CONCEPT
Agencies are required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to establish program goals and report organizational performance to stakeholders, including the Office of Management and Budget and the Congress. This creates pressure to use methods that improve organizational performance and maximize goal achievement. Using teams to accomplish the work? and effectively managing team performance ? is one of the methods that many Federal organizations have chosen. Increasing levels of employee involvement in deciding how work gets done has improved customer service and the bottom-line results for many organizations.
One of the first human resources programs affected by moving to teams is performance management, which includes appraisal and recognition processes. Organizations that only measure and recognize individual performance have found that team development and performance are jeopardized because they appear to be ignored. By balancing the measurement of individual and team performance, organizations have been able to address individual development as well as focus on achieving team goals. In addition to balancing employee and team measures, effective team performance management processes are aligned with organizational goals. In particular, by aligning and linking employee performance plans with the goals established in the agency’s performance plan, an organization is more likely to achieve its goals because its employees? efforts are channeled in that direction. As a result, performance management becomes a useful tool for clarifying individual, team, and organizational goals and for pointing everyone in the right direction. Such efforts support and produce goal achievement.
