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Kindly read the Case Performance Management at GE. Then upload a file containing your answers to the following questions: page 1: PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT AT GE:

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Kindly read the Case Performance Management at GE. Then upload a file containing your answers to the following questions:

page 1:

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PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT AT GE: SHAPING A FIT-FOR-PURPOSE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (A) Research Associate Shih-Han Janice Semper, former Culture Transformation Leader at GE, was Huang prepared this case reviewing the feedback from the latest FastWorks pilot session. One under the supervision of startling conclusion was starting to become evident: GE's existing Professors N. Anand and performance management system, the Employee Management System Jennifer Jordan as a basis for (EMS), instituted over 40 years earlier and widely emulated by other class discussion rather than to companies, might no longer be fit for GE's new direction. Mustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a She recalled a recent conversation with a GE manager, who echoed this business situation. view: Janice, we think FastWorks is a great initiative. It gives us the tools to be agile, flexible and costomer centric. However, under the EMS, we're just not incentivized to use it. As one of the founders of Fast Works and given your background in culture transformation and HR, can you do something about this? FastWorks was a GI: program initiated in 2013. By combining various tools and methods utilized predominantly by start-ups, the goal of FastWorks was to introduce skill sets and processes that would enable GE to be more customer centric, lean and agile. A key part of the FastWorks process was for project teams to repeatedly engage with customers, create hypotheses and empirically test assumptions in rapid iterations to determine whether to persevere with an existing idea or pivot in a new direction. The EMS was an employee performance review system based on an annual cycle. Goals were set by the employee and his/her direct supervisor at the beginning of the year, and the employee's performance was evaluated at year-end against the objectives they had agreed on. Janice recalled the common concern of some Fast Works pilot project participants: Do Not I'm given individual goals and objectives at the beginning of the year. As I apply the FastWorks methodology, I'm actually learning through some of the tests that I'm invalidating some of my original assumptions and I should be pivoting. Yet, I am not going to do that because at the end of the year I'm being held to these prior objectives. This is what you're holding me accountable for! It was becoming increasingly clear that the EMS no longer suited the faster and more agile GE. But what should the new protocol be like, and how should Janice's team go about designing it?GE's Employee Management System The EMS had been an integral part of GE since 1976. It followed a year-long cycle in which employees listed their year's goals at the beginning of the year and submitted a self-assessment against these objectives at year-end. Managers would then follow up with their appraisals and hold one-on-one performance discussions with employees. Ratings fell into three categories - "development needed," "consistently meets expectations" and "exceeds expectations." Overall, the year-end review process could take up to three months, ending in March. Employees who wanted additional feedback could ask their managers for an optional unmonitored mid-year review. The EMS captured various elements including the employee's accomplishments, strengths, development needs, career interests and development plan. In addition to performance measurements, employees also rated themselves and were in turn appraised by their managers on GE Growth Values. The GE Growth Values encompassed the success factors expected of all employees: External Focus, Clear Thinker, Imagination & Courage, Inclusiveness and Expertise. They were only crystalized in 2005 after two years of internal focus group reviews examining GE's core values, successful leadership approaches, and the Growth Values' compatibility with GE's future growth strategy. The performance and Growth Values ratings were then combined in a nine-block matrix, which was used to determine the employee's overall rating and also as a basis for GE's succession and promotion planning. An coployec could fall in any of the five categories of Unsatisfactory, Development Needed, Strong Contributor, Excellent, and the coveted rating. Role Model. In past years, the EMS had served GE well. In the 1990s, under CEO Jack Welch, GE's focus had been on the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency. It was a time when low-cost competitors from emerging countries were on the rise. To compete, GE became process focused, adhering to Six Sigma to implement cost reductions, quality control and execution. This emphasis on processes carried over to human resources and performance management, as well.' The EMS was a structured process that recorded employees' goals and objectives, measured employees against these objectives, and rewarded them based on their achievements. It also standardized ways of comparing employees across the firm. By the early 2010s, however, with a new business environment and GE's new direction under CEO Jeff Immelt, the EMS was showing signs of being unwieldy and slow. With the launch of Fast Works in 2013, the flaws in the EMS were no longer inconveniences but had become pcreatial roadblocks to FastWorks' adoption. Fast Works: A Force for Internal Disruption In 2001 Jeff Immelt took over the reins as CEO of GE. Facing a business environment characterized by protectionist policies, slow growth and continuous disruption from competitors and start-ups, Immelt understood that being process driven would no longer be enough. Instead, innovation and creating outcomes for its customer would be key.' His visionwas to transform GE - one of the oldest companies in the United States with roots in various traditional businesses - into a digital industrial company. To reach this goal, GE needed to be simpler, faster, more agile and innovative. One crucial step in this direction was the Fast Works program. In 2013 GE introduced FastWorks in various pilot programs throughout the company. FastWorks was built upon principles and methodologies advocated by entrepreneur and author Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup. Applying various tools and processes utilized predominantly by start-ups, such as validated learning, small batch testing, and pivot or persevere, FastWorks introduced skill sets and methods that enabled the large industrial conglomerate to be more customer centric, lean and agile. A centroi part of the FastWorks methodology was build-measure-learn, which advocated repeatedly engaging with customers and then, through rapid product iterations, determining whether to persevere with the existing idea or pivot in a new direction. Janice understood the frustrations of the FastWorks pilot participants. Under the EMS, employees were rewarded when they achieved the goals they set out at the beginning of the year; the EMS did not take into account cases where these objectives changed. Given the annual cycle of the EMS, it was difficult to shift objectives during the year. Fast Works, despite its potential to shape GE into an agile and innovative company, was advocating a way of working that was not rewarded by the current performance management system. So, what was the incentive for employees to follow the Fast Works methodology? Janice and her team knew the importance of having a performance management system that was properly aligned with the principles of Fastworks and rewarded employees accordingly. The question was: How should her team redesign GE's new performance management protocol to achieve this goal

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