Essay Example - Performance Appraisal

There are different performance appraisal threats evident from the case study. First, being evaluated by a person who is not your direct supervisor presents a distance-based appraisal threat to employees as such supervisors lack a comprehensive understanding of employee's strengths and weaknesses. Natalie should avoid this threat by giving Fred the opportunity to assess all employees working under him. The second appraisal threat, recency, entails evaluating employees while basing on their recent performance instead of assessing their performance for the whole period (Drafke, 2006). A manager who knows and interacts with employees for only two weeks like Natalie will specifically focus on that short period of time instead of assessing their performance in a period of one year. To avoid this threat, it is important to ensure that Fred carries out the evaluation as he has a comprehensive understanding of the potential of his subordinates. The third threat, uniformity, entails giving everyone in a certain department or teams the same score. Therefore, Natalie should understand that different employees have different talents, abilities, and skills in doing a certain task hence, cannot be rated with the same score as seen in the case of Natalie. Lastly, Natalie's approach to the annual performance review presents controversy given that she openly declares the fact that the company's lack of money prevented her from giving excellent ratings to employees. She should instead liaise with the company management to recognize employees performing exemplarily with appropriate rewards as stated in the company policy.

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Ideas for Addressing Ineffective Communication with Fred

There are different ideas that can help in addressing the current communication problem with Fred. First, it will be critical to practice effective listening while trying to communicate with Fred on the days he is available in order to address the problem of ineffective communication (Drafke, 2006). Specifically, it will be crucial to seek for clarifications from Fred on how to handle key duties assigned by the organization to avoid confusion within the department. Effective listening will be critical in ensuring that all instructions given by Fred are strictly followed despite his absence in the department. Secondly, it is essential to ensure that the discussion with Fred is a typical form of face to face communication in order to gain immediate feedback and minimize any forms of misunderstandings. Hence, it will be essential to make an official request to Fred to set up a face-to-face meeting at his convenience in order to have a fruitful discussion on the way forward (Drafke, 2006). Lastly, I will practice the idea of effective timing by paying a close attention to Fred's body language before requesting for the desired face-too-face meeting rather using emails, memos, or letters that may end up creating more confusion and misunderstandings.

Differences between an Informal Protest and a Formal Protest

According to Drafke (2006), there are key differences between a formal and informal process. A formal protest entails undertaking an official procedure in which employees collect protest forms from the necessary sources, such as the head of the department, fills them, and hand them in person to the immediate supervisor. However, forwarding the filled form to the next supervisor, Natalia, is critical in case the immediate one is unavailable. Conversely, an informal protest is easier, faster, and more cost-effective to administer. This protest entails gathering all the necessary facts regarding a certain case and choosing the best way for submission such as online, phone call, and mailing (Drafke, 2006). In this case, using an informal protest would be the best approach due to the fact that it not only easy to administer but also cost-effective and time-saving. Therefore, I will protest the evaluation by drafting a letter detailing all the negative issues associated with the entire process before forwarding it to my immediate supervisor, Fred. Afterwards, I will call him to inform him to check the email and provide an immediate response on the way forward.

References

Drafke, M. (2006). The Human Side of Organizations, Ninth Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc.