Asda for example has extended its brand name into the non-food sector and now sell products such as DVD players, televisions, clothes and mobile phones. Asda’s management are able to assess how well they are doing in the non-food sector by examining this particular division’s marketing strategy and analyse it’s achieved volume of sales, it’s current share of the market and consumer responses. If central management did not have such performance indicators, how could they monitor the progress of its non-food range?
Therefore performance indicators are essential to an organisation’s growth and future existence.
In relation to this, leading is as defined by Bartol and Martin “the process of influencing others to engage in the work behaviour necessary to reach organisational goals and objectives”. Performance indicators are tools that enable senior management to see how efficiently area and regional managers are carrying out their duties and motivating their staff. Information generated by such performance indicators is essential for management to have because it determines which branches have the more productive workforces and to an extent how motivated they are to work towards organisational goals. At Natwest Bank, each morning a huddle takes place and staff under-achieving are examined on their technique and staff with outstanding achievements are rewarded. This acts as a great incentive to do well and lift your performance. Profit sharing is another good motivator as the harder you work the more profits you make and this leads to higher wages; you are in essence working for your own business. Managers of all branches, whether under-performing or meeting targets must publicly state their sales performances at regional meetings. By doing this, sales performances in each of these under-performing departments soared and this is arguably due to more effective leadership of these particular managers. Performance indicators are therefore vital to have, as managers will then be able to motivate staff to work towards goals and thus lead effectively.
As can be seen from the above points, it is extremely hard to imagine an organisation from surviving without performance indicators. Planning, organising, leading and controlling all form the foundations to achieving effective management and the above points portray that at the end of the day, none of functions are achievable without having some form of performance measure, no matter what form of structure the organisation possesses. Every organisation, no matter how big or small, needs some sort of performance indicator to in order to plan, organise, lead and control the business if it is to carry on existing.
b) There are a number of performance indicators that can be used in schools and we shall outline these below, as well as any associated problems.
Grades at GCSE & A-level would be an example of a performance indicator as it generally indicates the different levels of ability each student possesses. There are two problems with this, however.
- Certain students may be among the cleverest in their year but for whatever reason did not produce these results on the day, e.g. personal problems, or just generally don’t like examinations as a method of assessment.
- This is arguably a fairly accurate measure of performance in a school but I don’t agree it is the reflection of a student’s ability as a lot depends on the quality of the teaching also which can be good or bad depending on the school. Also some students may adapt better to different teaching methods and may not be in the school that suits them best.
Another performance indicator is the percentage of students who pass all GCSE and A’ Level exams. However if a student has for example 7 A’s, all of which are academic subjects, and 1 D in a subject he is extremely weak in, he would therefore not fit into the category of obtaining all pass grades. Someone with 8 C’s on the other hand would fit into this category. This therefore does not give an accurate record of the school’s performance and is a drawback of this particular performance indicator.
Universities for example use the UCAS points system to give admission to students and this is also used now as a minimum requirement by employers, e.g. 22 UCAS points. However this on the same note may not be a true reflection of a students ability. We could have a student with 2 A’s at A’ level and an E in his third subject. This would give 22 UCAS points. Another student may have three B grades which would give 24 UCAS points. I do not believe the first student is of less ability but may have just under-performed in his last exam or even one of the papers in his third subject which resulted in the grade for the subject being pulled down. Again if you have a category for students with three A’ levels, grades A-C, then the first student does not fit in.
I do not feel looking at all subject grades as a whole is fair and it would be more accurate to look at individual subjects.
If certain performance indictors are made public, then this will increase competition between schools, e.g. league tables. On the one hand, we could argue that this competition will be healthy, as schools will realise that parents will, more than ever be choosing more actively where to send their child to school, thus will be pushing for continuous improvements in order to raise standards. On the other hand, while the popular schools will be expanding, unpopular ones may be forced to close down. Several of these unpopular schools may operate in uniquely disadvantaged areas and may be an important part of the local community. Additionally, most of the performance indicators above relate to examination competences, but as we have already discussed, these should not be the only measures of a child’s ability as some schools may excel in other areas such as sport. Broadbent stresses the importance of realising that research has revealed much resistance to the idea that outputs of the schools can be measured. This belief is justified by appeals to the value set of education. The value set is claimed by teachers to be rooted in relationships and based on a desire to help individual pupils achieve their own unique best.
