MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Performance management
At least one manager has endeavoured to answer this question at one
level:-
Making certain that the people we service, our members, (our
members in a more general way as well, our customers) get a
service from us. So it is ensuring that there are people here in
the office for example answering telephones, that everybody
knows and understands how many people should be in the
office, support staff, and it is setting standards. Once the
standards are set, I'm quite happy to walk away from that.
(Interviewer O)
Some managers value one to one meetings with their staff. In fact,
PCS did introduce a development reviewing system which may not
always have been welcomed by staff:-
We had a reaction (to development reviews) to begin with
because the staff were very nervous about it. They did not quite
know what it meant so it was a question of reassuring staff that
what you are doing is in their interests. I found it very useful
because it allowed me a chance to sit down and talk through not
just their development but to find out more about their
background and what work they had done. I also used it on
performance as well. I don't think you can do it without talking
about strengths and weaknesses and I used it to do that.
Nothing was written down formally on that. I just felt it would be
wrong not to say, well, I think you could improve in this area or I
find that you have strengths in this area or weaknesses in that
area. I think it is right to do that. (Interviewee O)
This point was made by another manager:-
I am involved in a semi appraisal scheme. We do not have a
formal system but we do have a system of training and
developing staff so I spend some time interviewing
them……….If you are (it is almost a bit subversive, really)
talking to people about their training and development needs,
then you have to talk to them about areas of weakness. So it is
almost a back door appraisal although the discussions you have
would be confidential in the sense that they would not be in most
organisations' appraisal schemes and wouldn't be recorded
centrally. What would be recorded centrally would be the
outcome and recommendations on training (Interviewee N)
One senior manager suggested (although he was the only person to do
so) that objective setting linked to corporate objectives was being
developed:-
There's a reluctance on the part of some officials to see
themselves as managers and you have to keep reinforcing the
176