Abstract

Performance Management as an underlying factor within the walls of human resource management have been over looked for a long period of time in Cameroon. This has resulted to the way activities and outputs are been carried out to meet organizational goal. Most often performance standards are generally organized and disseminated by senior leaders at the organization.

It is in this light that the study has been carried out and a concrete analyses was surfaced that performance management contributes to organizational growth at the Regional Delegation of Public Health.

This work is made up of five chapters, chapter one introduces the work, talks about the problem statement, hypotheses of the study, significant of the study. Chapter two provides a review of relevant literature gotten from books articles for journals, magazines and other relevant sources. Chapter four analyses the findings of the study, chapter five which is the concluding section provides conclusion and recommendations of the entire work.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study Area

In the current business world humans are considered as the success factor for any business. For this reason reputed business firms are trying to hire the best human resource that is available in the market so that the firms can maintain their image and goodwill in the future as well.

The main objective of this is to find that performance management is helpful to improve the productivity of the employees and how performance management is linked with the training needs of the employees. Another aim is to find out that how this is helpful to increase the revenue and profitability of the firm. For the current research study qualitative research is used because it gives the brief information and understanding of theories.

In order to get the brooder view of respondents, qualitative research will help a lot. Training and the development in the organisation leads to greater benefit. To increase the efficiency of the below average workers these reports play a very significant role.

Performance appraisal session conducted each year in Small and Medium size business in Buea motivates the employee to work harder. Furthermore, performance appraisal and management processes provide training and development to the employees as well as the reward management. These factors also drive the average worker to work more and more efficiently in smallest businesses across the world.

However, having capable human resource on board is not an easy task for the firm and for the achievement of this objective the large firms have a separate department known as human resource department (HRD). Armstrong (2001) has stated that the main objective of HRD is to perform four vital functions such as Training and Development (T&D), Recruitment and Selection (R&S), Performance Management (PM) and Reward Management (RM). Recruitment & selection (R&S) is the process of hiring a suitable person for a particular role (Bratton & Gold, 2001).

According to Armstrong (2001) R&S process is carried out by the organizations to get best and suitable candidates for the particular role by spending minimum cost on it. The main objective of R&S is to hire the best possible persons for all the roles that are arises in the firm so that the productivity of the firm can increase.

There is a misconception about the term (T&D) and most of peoples consider them to be the same but there are some difference between training and development. Training is the systematic and formal change in the behaviour of an individual due to the leaning, instructions and planned experiences (Armstrong, 2001).

Anthony, Perrewe and Kacmar (1996) define training as to provide required knowledge and abilities to the employees of the organization for the performance of the particular tasks. Development is somehow different from training as it is the use of the knowledge, skills and abilities by the employees, which the employees can use for the performance of tasks today and in future (Anthony, Perrewe & Kacmar, 1996) From the above definitions it is clear that training is the provision of education, instructions and knowledge to the employees so that they can achieve their own targets and contribute in the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization as well.

On the other hand, development is the ability of the employees that how they are implementing the knowledge, skills, instructions and education, which they have gained during different training sessions. Reward management (RM) RM is the process which can result in the provision of rewards to all the efficient and effective employees (Stredwick, 2000). According to the Armstrong (2001), rewards system is the practice and policies of an organization, which enables an employee to get rewards based upon his skills, contribution, market worth and competence. In the current times organizations has linked rewards with the performance of the employees.

Now the companies are offering a base rate to all its employees and all the employees can get that much money without giving better performance but if an employee wants to earn more than he has to show better performance because the higher compensation is linked with the proper performance. This type of rewards system encourages employees to work hard and give best results so that he can earn more.

On the other hand, this system is helpful for the organisation because organizations can get higher level of output from the employees with the help of addition motivation of higher earnings is there for employees. Performance management (PM) is related with the comparison of predetermined goals and objectives with the actual output of the employees. If a company is able to achieve the desired results of the organization it shows that employees are achieving their objectives optimally otherwise there is the possibility of some underperformed employees, which are not able to achieve their targets (Stredwick, 2000).

According to Armstrong and Baron (1998) PM is a strategic and integrated approach towards the performance of individuals and teams who are delivering their best for the success of the organization. Performance appraisal is the continuous process of monitoring that the organizational goals are achieved in an efficient and effective way (Tyson & York, 2002).

Performance Management is the vital factor for the success of an organisation because in the current world human resources are considered to be one of the essential factors of an organization. Employees should know from the start of the year that what their desired goals, objectives and targets are so that during the year each can put his/her efforts in the right direction for the achievement of the goals.

All the employees should know that at the end of the year their supervisors are going to check their performance by comparing the actual results with the desired results and on the basis of this they can be judged as the over performed, satisfactory or underperformed worker.

1.2 Problem Statement

The high rate of employee turnover in smallest business couple with high cost of hiring employees in small and medium size businesses in general and Buea Municipality in particular is the major focus of this research. In most small businesses employees pay and other incentives are not directly dependent upon their performance, due to poor performance appraisal.

The focus of this current work is to check the effective performance management process and how it affects the growth of small and medium size businesses. For this purpose, the researcher researches on “managing performance as a crucial management contributor to organisational growth” case of Small and Medium size businesses in the Buea municipality.

1.3 Research Questions

1. What are the benefits of Performance Management in improving the productivity of the employees in Small and Medium size businesses in Buea municipality?
2. What is the relationship between performance management and the training needs of employees in Small and Medium size businesses in Buea municipality?
3. What is the relationship between performance management and the profitability of small and medium size businesses in the Buea Municipality?

1.4 Objectives of the research

The objectives of this research are divided into main and specific for purpose of clarity; thus

1.4.1 Main Objective

To establish a relationship between performance management and the performance of small and medium size businesses in the Buea municipality

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

1. To find if performance management helps in improving the productivity of the employees
2. To establish a relationship between performance management and the training needs of the employees
3. To provide recommendations to small and medium size businesses on the relationship between performance management and the profitability of small and medium businesses

1.5 Hypothesis of the Study

H01: Efficient performance management process does not significantly increase the productivity of the employees

H02:  Efficient performance management process does not significantly increases the revenue and profitability of the employees