by William Barclay | Apr 20, 2022 | Management, Targets
Targets and Terror – England’s Public Services Management Revolution
Are targets an effective means of boosting operational efficiency and motivating staff? The book Targets and Terror – England’s Public Services Management Revolution by William Barclay recognises some possible positives but more significantly a range of serious negatives. Targets have given rise to dysfunctional unintended consequences, gaming and seriously damaging effects on staff. The consequences for service users have been standards of delivery that have fallen well below the levels required, the favouring of some client groups and the disadvantaging of others, and the lessening of the availability of some previously existing provision. Alleged gaming approaches have included Accident and Emergency hospital patients kept in ambulances to stop waiting times commencing, schools not admitting students thought likely to restrict attainment outcomes and police forces diverting resources to ‘low-level’ crime in order to meet clear-up rate targets. The impacts of targets are amplified when they are used in conjunction with league tables of the performance of different work groups. Stress levels have been substantially increased as a result of imposed targets requiring ever more demanding levels of performance, public embarrassment through naming and shaming, and the likelihood of career sanctions for perceived underperformance including demotion or even dismissal.
The book shows how targets impact negatively on a range of management responsibilities including working relationships, team work, performance management and strategy development. It considers also why the use of targets and league tables finds little support in the writings of the most highly regarded management theorists. Some wider aspects of the work of UK public service managers are described that illustrate how management theories do not always align with reality. Experiential guidance is provided on managing people, developing effective teams, performance management, and setting strategy in dynamic environments. The 120-page Octavo-size book can be purchased from Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targets-Terror-Englands-Management-Revolution/dp/1916035388
by William Barclay | Apr 20, 2022 | performance management, Popular
Why is performance management so poor?
In no area of management does practice differ from theory more than Performance Management. No other responsibility of managers damages their standing as much. Performance management comprises the arrangements that organisations use (i) to maintain and improve the performance of their workforce so that the organisation achieves its goals and targets; and (ii) to motivate employees and to recognise and develop their abilities. In public services it has usually involved meetings between a manager and employee at which the performance of the employee is discussed and sometimes an appraisal rating given. At the same or a different meeting, the personal development of the employee is discussed and plans agreed.
A fact sheet produced by the Trade Union Unison in 2017 on Performance Related Pay stated ‘inevitable variation in the grading of staff by different managers leads to perceptions of unfairness, discriminatory practice and resentment among staff’. Yes indeed. Appraisals conducted by one individual on another can be highly subjective, widely variable and sometimes morally corrupt. Formal criteria can be twisted, used selectively or ignored altogether. A change in manager can turn a staff member’s performance ratings upside down. Favourable ratings can arise for a variety of unofficial reasons including a jobholder having a similar personality and outside interests as the manager; slavish and unthinking support of the manager by the reportee; and a reportee and a manager having similar educational backgrounds. Unfavourable ratings can be related to a clash of personalities or genuine differences on matters of policy and procedure.
The design of performance management systems needs to recognise all of these major limitations. Performance incentive payments as non-consolidated awards to work groups of staff can be effective. The awards should depend on the group meeting a small number of agreed priority targets and should not count towards salary for pension purposes. Promotions should be administered as fairly and professionally as possible. Decisions should not depend on the viewpoint of one person alone.
Most importantly, the personal development of staff should be the primary focus of performance management, not appraisal. It can have major positive impacts. As well as boosting organisational performance, it can assist staff retention, serve succession planning and contribute towards a positive culture. The resource expended on it can be repaid many times over. The skill set of managers of people should include the ability to identify the potential of staff and knowledge of the various means – training, coaching, mentoring, job rotation, small-scale progression experiences – of realising that potential.
Read more in the book Targets and Terror by William Barclay. Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targets-Terror-Englands-Management-Revolution/dp/1916035388
by William Barclay | Apr 20, 2022 | Management
Do people who want to be managers really want to manage?
What motivates people to want to be a manager? Consider two possibilities. Is it largely because a person believes that they can help the organisation as a result of their abilities; that they have values and ideas that will help the organisation achieve great success? Or is it because it is the done thing and for many staff in the past it is has been an aspiration? My experience in the English public services was that for many staff it was for the wrong reasons. And there was a fundamental underlying cause: there was a poor appreciation of what management really is. To many people, management is administration: it is keeping things going, providing a steady hand, modelled on what has gone before. There is a widespread belief that management roles are a reward for long service. Management roles are perceived to confer status. They often have a staff appraisal function – judgements that may bear on remuneration and advancement. This is a special sort of power. Personal competition may be a factor: the thought might develop, possibly with some apprehension: ‘if I don’t occupy the role it will go to a rival with influence over me’. Access to information is another attraction; it confers a real sense of importance. Cultures of open communication to staff are not universal in public services. English public services are no less subject to staff gossip and speculation than other organisations. Self-regard may also play a part, often in terms of a false belief that management is mainly about making judgements about people and new organisational situations, for which a University of Life degree is the only qualification required. In this view, the possession of a professional management skill set is nerdy and unnecessary. Management as a discipline in itself, a set of specific developed competences, a responsibility demanding particular personal characteristics, a function centred on change and improvement, are not ideas that occur readily to most people.
The situation would be helped if organisations make clear that management involves specific personal attributes and a set of developed competences. A culture that values management needs to exist, one in which it is not necessary to depart from a technical specialism to gain advancement and which says it’s fine to decide that being a manager is not for you. A major feature of human resource planning should be management development programmes that seek to identify management potential amongst employees and put development programmes in place through a variety of training and development opportunities. These programmes should have a wide range that addresses systems and processes, the culture of the organisation, and managing people.
Read more in the book Targets and Terror by William Barclay. Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targets-Terror-Englands-Management-Revolution/dp/1916035388
