FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT, EDUCATION & HUMANITIES

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONOURS)

(HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT)

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (BHR 6213)

“INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT”

PREPARED BY:
SYAHIRA BINTI SUPANDI

MATRIC NO:
BHR09230005

PREPARED FOR:
MR. ANWAR FAIZ BIN NOOR HAMDAN

SUBMISSION DATE:
22 JANUARY 2024
 Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1

1.0.1 Workplace Isolation ................................................................................................. 2

1.0.2 Lack of communication in organizations. ............................................................... 3

1.0.3 Role overload ........................................................................................................... 4

1.0.4 Family distraction .................................................................................................... 5

2.0 Recommendation and Conclusion .................................................................................. 5

2.0.1 Communicate within the organization ..................................................................... 5

2.0.2 Training programmes for managers and employees................................................ 7

References .................................................................................................................................. 8
1.0 Introduction

Performance management (PM) is a goal-oriented process directed towards ensuring that

organizational processes are in place to maximize the productivity of employees, teams, and

ultimately, the organization. It is a major player in accomplishing organizational strategy. Also,

it involves measuring and improving the value of the workforce. In addition, PM includes

incentive goals and the corresponding incentive values so that the relationship can be clearly

understood and communicated. Peter Drucker, often referred to as the ‘father of modern

management’, emphasized the importance of setting clear objectives and measuring

performance against those objectives.

PM is a dynamic, continuous process. Every individual in the organization is a part of the PM

system. Although every HR function contributes to PM, training, performance appraisal, and

compensation appraisal play a more significant role in the organization. With PM, the

employee’s efforts should focus on achieving strategic goals by improving their skills and

receiving additional training to achieve organizational effectiveness. So, the workers will be

effective in the organization based on their job performance.

Natural disasters such as COVID-19 post-pandemic heavily affected all of society, including

all organization and employees that operate around the world. This would create a complex

and challenging environment for managers and human resource management (HRM). In order

to survive this particular situation, they need relevant information that will help them to go

through this crisis effectively and efficiently to support company sustainability.

Moreover, this crisis is not an easy one to deal with if the company is unable to predict the

natural disaster. Obviously, some of the organization is not sufficiently prepared to deal with

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this crisis. As a result, the company will go bankrupt and stop business operations immediately

due to financial losses. While the company deals with this crisis, it could affect employees’

performance management. This essay will explain how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect

the performance management function to help the organization achieve its goals and how to

overcome the problem through human resources.

1.0.1 Workplace Isolation

People who are feeling loneliness and separation due to a lack of communication around them

might be facing workplace isolation. When COVID-19 came in 2019, this strategy was the

most effective to prevent the virus amongst colleagues by making a separate table at least 2

metres per person. But from employees’ perspectives, they will feel a lack of motivation and

productivity to perform their duty because they feel isolated at work when there is nobody they

can talk to. This particular situation can lead to decreased job satisfaction, high stress levels,

and reduced overall well-being.

The lack of social support and the feeling of being disconnected from colleagues can contribute

to mental health issues and various physical ailments. At the organizational level, the effect of

workplace isolation is equally significant. Isolated employees are more likely to have lower

levels of engagement and commitment, leading to decreased productivity and higher turnover

rates. The lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing due to isolation can hinder creativity,

innovation, and organizational learning.

The manager and HR team will be affected compared to other departments because they focus

on conceptual skills and human skills by meeting with other people every day. Since COVID-

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19 occurred, it has had an impact on their productivity and stress due to too many tasks,

especially when they cannot engage with people while working alone. The work will take more

time to finish than before the pandemic. As a result, the relationship between the manager and

employees will be disconnected due to conflict in the workplace.

1.0.2 Lack of communication in organizations.

Communication in the workplace is part of our society because it involves exchanging

information and ideas within an organization. Lack of communication in an organization can

result in a disconnect and decrease trust between the worker and employer relationship. For

example, during COVID-19, the decisions that have been made by top management are not

being sent to lower management. As a result, the employees will experience more confusion,

friction, and frustration in their performance due to poor leadership.

The employees will not be motivated and productive enough to do their job diligently.

Moreover, poor communication will lead to misunderstandings and false assumptions within

the organization. The understanding between two people is not mutual when they try to

communicate, which means what is heard is not synced with what is said between them.

Obviously, the people who receive the message will not understand what the messenger said

due to communication issues. Although broken communication rarely happens in

organizations, employers need to be aware of this issue in the future to increase employees’

performance.

In addition, the organization objectives are not clear because the top management is not

focusing on their planning and goals to achieve. Indeed, the manager expects that their

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subordinates, without asking a question, will predict that they will perform their duty while

they do not know which one is true or false. Without proper guidance from the manager and

HR team, the workers will lose direction to achieve company outcomes, such as profitability,

that take time to recover during or after the COVID-19 pandemic.

1.0.3 Role overload

Role overload could impact the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would

affect the employee’s performance management. It refers to the situation where individuals are

presented with more roles and responsibilities that they can effectively manage in their daily

lives. In other words, people work overtime and do other work due to a lack of staff in the

organization. Such as when managers do their subordinate work while they need to do a duty

as a manager and HR, which leads to stress and workload that they are currently facing. As a

result, their lifestyle will be affected by having mental health conditions such as gastric ulcers

due to stress or depression, and the staff will leave an organization to pass on the roles to burden

other employees.

