An increasing number of reports indicate that managers are opposed to performance appraisal. It is important to understand why managers have favourable or unfavourable attitudes towards performance appraisal and it is necessary to investigate the causing factors of these attitudes. The aim of this research was therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. This study was conducted within the interpretive research paradigm and situated in a medium-sized organisation within the financial services industry. The sample was purposefully selected and the data were collected through in-depth interviews and naïve sketches. The data were analysed applying Tesch’s descriptive analysis method. The main findings indicated that managers who needed to conduct performance appraisals perceived and experienced performance appraisal as an uncomfortable and emotional process that might cause them to become defensive. Moreover, it was revealed that the managers experienced uncertainties about aspects of performance appraisal, such as the purpose of performance appraisal, what must be measured and frequency of performance appraisal. As a result of such uncertainties, managers might not always have the ability or readiness to conduct performance appraisals, especially when the performance appraisal contains negative performance feedback. Furthermore, the organisational context might put managers in an undesirable situation to distort performance ratings of employees in order to achieve organisational goals or the manager’s personal goals, which in turn influence the attitude of the manager. The findings of the study can assist organisations in influencing managers’ attitudes more positively and in enhancing the overall performance appraisal process. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

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[Truncated abstract] This thesis is an analysis of a technology that is radically changing the location, process and position of manager learning, leveraging organisational learning agendas, and creating networks re-ordering institutional frameworks. The thesis examines the discourses, performances and productions associated with the Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) and provides a model of workplace-based management development. Academically, it provides new knowledge about the discourses constituting, enacting and producing manager development. Practically, it provides an understanding of the relations between workplace learning and outcomes that can inform practice. The FMI is a critical technology in terms of leveraging enterprise growth, due to its extensive national profile within the politically dominant societal structures of organisations, the critical interpreting role of frontline managers, and the innovative workplace-based, learner-centred framework. As the solitary Karpin (1995) report beacon, the FMI is positioned in highly contested terrain. Managing practice confronts the complexity of ordering knowledge work, where meaning and knowledge are more fluid and transient. Management development practice is more workplace located where knowing is more situated, distributed and relationally negotiated, but framed by politically endorsed competency-based frameworks. This study takes the unique opportunity to examine a learning technology that is being shaped by powerful mediating discourses. It examines how these multiple discourses construct FMI practice, what meanings of managing they develop and what effect these relational experiences have on subsequent managing practice.

The central theme of this study is to survey and critically examine existing Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Management Development Programs (MDPs) in order to determine which areas of the current programs must be given priority and greater emphasis at Saudia, as well as to ascertain MDP's effects on managers, staff managers, and supervisors. The purposes of this study are (1) to review and evaluate the progress made in managerial development at Saudia from 1972 to 1977 in terms of objectives and effectiveness, and (2) to explore the development of Saudia's managerial needs. The criteria used in this analysis are based upon managerial effectiveness. Although scattered significant differences appeared in some of the data presented in this study, no specific patterns were found among these differences, and it appeared that MDP could not produce any change in the behavior of those managers, staff managers, and supervisors who participated in it. This was a clear indication that MDP was far from achieving its objectives. Several factors contributed to this result, including misunderstanding of Saudi Arabian culture and circumstances; lack of support from top management; lack of manpower analysis; lack of cooperation, coordination, and communication between the training department and other departments at Saudia; lack of formal plans for management succession; and other reasons related directly to MDP.

Industrial and Organisational Psychology / (D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial Psychology))

An increasing number of reports indicate that managers are opposed to performance appraisal. It is important to understand why managers have favourable or unfavourable attitudes towards performance appraisal and it is necessary to investigate the causing factors of these attitudes. The aim of this research was therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. This study was conducted within the interpretive research paradigm and situated in a medium-sized organisation within the financial services industry. The sample was purposefully selected and the data were collected through in-depth interviews and naïve sketches. The data were analysed applying Tesch’s descriptive analysis method. The main findings indicated that managers who needed to conduct performance appraisals perceived and experienced performance appraisal as an uncomfortable and emotional process that might cause them to become defensive. Moreover, it was revealed that the managers experienced uncertainties about aspects of performance appraisal, such as the purpose of performance appraisal, what must be measured and frequency of performance appraisal. As a result of such uncertainties, managers might not always have the ability or readiness to conduct performance appraisals, especially when the performance appraisal contains negative performance feedback. Furthermore, the organisational context might put managers in an undesirable situation to distort performance ratings of employees in order to achieve organisational goals or the manager’s personal goals, which in turn influence the attitude of the manager. The findings of the study can assist organisations in influencing managers’ attitudes more positively and in enhancing the overall performance appraisal process. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The purpose was to investigate career expectations and goals of junior and senior fashion merchandising majors at North Texas State University and to compare findings with expectations for trainees of retail employers with executive training programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The findings indicated that most female students are planning their career goals in business for the next five years. Students are confused as to what employee benefits they might receive at the entry level. College recruitment is an important method of hiring executive trainees. Length of training programs vary from six months to three years. At the time of the study, trainees could expect a beginning salary of nine to ten thousand dollars.

