MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Performance management
doing so badly. What are we going to do about it?" (Interviewee
O)
One manager is sceptical:-
I see no real evidence that there is any vigorous debate about
financial devolvement, policy devolvement and delivery
devolvement, performance indicators or anything like that
actually working. Looking at the paperwork I saw, I just don't
see any evidence. No (Interviewee A)
And another manager does see performance management as not yet
working well:-
I would say that we are not good.(at performance management)
We are, like, so far behind even the public sector in terms of
management. We are trying. (Interviewee B)
He makes this point in the context of an observation, cited earlier, that
setting objectives has not led to the union stopping doing anything. But
another manager is positively evangelical about the principle:-
Performance management -- yes, it's not in our interests to have
an inefficient organisation. People in my experience like working
to clear standards and expectations and the staff certainly don't
have any problem with that. So I think it's a very old-fashioned
view that somehow they are all free spirits that do their own
thing for the labour movement. I mean, they are employees, they
are all employees of the organisation and we all have
expectations and as long as you are clear about the
expectations and clear about what you expect of people and
recognise and reward when things are done well, I think that
those principles apply right across the spectrum, whatever the
organisation is (Interviewee J)
And another explains how it informs her overall management practice:-
I think what we should try and do is this corporate thing about
the objectives and working towards those and promoting that
approach and trying to use that as a way of balancing things out.
So we have now got these six headline objectives and you are
looking at how things pertain to those and you are looking at
how the organising culture and the approach that you are
supposed to be adopting fits into that. I know it sounds very
vague but, you know, you are trying to look at a holistic kind of
model. I know some of my colleagues on the management team
don't like me talking this way but I think it's important that we
have some conceptual grasp of some of these things. This is
what you are trying to do. It's not airy fairy. It actually comes
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