INLS 131:  Management for Information Professionals

Week 12: April 2-8, 2002
Leaders as Developers;
Empowerment and Coaching;
Performance Appraisal;
Job Design/Redesign

Assignments

Our topic this week is the manager as developer. Specifically, we will be concerned with "high-performance organizations" and the centrality of empowered employees in this context. Some of you read the Rosabeth Moss Kanter article assigned in Week 9 (http://ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/cco4/Kanter.pdf). This article describes the adverse effects of first-line managers who feel powerless and react by becoming dictatorial, bureaucratic, and over-controlling in their small spheres. Her solution to this problem, one I suspect we've all encountered, is to turn the tables on the situation and use the manager's/supervisor's office to empower others. Kanter suggests this effort will redound positively with enhanced power for the manager/supervisor and more satisfied workers. You may wish to go back and (re)read this article.

Chapter 17 deals with the issue of empowerment and the concept of the manager as coach. The authors define empowerment as a mindset that employees must choose to adopt. They describe ways the organization can encourage this mindset. (Note a parallel here to motivation. A manager can't really motivate an employee directly, as the motivation must come from within, but he/she can design jobs and create situations that meet the employee's needs for achievement, affiliation, and/or power and influence and thus are motivating for him/her.) Chapter 17 provides a variety of ways--structural and personal--to create conditions that encourage empowerment. Please note the comments of Mary Follett (one of my favorite "classic" management authors) on authority and her ideas about "the situation being the boss."

The material on coaching should also look familiar to you, since it has similarities to the delegation tips shared earlier. Here the emphasis is on teaching and training. Some very useful rules of thumb on giving effective feedback are included here as well.

The second assigned chapter, Chapter 18, is closely aligned to Chapter 17. It deals with the issue of performance appraisal, a managerial responsibility that many find very difficult--both from the perspective of giving performance feedback as well as from the perspective of receiving it.

It will be helpful to review the points about effective feedback from the Chapter 17 on pages 396-397.

The learning objectives for the week are to:

• relate effective leader development behaviors to a high performing organization
• plan ways a manager can develop his/her employees
• identify ways to empower workers using good coaching techniques
• practice providing effective feedback as part of performance appraisal as a way to develop employees
• describe the components of an effective performance appraisal interview
• explain 360-degree feedback.

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Task 24: Reflections on Group Process for Case 3

For this exercise, please concentrate on describing and evaluating your own performance in your current group. Describe what you are doing that is visible to one or all of your group members and what you are doing invisibly (reading, reflecting, discussing with others). Describe the reactions of others in your group to your actions. Analyze your behavior in terms of task, maintenance, and self-oriented behaviors. Don't forget to include the time dimension, as these case study assignments are done under fairly severe time pressures. In what ways have your actions elicited useful responses from other members of the group? In what ways have your actions hindered the group in its accomplishment of its goals? (Note: The intent of the assignment is to ask you to evaluate your own actions honestly and to consider their effect on others.) What helpful feedback would you give to improve performance if you were the group's supervisor? Post your response to the Communication forum or send it directly to me if you prefer via email on or before April 29.

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Task 25: The Developer Manager in a Performance Interview

Read chapter 18 on performance appraisal and look at the note and example of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) at http://ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/cco4/PerfAppraisal.html. I have added a reminder on the guidelines for giving and receiving feedback -- highly important in performance appraisal activity (from both directions). I suspect most of you have received some kind of formal or informal performance appraisal in your past work experiences. For this assignment, please summarize what your experiences with performance appraisal have been -- most of you will have been on the receiving end but perhaps some of you have also had the responsibility of providing performance evaluation information to people working for you. Select one of your experiences for critical comparison to the model provided here for performance appraisal. Consider what worked well, in your opinion, and what didn't. Are there suggestions from the readings that might have improved the event? Describe what would be a better way to do the performance evaluation from the manager's perspective and from the employee's perspective. Sometimes people have told me that they have never received a formal performance appraisal and their only indication of how well or poorly they are doing is brief comments or body language indicators. If this has been your experience, tell us so and then put yourself in the manager's place and plan a more formal system.

Post your response on the Performance Appraisal on or before April 15. Take some time to read and respond to the postings of some of your fellow classmates.

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Week 13