Performance management systems in customer service

Abstract: When management sets performance goals the expectation is that employees should strive to reach them, they are used to drive motivation and increase performance. However, the task of instituting performance goals should not be taken lightly. The goals need to fair, measurable, and accepted by the employees who are to adopt them. There are pitfalls to avoid when setting up performance management systems. If goals are not fair, they can breed resentment against the performance management system. If goals are not easily measurable, their validity in the view of the employees can fade as they cannot tell if their work impacts the goals. This thesis examines the deployment of a performance management application to bolster an already existing performance management system. The thesis involves both the construction of the application, using theory from the field of performance management to inspire its functions, and the investigation into how the application affects increased performance and job satisfaction for the employees who uses it. Thus, the thesis takes theories from performance management, some with their genesis before the digital age; and applied them in a digital format, investigating how well they apply within the space of a web application. The analysis concludes that employing a web application as part of a performance management system can increase engagement with that system. However, if that system is poorly implemented, the positive effects sought from a performance management system, increased performance and job satisfaction, can turn into negative effects such as increased negative stress for the employees. In the studied case, the existing performance management system was poorly fit for some employees, and well fit for others. The result of deploying the web application was increased engagement and a high affect for the web application by those for whom the system fit well, and low engagement and negative affect for the web application by those for whom the system fit poorly. Additionally, implementing competitions made the application more appealing and caused employees to actively use it. Thus, making employees seek to engage more with the underlying performance management system.