The Performance Challenge

Citation

Boocock, G. (2001), "The Performance Challenge", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 69-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.2001.20.1.69.1

Jerry Gilley is Associate Professor in organisational and human resource development at Iowa State University, Nathaniel Boughton is a consultant and Ann Maycunich teaches at Davenport College of Business. This book is sub‐titled: Developing Management Systems To Make Employees Your Greatest Asset. That appendage gives a flavour of the language used and the tone of the book – it comes across as very consultant‐oriented.

In Chapter 1, the authors put forward their ideas on “Why organisations and employees fail to achieve desired results”. The most common characteristic identified is “they can talk the talk, but they can’t walk the walk” – many readers might switch off at this point!Other common features of failing companies are: an inability to secure employee commitment and buy‐in to a company’s strategic goals and objectives; and, a lack of strategic vision of the future (citing the Buddhist aphorism – if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there).

The authors state that the usual response to these flaws is the adoption of strategic planning, a technique that aims to “continually recreate and reinvent organisations by helping them establish a new vision and purpose”. However, this broad concept has to be squared with the goal of the organisation as making money for its owners and shareholders. This leads to the essence of the book – the dilemma facing most organisations is that they simply do not know how to manage performance, develop people and create systems and techniques that enhance organisational effectiveness. Organisations therefore “have to discover ways of transforming everyday employees into high performers who are their greatest assets”. An integrated approach to achieve this goal is offered, comprising seven separate but interrelated steps.

Each of these steps is covered in the Chapters 2‐8 inclusive:

1. (1)

   “Conducting stakeholder valuation”.

2. (2)

   “Improving job design”.

3. (3)

   “Establishing synergistic relationships”.

4. (4)

   Applying performance coaching.

5. (5)

   “Conducting developmental evaluations”.

6. (6)

   “Creating performance growth and development plans”.

7. (7)

   “Linking compensation and rewards to performance growth and development”.

After expanding on each of these steps, these authors then offer three concluding chapters covering: “Developing leadership effectiveness”; “Creating virtual teams”; and “Beyond the learning organisation”. The link between the main body of the book (the first eight chapters) and the final three chapters is not made explicit, except to offer “additional strategies” on how to be successful in meeting the Performance Challenge.

I was not sure of the target audience for this book. It is not aimed at the academic market. Of the 31 references provided, ten are cross‐references to earlier work by the authors. It has the feel of a consultant’s manual, and there are many examples of “consultant‐speak”. The basic aim of the book is to help managers. However, practitioners seeking to apply the material to their organisation would, in my judgement, find the process rather abstract and theoretical.

I would have liked more specific examples of how this integrated approach had been put into practice in organisations. (I did not find the Performance Coaching Inventory in the Appendix very helpful.) On the positive side, there is some sound advice in Chapters 7 and 8, dealing with employee development plans. There are also some useful acronyms, for example, how to engender teamwork by Chemistry: C – character, H – humanism, E – empathy, M – motivation, I – initiative, S – supportive, T – togetherness, R – responsible, Y– yielding.

To sum up, some managers might feel that a modest investment of £13.50 is worthwhile, but I think this book will prove more attractive to consultants seeking to enhance their employability.