Respond to the following:

1. The process of performance management has 3 purposes. In our text book it states the 3 purposes are: Strategic purpose means effective performance management helps the organization achieve its business objectives. The administrative purpose of a performance management system refers to the ways in which organizations use the system to provide information for day-to-day decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition programs. Finally, performance management has a developmental purpose, meaning that it serves as a basis for developing employees’ knowledge and skills.

I think all 3 are very valuable and I think they are all equally important in their own ways. Also, they all connect with each other and if you have a problem in one purpose it would affect another purpose. Say that you had a bad administration that will most likely affect the development of the employees because they would probably get bad training.

2. Performance management can be good for litigation cases. Reasons to have a performance review system in place is to protect companies from lawsuits from employees, most notably, claims of discrimination (EEOC) complaints. The reasoning goes like this. If an employee is disciplined, not promoted, or fired, unless there is documentation of poor performance that can be introduced in a court of law, it's much easier for the employee to claim his "punishment" is a result of discrimination, particularly if he or she is a member of a protected class. A performance appraisal itself may become the target of a lawsuit. Indeed, no evaluation system is completely immune to the risk of litigation. Even a well-designed system can subject an employer to various liabilities if it is poorly implemented or applied in an inconsistent manner. If they are well written and consistent, appraisals can support disciplinary or termination decisions. Performance management is the process by which an agency involves employees to improve effectiveness and reach company goals. There are three levels of performance management; strategic, administrative, and developmental. I personally think that each aspect if important to any organization in their own right. It's really hard to pick one as being more valuable, as they are very different and produce different outcomes. Strategic purpose sets employee expectations and measures their performance as individuals. Businesses can use incentives, trainings, or discipline to correct or award the actions of employees. Strategic purpose is important to monitor progress of goals and productivity.

The administrative aspect of performance management is an information system that deals with employee salary and benefits. This is the department that controls employee retention or termination/layoffs, salary increases, and performance appraisals. Administrative purpose directly affects employees. The developmental purpose of performance management is the area that addresses feedback and areas of strengths or weakness for staff. Training is a big part of developmental performance. Seeing how all of these topics affect the company, the management team, and the employee as an individual, it is clear to me that they are all part of a master plan of performance management. Strategic sets the goals and outcomes, developmental looks at the results, and administrative decides the fate of the employee. I don't think anyone is more important than another; it is a system that relies upon each other.

Performance management can help protect an organization against litigation such as an unemployment hearing. When an employee is terminated they can file for unemployment. If the company has enough evidence to prove that the staff was not meeting their quota or had violated a policy or procedure as described in strategic purpose. The administrative purpose would review the information and compare it with the goals set by another purpose, having concrete evidence to support their decision to terminate employment.