Fred Maiorino Case

Performance appraisals, performance reviews and/or appraisal forms are a part of the performance management process. In general, performance appraisals are not favored. People in organizations would prefer not to be advised they did not do tell this year compared to the previous years. Managers would prefer not to put themselves in a scenario that could possibly turn into an argument from an employee about a performance appraisal that was not that great. If the ultimate goal of a performance appraisal is employee development and organizational improvement, we have to consider moving to effective performance management system to avoid any conflicts. The successes of performance management strategies sound favorable to many, however, there are managers and supervisors that make decisions that affect the moral and performance of the employees. Moral can become the heart of an employee’s motivation to succeed and be happy at work.

An appraisal is one of the most commonly used methods of formal assessment and is used to evaluate and assess the performance of an employee against agreed targets and objectives, with the aim of improving employee performance. Where an employee has been able to achieve their targets, the appraisal can be used to recognise successes. This often helps to increase an employee’s confidence and motivation and can lead to better organisational performance. Many organisations will use the outcomes of an appraisal to identify potential candidates for promotions or even an increase in pay. At the same time, an appraisal meeting may include discussions on underperformance, identifying why this has occurred and how this can be avoided in the future.

From the above study, an overview of performance appraisal in relation to management and its importance to the field of Human Resource Department was provided. One problem introduced, is the growing unwillingness on the part of organizations to experiment with performance appraisal approaches. Unfortunately, much of this experimentation does not make its way into the supporting body of knowledge. The other problem concerns performance appraisal research from the employee perspective. Although the reactions of employees to performance are of growing research interest, study lags far behind work done from the managerial or organizational perspectives. These two problems, alone, suggest many avenues of research and any number

This paper analyzes the reasons sales manager, Jim Reed, was unsuccessful in suitably motivating one of his top employees, Fred Maiorino, to remain a top employee at Schering-Plough. It will scrutinize Reed's role in contributing to Fred's sense of psychological contract breach—and eventually its violation. The paper will also look at the mishandling of employee appraisals and employee goals and discuss Reed's counterproductive leadership style, ending in the eventual de-motivation of Fred. This paper will also recommend different ways Reed could have gone about motivating and analyzing Fred when it came to employee reviews and performance, how goals were set and how Reed how have approached the situation in a different manner and how Reed

appraisal that is legally defensible as well as an effective management and a coaching tool. The self-appraisal can help the employee by reminding his/her boss of overlooked accomplishments. For example, I list all the task I have completed. Half of the tasks listed, my boss is unaware until he reads my review. After all, few managers are aware of everything their employees do. Performance reviews can be the stuff of nightmares and fill competent professionals with fear, anxiety, and dread. Why? One reason employees dread reviews is because many companies, and even more managers, don’t understand the function and value of reviews as an opportunity for employee engagement, motivation and growth (Tourish & Robson 2006). Another downfall of annual reviews is many professionals approach their performance review as a one-way conversation and don’t do their part

Mary Jones was very much a determined woman in her senior year at Central University. She was very goal oriented and in the top one percent of her class, participated in many extracurricular activities, and very respected by her professors (Schermerhorn, 2012). As an outstanding candidate for several opportunities with different companies, she chose a career with Universal Products. Her decision was based on a superb salary of forty thousand dollars, excellent benefits, and potential for growth in this multinational company (Schermerhorn, 2012). We will take a look at Mary’s attitudes before and after she meets a fellow co-worker named Sue, what Mary may do now and later, and what motivation theory applies to her situation.

Fred Maiorino worked at Schering-Plough as a top salesman for 35 years before he was terminated for not meeting company’s sales goals. Because of Fred’s abrupt and distasteful termination, he decided to sued the company for age discrimination. This case depicts many basic managerial concepts that could’ve been utilized by Jim Reed, Fred’s boss, to help motivate his formal employee to reach his sale goals. Reed failed to effectively lead his employee, Fred Maiorino, which resulted in the demise of the relationship between employee and management. There are several factor that impede Reed from properly motivating Maiorino which will be discussed in-depth throughout this case analysis.

