Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A631.3.4.RB_LarsonKurt, Feedback and Goals

Feed back with respect to performance including short and long-term milestones and timelines are paramount to a healthy working relationship, career advancement and productivity. As example in Brown (2011) it discusses that without previously set goals instilled during a feedback session, a significant improvement in performance cannot be expected.

Interventions as described in Bigby (1981) are designed as such toward the enhancement of worker productivity and are divided into two distinct categories.  The first is a strategic one, which is dependent upon a large amount of external assistance such as Organizational Development type of techniques including survey feedback and process interventions. The second type has strategies, which may require a certain amount of expert assistance from the on-set, they for the most part are readily available for implementation and maintainability by management like performance feedback, and its logical extension, goal setting, are two such techniques.

On another front studies examining the impact of performance information on motivation, both feedback and goal setting have been found to improve performance. And as discussed by Watson (1983,) an analysis of the results showed that explicit goal setting improved group performance with or without feedback. Neither type of feedback alone helped performance, but both types negatively affected either goal selection or satisfaction with performance. It should also be note worthy that the act of goal setting has a more positive effect upon workers than feedback.

In todays world of a global economy and market place business must wrestle with the questions of what to sell, who to sell to and how to win over the consumer over the competition. Duncan (2001,) explains further that “The essential elements to answer these questions involve critical thinking about current situation and recent past, a cauldron for debate to formulate shared assumptions about the future, analysis to gauge impact of assumptions, creativity and innovation to develop response to a changing environment, leadership and decision making to build consensus for solution, and objectives and action to bring vision to reality” and maintain the critical need to have the continued ability of goal improvement and proactive feedback to employees of all age groups to ensure the delicate balancing act of employee reward and correction go hand-in-hand as to not drive employees to the competition.

In other words, there must be the correct amount of positive performance feedback to goal setting as a method of keeping valued employees positively engaged and on-track with organizational policies, goals and vision, including being cognizant of the differing age groups that are requiring routine feedback. For example, in Brown (2011,) the organization Ernst and Young reports that 85% of its compliment of younger workers insist upon frequent and candid feedback sessions as compared to 50% for older workers.
This could also be attributed to todays generation X and Y whom want instant gratification as compared to older generations who are comfortable with investing in the future and receiving less but substantial feedback sessions.  

As organizations become more flexible and open, the need for effective cooperation increases. The typical approaches to addressing intergroup conflict and lack of coordination often result in relatively shallow, ineffective strategies. Galves (1994,) addresses what an organization can do in the here and now to address intergroup conflict, lack of coordination and role clarification as a method of addressing problematic conflict.

One avenue of addressing this type of conflict is the interface meeting. The Interface Meeting is a technique based on the Gestalt approach to organization development as described in "Authentic Management" by Stanley Herman and Michael Korenich and "Organizational Consulting" by Edwin Nevis.

The Interface Meeting uses the following principles of the Gestalt approach:

Awareness is the key to positive change,
If people in organizations can become aware of the specific, concrete ways in which they create the reality that's bothering them, they will take creative and effective action to make things better,
The first step in change is understanding and accepting what is real right now,
Authentic, direct, meaningful contact between the actors in a conflict is a key to making things better.
Since no pressure exists toward problem resolution, group members are free to develop action plans, make things better until the situation is fully explored in depth and detail with specific, concrete examples including the design of the Interface Meeting is as follows:

The facilitator starts by giving a short lecturette on conflict in organizations making the following points,
Conflict is a natural consequence of committed, bright, energetic people working together in the same organization,
Conflict is typically a reflection of real issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve high-level performance,
The only choice the organization has about conflict is how, when and where it is expressed. There is no way of keeping it from being expressed. If it isn't expressed openly and effectively managed, it goes underground and surfaces in the form of missed deadlines, broken agreements, delays and errors,
Conflict is a great learning opportunity.
                                                            References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Bray, S. (2009, Dec 23). Goal-setting. Fox Creek Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/442602644?accountid=27203

BIGBY, D. G. (1981). IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH FEEDBACK AND GOAL SETTING. (Order No. 8200926, University of Houston). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 91-91 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/303149755?accountid=27203. (303149755).

Watson, C. (1983). Motivational effects of feedback and goal-setting on group performance.

Reference: Galves, A. (1994). The interface meeting: A tool for addressing intergroup conflict. SuperVision, 55(8), 3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/195598358?accountid=27203


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