.  The below diagram depicted the Gantt chart and Timetable for this research:                               

As per the above timescale, it can be stated that researcher would be enabled to meet the research in specific time duration. Because, through the timetable, the researcher would be aware to gain insight regarding the finishing point of the research activity. Consequently, it will aid to accomplish the goals and objectives in a predetermined time framework. Gantt chart is a beneficial tool for the researcher because it put down multiple tasks and timelines into a single document (Martinelli, and Milosevic, 2016). Further, throughout this chart, a retail organization can easily understand where teams are in a process and can determine the technique in which independent elements come together towards project completion. This Gantt chart would be beneficial for resource schedulers in retail companies because it represents the sequence events and reduces the uncertainties for overburdening team members (Kerzner, 2013). Along with this, some managers use a combination of charts to crash the projects into more controllable sets of tasks.  

Different challenges or difficulties which are encountered by retail organization when implementing effective Performance Management and appraisal systems in Ireland

From the above information, it can be evaluated that strategic management practices are effective in resolving Human resource issues. Further, it is analyzed that strategic management helps the organization to address and utilizes the core competencies of human resources. It is discussed that communication, formulated strategy, the institutional relationship among different strategic level are different challenges associated with strategic management practices of airline firms. It can be concluded that developing trust among employees, respecting employees and acknowledging their performance is different ways to improve the effectiveness of strategic initiatives in resolving core business issues in the airline sector.

References

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Armstrong, M., and Taylor, S. (2014) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. USA: Kogan Page Publishers.

Bernardin, H. J., and Wiatrowski, M. (2013) ‘Performance appraisal’, Psychology and Policing, 257, pp 1-3.

Cappelli, P. and Tavis, A. (2016) The Performance Management Revolution. [Online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution (Accessed: 19 April 2017).

Cravens, K. S., Oliver, E. G., Oishi, S., and Stewart, J. S. (2015) ‘Workplace culture mediates performance appraisal effectiveness and employee outcomes: A study in a retail setting’, Journal of Management Accounting Research, 27(2), pp. 1-34. 

DeNisi, A., and Smith, C. E. (2014) ‘Performance appraisal, performance management, and firm-level performance: a review, a proposed model, and new directions for future research’, Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp. 127-179.

Flick, U. (2015) Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. USA: Sage.

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Mackey, A., and Gass, S. M. (2015) Second language research: Methodology and design. UK: Routledge.

Martinelli, R. J., and Milosevic, D. Z. (2016) Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. USA:  John Wiley and Sons.

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Purce, J. (2014) The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67, pp. 1-7.

Purcell, J. (2014) ‘Disengaging from engagement’, Human Resource Management Journal, 24(3), pp. 241-254.

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Sanchez, J. M., Velez, M. L., Araujo, P., and Ramón-Jerónimo, M. Á. (2017) Linking decision-control and decision-management uses of performance measurement systems. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 47(1), pp. 1-5.

Schwalbe, K. (2015) Information technology project management. USA: Cengage Learning.

Sharma, N. P., Sharma, T., and Agarwal, M. N. (2016) ‘Measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness: Conceptualization and scale development’, Employee Relations, 38(2), pp. 224-247.

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Stiles, P., Trevor, J., Farndale, E., Morris, S. S., Paauwe, J., Stahl, G. K., and Wright, P. (2015) ‘Changing routine: reframing performance management within a multinational’, Journal of Management Studies, 52(1), pp. 63-88.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., and DeVault, M. (2015) Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. USA: John Wiley and Sons.

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