management by objective approach
As organizational and business environments have become more competitive, employers deemed as change agents have responded by adopting transformational management styles. Despite that, some employers have refused to abandon traditional approaches such as management by objectives. This discussion explores the management by objective approach. From a personal experience working for a credit company as an account open clerk, this approach was evident in the use of a performance appraisal system and pursuing specific goals.
The organization where I did my part-time job had just entered the market. Therefore, it aggressively recruited salespersons to open new accounts and process loans. All recruits were required to open at least thirty accounts in a month. Upon getting a client and opening an account, were directed to forward the transaction to our supervisor. The supervisor compiled the information to rank our performances. Recruits who managed to meet the set targets were appraised and rewarded accordingly, while those that failed to meet the goals were warned and encouraged to increase their efforts.
The approach explained above corresponds to management by objectives approach. Gitlow and Gitlow (2013) explain that employee productivity in this style is enhanced by setting average goals. It assumes that all employees are capable of achieving the average by putting the required efforts. My organization used monthly average goals. In addition, the organization used a performance appraisal system to assign a score of low, average or excellent to employees. Those of us who managed thirty and above sales were given average and excellent scores respectively and rewarded accordingly. Non-performing recruits who scored less than the monthly average of thirty sales were given a low scored and then warned and encouraged to increase their efforts.
In summary, the management by objective approach entails working towards specific goals and using an appraisal system to measure the productivity of employees. My former employer used this approach based on monthly average goals. The employer also had a performance appraisal system. These measures helped the firm to reward the top-performing employees and issue warning to non-performing employees.