Supervison

1.             Why do you think Bill Martin is so concerned about his meeting with his area manager? Should he change the rating methods he uses to evaluate his employees? Why or why not?

2.             What are some of the benefits Bill Martin's employees get from their performance reviews? What are some drawbacks?

3.             What could Bill do to improve the performance evaluation process in his store?

What are the legal issues Martin and other supervisors need to consider in conducting performance appraisals? Develop a list of guidelines Bill could follow to avoid legal problems

Reading 

 ➤ Case 12-B: Performance Appraisal at the Athletic Shoe Shop 

 At the Athletic Shoe Shop, formal performance apprais-

als are conducted annually. Each supervisor is expected to 

conduct a performance review for every employee during 

October—in time to recommend end-of-the-year employee 

bonuses. As a supervisor, it is essential that Bill Martin 

take this responsibility seriously. 

 After Bill and his area manager discuss the review for 

each employee in his store, Bill is expected to sit down 

with each employee individually to go over their per-

formance review. He is expected to have these appraisal 

feedback meetings during November. This face-to-face 

meeting gives each employee feedback about performance 

and also addresses areas of performance that could be 

 improved. 

 The company uses a standard form to evaluate 

 employees. The form was developed by a group of employees representing all levels of workers in the company. It  includes 

the following elements: job knowledge and skills, quality of 

work, productivity or quantity of work, following company 

policies and procedures, planning and organizing work, pri-

oritizing work assignments, communication in speaking and 

writing, attitude toward job, teamwork and working with 

coworkers, cooperation and loyalty, adaptability to change, 

dependability and punctuality, and initiative and resource-

fulness. 

 It is now time for Bill Martin to evaluate his employ-

ees. He really doesn’t like this aspect of his job because 

it is so hard to be objective. He distinctly remembers last 

year’s meeting with his boss, Leslie Hines. Bill can still 

hear her saying, “It is remarkable that all of your employ-

ees rate so high in all areas. How can this be?” Bill knew 

that he had difficulty responding to her not-so-subtle

way of telling him he was not adequately evaluating his 

 personnel. He didn’t want a repeat performance of that 

incident this year.