The company may reduce its staff in the organization to cut costs during a pandemic. In this

case, many senior staff, managers, and HR departments will be affected, and they will need to

rotate their staffing, training, and selection to welcome new candidates. Then, the employer

might reduce the payment due to a lack of financial resources. From this, their performance

also reduces due to the overload of roles given by top management in a reasonable amount of

time. For instance, to do multiple roles for lower management in temporary circumstances and

force them to stay in the organization. Otherwise, the company cannot survive or, at worst, will

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be bankrupt. Resulting in role stress in the form of role ambiguity and conflict among

colleagues.

1.0.4 Family distraction

One of the reasons that has the most impact on staff performance management within

organization during the COVID-19 pandemic is family distraction. When workers relatives are

infected with COVID-19, they will lose their focus to do the job task and might be making

some errors and mistakes. As an HR department, mistakes and errors are rare because their job

mostly requires attention to detail, especially when it comes to accounting for employees’

wages. Although, as professional workers, we cannot apply personal matters to workplace

work, some workers might lose their emotions. As a result, their priority is not finishing the

task anymore, but their family.

Moreover, family distraction in the workplace will influence individual well-being and

organizational productivity. Employees may experience caregiving responsibilities or conflict

arising from COVID-19 issues within the family. This particular situation could reduce

efficiency and lower job satisfaction. The impact of family distraction might be more severe

for individuals without access to adequate workplace policies and support systems. So,

employers should take action for those employees affected by this issue during the COVID-19

pandemic. Otherwise, it will affect the business as well.

2.0 Recommendation and Conclusion

2.0.1 Communicate within the organization

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The organization should communicate relevant information related to the company’s strategic

direction to its employees. As a team effort, employers should consider doing a brainstorming

session when the COVID-19 crisis arises. The decision should be made fairly for all

departments, from top management to lower management. Due to the short amount of time,

some companies might not have prepared and predicted strategies, so if this kind of situation

happens, the organization should provide feedback from employees to collect useful business

data so employers might know what employees feel and think.

Some employees might gain experience from the COVID-19 situation at their previous

company in another country, which has similarities to this case. Hence, they might give a

suggestion and share with other people about companies’ strategies that they should implement

during crises. For example, a hybrid workforce, which many organizations used during the

pandemic. In this case, it would help the company win back their business from destruction.

Also, managers should believe, trust, and listen to their subordinates stories before making a

quick decision by frequently asking them a question to show sympathy, making eye contact,

and actively listening to know their thoughts and whether they have better ideas, different

perspectives, or difficulties in personal matters such as family distractions that may affect their

job performance. In this situation, the manager should receive feedback from peers and other

stakeholders, including self-evaluation. In addition, employers should understand employees’

situations such as by giving temporary leave to employees whose relatives are infected with

COVID-19. In this case, the employer will indicate the employee’s performance and

relationship within the whole organization and achieve the mission and vision in the business

of performance management.

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2.0.2 Training programmes for managers and employees

The organization must consider employee’s skills by conducting performance management

training programmes to increase their skills in the workplace. For example, those employees

who are not familiar with computers can participate in this programme, so the work will be

easier for them to process during the pandemic. The manager and employees training are to

explain the process of performance review and achieve organization performance goals and

planning.

In addition, the workers can approach any programmes that are available, such as insead.edu

where they provide C-level executive education programmes such as the advanced

management programme, LEAP programme, and the AVIRA programme with duration, time,

places, and the amount of fees. Employers should invest in sponsoring employees by applying

to one of these programmes that can help employees develop leadership skills and high

performance within organizations to solve hardship issues in the workplace. Moreover, it will

increase career advancement in a professional position.

In brief, lack of performance management has been overlooked by organizations since the

COVID-19 pandemic started until today, 2024. In order to align with current realities, the

organization must modernize performance management at all times. Therefore, by analysing

the issues related to employer-employees and seeking ways to solve the problems during the

COVID-19 pandemic, organizations can strive towards achieving a healthier balance between

various roles and responsibilities. Also, enable individuals to thrive both professionally and

personally.

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References

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implications, challenges, opportunities, and future organizational directions. National

Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8111198/

Indeed Editorial Team. (2022, December 22). What is workplace isolation? Definition and

prevention. Career development. https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-

development/what-is-workplace-isolation.

Simpplr. (2023, November 7). The causes & effects of poor communication in the workplace.

Simpplr. https://www.simpplr.com/blog/2021/causes-effects-poor-communication-

workplace/

Khalaf, A. (2020, December 7). Performance Management during COVID-19.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/performance-management-during-covid-19-ahmed-

lotfi-ahmed-khalaf

Hub, H. C. (2023, June 26). Role overload and what you need to know about it. Human Capital

Hub. https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com/articles/Role-Overload-And-What-You-

Need-To-Know-About-It-

C-Level Executive Programmes. (n.d.). INSEAD. https://www.insead.edu/executive-

education/c-level-executive-programmes

Garry, D. (2020, September 15). Human Resource Management, 16th edition. Published by

Pearson.