Effect of Performance Management System on Employee Performance: A Study of Food and Agriculture Organization

A Research Project Report by Judy Muthoni Maina, submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Executive Master of Science in Organizational Development (EMOD).The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of Performance Management system on employee performance. The study is guided by three research questions which seek answers for a suitable performance management system in FAO that is linked to the strategic objectives of FAO. The research questions are: How do employees interpret their experiences with the Performance Management System? What are the challenges of performance management system? What are the performance review processes? The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of interest consisted of 94 staff members of Food and Agriculture Organization. A census was undertaken to interview the entire population. Data was collected using structured questionnaires. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) into frequency distribution and percentages. The data was presented using tables and charts. The major findings of this study is that employees feel there is a great need for a performance management system in FAO. The system should have inputs from the staff members through staff involvement, it should have fair monitoring structures and reward staff who are high peformers. It should also have stronger emphasis on proper communication and reporting. Employees also felt that there was limited transparency and minimal communication. The revised performance management should close the missing gaps. It should also reward high performers and correct the low performers. The study recommends that 360 degree feedback was deemed to be the best performance management system for FAO. It involves employees receiving feedback from people whose views are considered helpful and relevant. The study concludes that the perception of employees towards performance management practices is very critical in all organizations as this motivates them to achieve the goals set by the organization and the respondents pointed out to the various aspects of performance management practices in line with the planning and employee expectation, observing performance management practices, developing the capacity of performance management practices to perform and evaluate performance management practices which are crucial to managing the output given by the employees. The study concludes that FAO should enhance the various parameters mentioned on the employee’s perception towards performance management practices in FAO and widen the scope on other parameters that may be used to gauge the levels of performance management practices in FAO by the employees. Transparency should be encouraged, performance management to be carried out regularly, perform job design in order to match staff qualifications to the right job, boost staff morale by giving them longer contracts, create job growth path for staff and orient new staff on performance management and engrave it to the organization policy