PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AT BABOO Baboo is a medium-sized technology company, with a staff complement of 105 employees. Recently Baboo, which does not have an HR Department, came under the spotlight when newly appointed CEO, Jack Rakabe, revealed the company's new quarterly performance appraisal system. Shortly after joining the company in July 2023, Rakabe implemented an employee performance appraisal process, which had managers scoring their employees and ranking them into "exceptional", "highly successful", "successful", "inconsistent" and "unsatisfactory" categories, with a target percentage of employees to be distributed into each category. Those employees who were ranked as "exceptional" received high bonuses and a 15% salary increase, while those that were ranked as "highly successful" received a 10% salary increase and no bonus. Those employees who received a "successful" ranking received a 5% salary increase and no bonus. Employees who were ranked as "inconsistent" received no bonus and no salary increase. Those ranked as "unsatisfactory" received no bonus and no salary increase, and corrective action was taken through, for example, rectifying a performance problem that resulted from a lack of ability through training and development. Employees were dismissed if they received an "unsatisfactory" ranking across three consecutive quarterly performance appraisals. Various stakeholders criticised Rakabe's management style and approach to performance management. Former Baboo CFO, Thandi Motseki, accused Baboo of implementing its performance appraisal process knowing that ranking had been criticised and rejected by larger companies because it was "subject to abuse, often resulted in claims of discrimination, and needed to be closely monitored in application and effect." Motseki stated that the procedures of the appraisal process were vague, were communicated on a need-to-know basis, differed from department to department and would change quarterly to achieve organisational objectives. Motseki further alleged that even if all employees in the department or team were performing well or at the same level, their managers were required to place them in "inconsistent" and "unsatisfactory" categories, ultimately resulting in good employees being let go. According to her, this was because only a small percentage of employees, typically about 10%, could be designated as top performers. Given the criticism which Rakabe has received about the employee performance appraisal process, he has realised that Baboo needs the expertise of an HR manager. Earlier this week, Krishni Pillay was appointed into the position of HR Manager. Rakabe has tasked Krishni to put in place a new performance management system which will be an improvement on the last one, and which will be well received by employees and other stakeholders. (Adapted from: Meyer, M. and Kruger-Pretorius, E. (2018) Introduction to Human Resource Management. Pretoria: South Africa.) Now that you have read the case study, answer the following questions. Question 1 (15Marks) Discuss the extent to which Baboo's new performance management system is strategically integrated with a range of HR activities within the organisation, and make recommendations for its improvement in this regard. Question 2 (15Marks) "Planning, implementation, monitoring and review are the four key stages of the performance management cycle." Discuss the extent to which Jack Rakabe followed the four key stages of the performance management cycle, and make recommendations for how Krishni Pillay could improve on the roll out of the stages of the performance management cycle within Baboo.