Managing People and Performance Article Critique

ARTICLE CRITIQUING
The article “An Introductory Note on Managing People in the organisation” by Ann Frost
and Lyn Purdy focuses on what effective managers need to possess and understand. The
main focus of the article is on how the managers can increase the performance and
productivity of an organization through management of the most valuable resource of the
organization i.e. people. The article highlights on the critical issues that a manager needs
to handle to increase the overall performance. The issues dealt are organization structure,
organization culture, motivation, cognitive differences etc.

The issue rose in the beginning of the article by the authors that efficient managers need
to use a blend of both interpersonal skills and motivation and ability of managers to
accomplish organizational goals. Understanding what motivates employees, what
encourages them to increase performance would help the managers to identify what type
of leadership would be effective and what environment is preferred by employees.

The concentrated issue raised by the authors regarding organizational structure which
helps in creating unique and difficult to imitate capabilities that organization needs for
sustainable competitive advantage. It is mostly important in micro level organization. The
structure of the organization helps an individual manager to change the pattern of
performance through redesign and restructuring. The authors have also provided with the
theoretical importance of organizational structure. The article explains the types of
organizational structure their importance and organization where they are best suited. The
understanding of organization structure helps managers performing their task effectively
and efficiently.

Organization Culture has also been considered as an important issue for the managers to
issue. It deals with how organization members react to different cultures in the
organization. There could be different culture within different department within an
organization itself. The culture in R&D department and the Manufacturing department’s
culture illustrate the difference. The article also talks about manifestations of culture
through the use of jargons, stories and the games to motivate them to move ahead in the
organization. Employees need to socialize with the culture of the organization; this is also
considered during the selection process. The organization also enact to the socialization
process through:

• Rigorous, multi-step selection and orientation process

• Signalling the employees what goals, targets, attitudes and behaviour are
important for the organization

• Rewarding the employees to reinforce culture.

Mukund Upreti (08312)

Managing People and Performance Article Critique

Thus, organization culture has a huge effect in the performance of the organization. The
strategic culture is better in comparison to strong culture to improve productivity.
Managers need to identify what cultures are important for them to establish through
actions and policies as they have reflective effect on the performance of the organization.

The issue further addressed in the article is motivation; the basic assumption by the
author which is true is that all managers seek for highly motivated and employees willing
to give in their best effort to achieve goals and targets. The authors have discussed on
McClelland’s Need Theory where it is discussed that what the factors that motivate
employees are. The theory illustrates the three different needs of the employees as:

• The need for achievement

• The need for affiliation

• The need for power

Along with these factors the authors have given emphasis on the Equity Theory or the
Process theory of Motivation. The manager needs to identify what is considered
important by the employees and what would be the result of lack of reward on equity. The
relation of performance and importance of reward are well explained by the authors
through Expectancy Theory. The theory emphasizes that employees are motivated
through expectancy that is the performance from certain effort, instrumentality is the
reward from the level of performance given and valence the individuals importance to the
reward.

The next issue highlighted is the cognitive difference where the authors assume that these
shape the behaviour in organizations. The authors highlight three important cognitive
differences that shape organization behaviour are Personality, Learning style, Perception

Understanding people’s personality characteristics and individual learning style help a

manager to ensure that job assignment and leadership styles are appropriate to the
individual. Though the authors have dealt about MBTI as technique for employee and
work group development, leadership training, and career planning, they suggested not use
MBTI for selection process due to unsuitable questionnaire design.

The authors also talk about diversity in organizations, stating how age, gender, religion,
ethnicity affect the performance of the organization. Organisation today is very diverse in
terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. So, the manager should understand individual
differences and their likely impact to effectively manage the diversity in the organisation
and ensure success. Similarly, while dealing with diversity in the workforce, the authors
have given several facts regarding composition of workforce in Canadian organization
regarding presence of women in workforce, race and ethnicity, age and disabled people.

Mukund Upreti (08312)

Managing People and Performance Article Critique

The authors have dealt with most of the major issues related to managing people in an
organization though there are few short-comings in the article like the authors have not
discussed about how the performance should be evaluated or appraised, what
communication style should be practiced in the organization. The authors have also
limited their issues not concentrating on training and development to motivate
employees.

Thus, the article clearly shows how a manager can be effective and efficient in
understanding, motivating and increasing the performance of the employees may it be
within the department or the organization as a whole. This article could be further
extended as an extensive research on the organizational level in context of Nepal and
examples should be from Nepalese organization

Mukund Upreti (08312)