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by managers and is viewed as a year-round business function (Aguinis & Pierce, 2007).

Some of the key performance management activities are performance planning, performance and development agreements, continuous monitoring of performance and formal review and assessment of performance (Aguinis, 2007; Armstrong, 2009). The following sections review the current literature surrounding these activities.

Performance Planning

The performance plan is the result of interactions with employees around goals, roles, performance standards, behavioural standards and their capability development needs. Several theories have been proposed regarding an efficient goal and objective setting process. Locke & Latham (1990) identify five important principles in goal-setting that can motivate employees. These are Clarity, Challenge, Commitment, Feedback and Task Complexity. Many organizations also successfully use the 'SMART' mnemonic (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Trackable) as proposed by Blanchard (2009) to define desirable characteristics of objectives.

According to the Harvard Business Review (2008), almost 40 percent of employee activity in organizations in not aligned to its business goals. A key feature of the planning process is the cascading nature of the planning from a firm's strategic plan to the business plan and then to the employee's individual performance plan. This ensures alignment between these levels and provides clarity to each employee about their individual work and the 'strategic' goals of the organization (source: 'Best Practices - Planning and Developing Employee Performance', 2010). Linking individual goals with organizational goals can also reinforce behaviours that are consistent with organizational goals (Cleveland, Murphy & Williams, 1989; Aguinis, 2007).

Performance and development agreements

The performance planning process results in a performance agreement. This agreement formally documents the role definition, goals, objectives and standards that were discussed during the performance planning process. In addition it records the methodology by which performance will be measured and the key factors that will be considered while determining the levels of competency. The agreement of this methodology and factors is essential as these can then be consistently used by employees as well as managers to monitor achievements and demonstrate performance. Development agreements can document the various capability development needs of an employee and the development plan to follow in order to meet those needs (Armstrong, 2009).

Continuous monitoring of performance

Constant engagement and motivation of employees is imperative in a high-performing organization. According to Aguinis & Pierce (2007), performance management is changing from being a once-a-year consideration to being an ongoing dialog between employees and managers. Armstrong (2009) elaborates on the advantages of managing performance throughout the year. He lists the following three benefits of this process:
It can lead to sustained improvements in employee performance
It can facilitate the continuous development of employee compet本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。