At too many organizations, the performance appraisal has degenerated into a mere formality. Employers and employees are jointly complicit, dutifully sitting across from one another but simply going through the motions, ticking off goals and targets achieved over the past 12 months, those that weren’t, and a new set of goals and targets for the next 12 months. As performance management tools, these by-the-numbers appraisals don’t hold much value for most companies, and they do little to raise employee engagement, commitment or satisfaction levels. However, rather than simply abandoning performance appraisals altogether, as some have implied, a growing number of employers are turning around this state of affairs. They’re reinventing performance reviews and reaping substantial rewards.

Performance appraisal is an evaluation and grading exercise undertaken in organizations to achieve several objectives such as employee motivation, identification of training needs, rewards and remuneration, employee development through feedback etc. [Fig. 1]. All methods for performance appraisal have several advantages and disadvantages based on location of the firm, socio-economic environment, vision and mission of the firm, organizational structure and other factors. Organizations in different industrial sectors may have different focus areas of work and different values and thus, expectations from employees vary across sectors.

Motivations: Performance appraisal serves as a motivation tool as employees are aware that their efforts will be recognized they work efficiently for attainment of goals and targets , this improves job performances .

Performance appraisals are used to facilitate improvement in employee performance, provide formal official feedback to employees concerning performance, provide information for decisions concerning compensation and other personnel transactions. One of the challenges that Systems Made Simple faces is with Performance Appraisals and how they are perceived by the employee and manager. Some managers and employees do not take the process seriously and we need to find a resolution so that the performance appraisal process is important to all involved. There are a few reasons why this is so challenging for us; first of all some managers have so many employees that that they need to conduct appraisals on that they feel overwhelmed and do not give the employee’s evaluation the time it deserves. We often see that the manager will copy and paste comments from employee to employee. This is not fair, each employee is different from one another and the comments should reflect that individual’s performance over the course of the year. The managers feel disconnected from the procedure, they

In addition to possessing these leadership skills, Simon also possessed the skills necessary to motivate his employees to perform at their highest capacity. A recurring employee complaint was the ambiguous nature of company goals. The case tells us that in order to alleviate this, Simon set simple goals which were achievable in the short-term so that employees could see their progress. Not only was this a way to enhance employees commitment to goals but it also helped reward the employees in timely manner. Simon also had the ability to empower his employees to achieve as he was described as having a “sophisticated and unique talent for guiding people without them really knowing he is doing it” (Davidson).

On the other hand, poor performance, or mediocre performance may lead to negative appraisals and consequences, including job termination or withholding of bonuses, awards, and promotions. Performance appraisals are a systemic means of ensuring quality of work performance, and thus achieving the strategic objectives and advancing the goals of the organization. These performance appraisals, in order to be effective, must be applied in a uniform, objective, fair and consistent manner over time. In addition, the expectations of the performance appraisal must be clearly understood and agreed upon by the supervisor and the employee. Objectivity and fairness in the appraisal system build trust in the organization as well as high morale among employees.

Most employees like to receive feedback; the employees want to know how they are doing! Quality performance feedback on an ongoing basis is the lifeblood of the performance appraisal process. Research and practice demonstrate a consistent disconnect between employee and manager perspectives about the degree and nature of performance feedback. As leaders, communication is the building block of trust. Employees desire more frequent, specific, and timely feedback than the typical once a year meeting with the manager provides. Employees in many cases feel misled and betrayed when they do

It is very important that employees recognize that negative appraisal feedback is provided with a constructive intention, i.e., to help them overcome present difficulties and to improve their future performance. Employees will be less anxious about criticism, and more likely to find it useful, when the believe that the appraiser's intentions are helpful and constructive. (Fedor et al. 1989)