Performance management job description

1. Performance management job description
Most top managers must restructure existing jobs. Few have the luxury of designing
totally new organizations. However, whether designing a new organization or
restructuring an old one, the basic concepts of job definition apply and have proved
effective. The key variable is that the top manager be seriously concerned with
organization development in the restructuring process. In restructuring, more attention
will necessarily be given to the development of new roles and working relationships of
incumbents than would be necessary if a totally new management team were being
assembled.
The top manager should be concerned first of all about the jobs of those who report to the
first and second levels, and he should require that a job analysis be conducted at each
level. Often, organizations are restructured, titles are revised, and appointments are made
without an analysis of job objectives and results, especially of the people reporting to the
second and third levels of management or supervision. Frequently companies that are
reorganized do not produce the expected improvement in results.
The reasons are varied, but often they can be traced to loosely written job definitions. It is
not enough to say: You have total responsibility for profit and loss. Jobs must be defined
in terms of specific objectives in key areas of market share, productivity, worker
attitudes, manager development, physical resources, innovation, personnel, and
community responsibility. Managers by nature continue doing what they think they do
best. Without a clear definition of the objectives that they are expected to reach, they will
tend to define their own jobs. If recently promoted to an undefined position, they may
feel that they were put in the position to make a splash. Without clear guidance, they will
make their splash; but the top manager will be working for months or years, coping with
the unfavorable effect on the rest of the organization. In an extensive reorganization the
first thing that the top manager should do is look at key job objectives and obstacles to
their achievement.
Do existing jobs address themselves to the objectives or obstacles? If not, then there is a
need for better job definitions. Do the definitions of high-level jobs contain references to
objectives or the obstacles? Or, are specific objectives defined only in lower level jobs?
Are jobs placed at the right levels in the organization? Techniques that a manager can use
to identify faults in job definitions include priority analysis, group goal reviews, and
hierarchy of responsibility analysis. These will point out overlaps in the jobs of
supervisors and subordinates, patterns of inadequate or incomplete performance, lack of
understanding between the boss and subordinate, or a lack of knowledge of the real
objectives of the organization.
The group goal review is a technique in which a manager asks each subordinate to
prepare a list of goals or areas of major responsibility. The goals and responsibilities are

2. then reviewed by all management groups. Any areas of overlap or gaps in responsibility
should become evident, and discussion can help bring about agreement on job definition.
Where there is disagreement and conflict, the manager may want to take the process one
step further, asking the conflicting groups to identify those functions which they believe
they should be carrying out and attempting to clarify and resolve issues. A hierarchy of
responsibility analysis is a process for determining the level at which responsibility for
results should be placed. This process is often carried out with the use of a third-party
facilitator, but it is as easily done by the parties themselves. Basically, it involves
identification by the top manager and second-level management team of:
(I) Those responsibilities carried out by the top manager that should be done by someone
else,
(2) Those responsibilities carried out by subordinates that should be undertaken by the
top manager or someone on the second-level team, and
(3) Those responsibilities that are being neglected because of a lack of resources or for
lack of support by other members of the management team. This process works
effectively both within the group context and on an individual basis
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