Employees' perceived performance management behaviour of managers at a North-West Provincial Government Department

Abstract

The study aimed to measure the employee's perceptions of managers' performance management behaviour, which is critically viewed as a contributory factor to the inefficacy of the appraisal system. Some studies have been conducted on employee's perceptions of the performance management system, but little attention has been given to employees perceived performance management behaviour of managers. Therefore, this sheds light on an angle of the study that has been long overlooked. Organisations such as the North West Parks and Tourism Board (NWPTB) could also benefit from the implementation of an effective and properly constituted performance management system because managers will gain the skills, understanding, and knowledge regarding effective performance management behaviours and consequently improve the effective execution of the performance management system. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used and self-administrative questionnaires measured employees perceived performance management behaviour of managers. A census was done on the total population. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the mean scores of the six factors and performance management behaviour scale. An independent samples t-test was done to compare the mean scores between males and females while ANOVAs were done to compare the mean scores between age groups, positions, qualifications and work locations. A Pearson product-moment correlation was computed to measure the intercorrelation between the six factors of the performance management behaviour scale. The mean scores for the process of goal-setting factor was 3, 12, communication 3.24, feedback 2,96, coaching 3.06, providing consequences 2.53, monitoring performance expectations 3,36 and overall' perceived mean score of 3,05 for managers performance management behaviour which was above the midpoint of the range indicating moderate satisfaction with their manager's' performance management behaviour. However, some of the items of the six factors that indicated serious shortcomings. The major problems identified were the lack of career planning by managers, no rewards for good performance and the inability to link recognition and/or to performance. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores on the performance management behaviour scale between males and females , age groups, positions and qualification levels. The results showed that there was a strong

positive correlation between coaching and feedback; monitoring performance expectations and feedback; monitoring performance expectations and coaching; feedback and process of goal setting and between coaching and the process of goal setting.