Analysis of the Performance Management at the University of Ghana

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The Balme Library is one of Africa’s renowned research libraries and is the main library for the University of Ghana (Aguinis, 2009). The library consists of six departments, employs over 50 individuals and has over 100 thousand books, 500 microfilms, CD's, and tapes plus access to extensive electronic resources (Balme Library, University of Ghana, 2009). The library, like other organizations, was facing resource challenges and implemented numerous strategies, one of which was a performance management system (Aguinis, 2009). According to Aguinis (2009), there are six elements that are needed in a performance management system that include prerequisites, planning, execution, assessment, review, and performance renewal and reconstructing. However, the performance management system they implemented was missing several components that were needed to have a successful program. For this discussion the component of prerequisites will be evaluated regarding how the Balme Library implemented this aspect, how it affected their performance management system, and how to improve the implantation of prerequisites.

Implementation of Prerequisites

There are two main components to prerequisites that include knowledge of the organizations strategic goals and knowledge of the jobs being evaluated in a performance management system (Aguinis, 2009). First is setting strategic goals, which allow the organization to clearly define their purpose thus establishing similar goals downward until each employee has individual goals that are aligned with the organization (Aguinis, 2009). Second is job analysis where job duties are defined and understood so that criteria can be developed for success at the job level and how it ties back to organizationa...

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...Conclusion

A good performance management system encourages management to take responsibility for making sure their employees meet the organization’s objectives and goals (Gary, 2004). Furthermore, according to Bowes (2009), there is good evidence that shows when good performance management systems are in place and implemented effectively, revenue, shareholder value, employee satisfaction and investor interest will all increase. Therefore, while, the Blame Library’s performance management system needs improvement in several areas it is in their best interest to continue to improve their performance management system by starting with their prerequisites. Once they have job analyses and developed job descriptions for all the jobs at the library, they will be in a good position to start working on the other characteristics of a good performance management system.

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