Question

From the case study in Chapter 3 of your textbook, discuss two (2) issues associated with Precision’s current performance appraisal process that may pose a challenge for Jackson to implement a merit pay program. Provide support for your response.

Bus409 Performance Appraisal Processes

Answer 1

Merit Pay can be defined as an increase in the payment on the basis of a set of criteria which is established by the employer. When we tackle the situation faced by Precision, there are a number of issues which are associated with the performance appraisal program which can result in some kind of issues for Jackson while implementing the new merit pay program.

The first issue which can be encountered by Jackson is that it is clear or well-defined job descriptions of the employees and the expectations of the employees are not well defined by the top management. This will create a lot of challenges while implementing the merit pay program as the job analysis is the foundation of job descriptions. As per the text, job analysis is vital for the development of content-valid performance appraisal systems which helps in defining the relation between the measurable factors on which the employee is evaluated and the job itself.

The second issue which could be faced by Jackson is that there is very little communication between the manpower and the supervisors related to their performance. This will create a challenge while implementing new pay plan as in order to be successful, it is important for the employees to have a better understanding about what are they expected to perform so that they can receive merit increase and the rewards of showing good performance.