The research aims to establish a framework whereby performance management systems can be assessed in terms of its effectiveness. The industry in which research is conducted is the call centre industry in South Africa. / The field of Performance Management is receiving more attention today than ever before. This is due to the
fact that many companies are becoming more and more frustrated by the ‘disconnect’ that exists between
formulating their strategy and successful delivery against it. The aim of this research is to determine how
performance is managed in organisations, but more importantly, how it should be managed. To this end, this
research considers the total endeavour required to manage performance as a system, and wishes to
contribute towards specifying how this system must ‘hang together’. This research is conducted against the
backdrop of the call centre industry in South Africa.
The call centre industry is an area of potential growth in South Africa and in need of evaluating and
improving their performance results to meet or exceed the international benchmarks. This level of global
pressure makes call centres an appropriate subject of analysis on a topic such as Performance
Management.
The nature of this research was mostly exploratory, by firstly reviewing existing theory and literature relevant
to this subject. Subsequent to this, two assessment instruments were used to assess the desired situation
with regards to Performance Management Systems in South African call centres. The one instrument was
developed as a result of the theory and literature reviewed during this research project (the PMSAI). Another,
existing, instrument, the PMA®, (De Waal, 2004) was also used to provide a different view and provides an
opportunity to triangulate this project. It also addresses the current status of Performance Management
Systems in South African call centres to highlight shortcomings as a basis to review and improve these
systems.
The main findings of this research are that a successful Performance Management System should take
cognisance of a number of factors in- and outside of the organisation as well as the interplay between ‘hard’
and ‘soft’ elements in the system. Examples of these factors are the industry and focus of the organisation,
as well as what the Performance Management System must be used for. Examples of ‘hard’ vs ‘soft’
elements are responsibilities for performance targets (hard) and the level of buy-in to achieve the targets
(‘soft’). In the end, a perfect ‘answer’ to Performance Management is elusive and is likely to remain so mainly
due to the inherent complexity and level of variety that this system must cater for.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/153 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Strydom, Aletta Sofia Louisa |
| Contributors | Dalton, G.W. |
| Publisher | Unisa |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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