Designing effective performance management systems

Performance management is a comprehensive systematic approach aimed at aligning the performance of groups and individuals with organizational goals and strategy and at achieving continuous improvement and innovation. Strategically derived performance indicators and motivational interventions such as goal setting, feedback, and participation are core elements of performance management.
This course covers several topics that are relevant for the design of effective performance management systems.

• A general introduction is given into performance measurement, goal setting, and feedback as means to regulate human performance.

• Research findings with respect to characteristics of tasks, groups and individual workers that influence the effectiveness of goal setting and feedback interventions central to performance management, are discussed. Topics include performance appraisal, competencies and behavior, goal-setting and feedback in teams, guidelines for performance management interventions based on structural team characteristics and individuals’ technical innovation capabilities.

• ProMES (Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System) - a method for designing performance management systems based on work motivation principles of feedback, goal setting, and participation - is presented as a way to optimize self-regulation of individuals and groups in order to attain performance improvements. The focus of this course is on developing a performance management system for a complex work setting, which necessitates a modification of the standard approach.

• The strategic context of performance management systems is represented by business performance management frameworks, such as the Balanced Scorecard and the Performance Prism.

• The use of rewards for motivational purposes is discussed, both for individuals and teams.

• Specific attention is provided to the trade-offs in managing individual operational performance versus innovation performance.

Additional lecture information:
The group assignment involves a report on analysis and (re)design of performance management practices, taking into account all course materials. The assignment will be made available at the beginning of the course In approx. week 5, formative feedback as well as a grade will be provided for a partial report, covering approximately half of the assignment. The grade for this partial report will count toward one-third of the overall report grade. On the basis of this feedback, the remaining assignment questions should then be answered. At the end of the quartile, the full report is discussed and graded. This grade counts toward two-third of the overall grade for the group assignment.

*Knowledge.*Acquiring insight into performance management and improvement based on motivational principles, taking into account: characteristics of effective performance management systems, relevant characteristics of tasks, groups and individuals, the strategic context of performance management, and the role of reward systems.

*Skills.*Applying scientific knowledge in these four areas to the analysis and (re)design of performance management systems.

*Attitude.*Critically evaluating from multiple perspectives, taking into account the latest empirical findings.

You must meet one of the following collections of requirements

• Collection 1
• Completed Final examination Bsc program
• Collection 2
• Completed Pre-Master

• Approximately 20 scientific articles and book chapters
• Stata Sw IBM SPSS statistics 22 or newer, or equivalent statistical software (R, Stata) For the group assignment,