Human Resource Management 12th Edition by John Ivancevich,Robert Konopaske

Exercise 3

Objective
The exercise is designed to have the student use knowledge about selection and performance appraisal to design an appraisal system.
Introduction Row Engineering (name disguised) is a major engineering contractor, supplying aerospace firms, NASA, and the military with sophisticated equipment designs. Because of their rapidly expanding business, Row executives have decided that a formal management information system (MIS) is needed. The MIS may be used to monitor progress on projects, limit employees' access to classified information, reduce unnecessary duplication across similar projects, and generally increase efficiency by ensuring that the proper managers and engineers receive timely and relevant information for decision making.
Row has four major design facilities scattered throughout the southern and eastern United States in areas where approximately 50 percent of all high school graduates are black. Engineers at the different facilities typically work on different projects. Thus, Row executives have decided that one MIS department should be established for each of the four facilities. While these will be linked by computer, each MIS department will have a great deal of autonomy.
Each MIS department will be made up of one administrator, seven administrative assistants, numerous technical personnel (for example, computer programmers), and clerical staff (for example, data entry personnel). The 28 administrative assistant positions will be key entry-level managerial positions. The administrative assistants will be responsible for securing and maintaining information for their assigned MIS area. Also, some may eventually be promoted to middle management positions in the future. Typical duties of an administrative assistant will include
A. Determining appropriate information needs from various projects for the MIS database. To do so requires cooperation with project engineers and managers as well as personnel from other departments.
B. Working with other MIS administrative assistants to develop standardized information reporting procedures. Such procedures facilitate the aggregation and comparison of specific types of information from different projects.
C. Creating and distributing instruction manuals outlining correct procedures for acquiring and reporting information for various departments. Sometimes administrative assistants will provide orientation sessions for company personnel.
D. Ensuring that necessary and timely information is supplied by each project or department, using standardized reporting procedures.
E. Supervising technical and clerical staff who are responsible for data input and retrieval.
F. Supervising technical staff who develop and purchase information software.
G. Maintaining project security by documenting computer analyses, ensuring that only authorized personnel receive relevant information, supervising clerical staff, and preventing unauthorized photocopying of specific types of information.
H. Supplying information, as requested, to project managers, specific departments, and contract monitors.
I. Documenting and supplying information to the fiscal services department regarding monthly time and computer-use expenditures for various projects. Fiscal services uses this information when comparing actual and estimated (budgeted) expenditures for projects and departments. Determining the MIS department's own budget needs.

J. About one year ago, the HR department conducted a formal job analysis of all existing administrative assistant positions throughout the corporation. From this analysis, a common job description was derived. This job description is reproduced above.
Designing the Performance Appraisal System
Currently, all Row Engineering employees, including administrative assistants, are evaluated using a one-item 10-point global rating scale. Ratings of either Unsatisfactory (1) or Superior (10) must be accompanied with written documentation. In addition to the rating supervisor, the department head and the evaluated employee must sign the form, indicating that they have read the evaluation.

Recently, the HR manager has become concerned about the use of this type of rating scale. He has hired your human resource consulting firm to design a better performance appraisal system for the administrative assistant position with all the MIS departments.
Assignment: Write a three- to six-page report of this company describing and explaining your appraisal system. Your report should incorporate the following points:
A. Tactful explanation of the limitations of the present performance appraisal system.
B. Identification of the relevant dimensions (criteria) that should be measured in the new performance appraisal system. That is, how will the company distinguish the superior administrative assistants from those whose performance is merely adequate (or even inadequate) Assume that the provided job description is correct.
C. How will each dimension be measured
D. If you use some type of overall measure of performance, tell how you will measure it on a 100-point scale (100 = best). If you have several performance measures, tell how they will be combined into a composite criterion score. This composite score should be measured on a 100-point scale.
E. What weaknesses (if any) exist in your system How will these be overcome
A Learning Note This exercise encourages the student to consider the uses, strengths, and weaknesses of a performance appraisal system.