Le recours au coaching comme outil de développement des cadres a augmenté de manière exponentielle au cours de cette dernière décennie. Cependant, les études empiriques sur l’impact du coaching professionnel et les mécanismes à l’œuvre dans celui-ci restent rares.<p>Notre recherche vise à répondre à ce manque en étudiant (a) l’impact d’une intervention de coaching professionnel sur les compétences managériales, l’intelligence émotionnelle, le bien-être et l’atteinte des objectifs, (b) les facteurs qui jouent un rôle dans le succès de l’intervention et les mécanismes par lesquels le coaching produit du changement chez les individus.<p>Pour étudier ces questions, une étude longitudinale a été menée sur 50 cadres à haut-potentiel d’une grande entreprise de télécommunications. Les cadres étaient répartis aléatoirement entre le groupe expérimental (25 participants) et le groupe contrôle (25 participants). L’ensemble des participants a passé une évaluation à 360° de leurs compétences managériales, ainsi que différents questionnaires d’intelligence émotionnelle, de personnalité et de bien-être. Suite à ces évaluations, les 25 participants du groupe expérimental ont reçu 7 sessions de coaching étalées sur un an. L’année suivante, les 50 participants ont repassé les mêmes tests. Des entretiens semi-directifs ont ensuite été menés avec les participants du groupe expérimental afin de recueillir leurs auto-évaluations et perceptions des facteurs qui ont joué un rôle déterminant dans leur évolution. Toutes les sessions de coaching ont été données par le même coach, l’auteur de l’étude, afin de stabiliser et de contrôler la méthodologie de coaching adoptée avec les différents participants.<p>Les analyses statistiques sur les données quantitatives indiquent un impact positif et significatif du coaching sur les compétences managériales et l’atteinte des objectifs de développement. L’impact sur l’intelligence émotionnelle et le bien-être dépend lui des dimensions spécifiques considérées. Les analyses qualitatives des entretiens rétrospectifs menés avec les coachés mettent en évidence les différents facteurs vécus comme clés par ceux-ci, ainsi que les mécanismes par lesquels ces facteurs impactent le succès de l’intervention de coaching.<p>Les implications théoriques et pratiques de ces résultats sont discutées, notamment en termes de compréhension des mécanismes de changement à l’œuvre dans le coaching et d’amélioration des dispositifs de coaching et de formation professionnelle des coachs.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In 1994, the Federal Government is projected to face a critical personnel problem that a large number of Senior Executive Service members will be eligible for retirement. The Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program (SESCDP) is a major program designed to train potential candidates for the Senior Executive Service positions. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides agencies with a broad guideline so that they are able to design their own development programs that best suit their needs and circumstances. After the completion of the program, the candidates’ qualifications will be reviewed by the OPM's Qualification Review Board. The qualified candidates, then, will receive certifications from the Qualification Review Board. However, this does not guarantee the candidates the SES placement. The study investigates the SESCDP in several federal agencies, namely, the Department of Interior, the Department of Labor, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Small Business Administration. Specifically, it examines the agencies' values and philosophy (basic assumptions) of training the executives, the agencies’ succession planning, their implementation of the programs (the strengths and weaknesses), and their relationships with the OPM. One major purpose of the study is to examine the SESCDPs currently operated by the five federal agencies. Based on government documents and an in-depth interview with the policy makers, experts, program coordinators, and participants, the data was analyzed across all five cases and in relation to Office of Personnel Management's framework. Through various methods of analysis--system analysis, strategic management, and other related executive development theories and learning theories, the results show four major issues of the federal agency SESCDP: 1) the lack of systematic program; 2) the lack of strategic succession planning; 3) the lack of career development planning and; 4) the impacts of the Clinton Administration on the program implementation. To counter the above problems, the author recommends that the federal executive development program should be systematically designed to provide career development to every federal employees at all levels and a system of strategic succession planning should be implemented government-wide. / Ph. D.

Text in English, summary in English and Afrikaans / The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of a performance management training programme on the attitudes of managers towards performance management. The research question was whether a performance management training intervention would change managers' attitude towards performance management. The respondent group consisted of 101 managers who responded to an advertisement and willingly participated in a performance management training programme. A quasi-experimental research design was used in which a pre-test and post-test was applied to the respondent group. The managers in the respondent group completed the same assessment instrument (or questionnaire) before and six months after the performance management training. The results of the empirical analysis indicated that female managers felt less positive about performance management than their male counterparts. No statistically significant change in the attitude and competency of managers towards performance management was found after they had attended the performance management training programme. / Die doel van die studie was om die impak van 'n prestasiebestuuropleidingsprogram op die houdings van bestuurders ten opsigte van prestasiebestuur te ondersoek. Die navorsingsvraag was of 'n opleidingsintervensie in prestasiebestuur, bestuurders se houdings ten opsigte van prestasiebestuur sou verander. Die respondentegroep het uit 101 bestuurders bestaan wat op 'n advertensie gereageer het en vrywillig deelgeneem het aan 'n prestasiebestuuropleidingsprogram. 'n Kwasie-eksperimentele navorsingsontwerp is gebruik waartydens 'n voor- en na-toets op die respondente toegepas is. Die bestuurders in die respondentegroep het dieselfde evalueringsinstrument voor en ses maande na die prestasiebestuuropleiding ingevul. Die resultate van die empiriese ontleding het getoon dat vroulike bestuurders minder positief oor prestasiebestuur gevoel het as hul manlike kollegas. Geen betekenisvolle statistiese verandering in die houdings en vaardighede van bestuurders ten opsigte van prestasiebestuur is gevind nadat hulle die prestasiebestuurprogram bygewoon het nie. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)