Flight Centre

The notion of performance management has emerged as an indispensible part of the business world of the modern-era and most of the enterprises are taking the help of diverse strategies for the effective management of the same (Kearney 2018). At the same time, it is seen that diverse organizations are taking the help of different strategies like reward and recognition, extra work-extra pay, incentives, fair wage and others to enhance the productivity of the workers (Mone and London 2018). However, it needs to be said that not all the enterprises are following these measures and thus the employees had to resort to all kinds of unethical as well as unfair measures for the achievement of the Herculean monthly targets which are given to them (Pulakos et al. 2015). The recent scandal regarding the Australian travel giant Flight Centre is an important one to note in this regard. The purpose of the report is to discuss about the concept of performance management in the particular context of the organization Flight Centre and also to suggest the manner in which they could improve the system of performance management used by them. The particular context which the report seeks to describe is the below par wage and incentives provided by the company Flight Centre. The implications of the report is the fact that the organizations of the modern-era need to develop effective performance management system for the enhancement of their overall performance.

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), founded in 1982 is the largest “retail travel outlet in Australia” and is headquartered in Brisbane (Flight Centre 2018). The organization mainly offers flight booking services to the customers from the different parts of the nation and is known for the cheap flight tickets which it provides to the customers (Flight Centre 2018). The organization has more than 2800 outlets in the different parts of the world and has employee strength of more than 20,000 working in different parts of the nation for the organization (Flight Centre 2018). Furthermore, although the organization is operational in different parts of the world like the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand and others, yet the major business activities of the organization are centered in the nation of Australia itself (Flight Centre 2018).

The organization under discussion here has come under much heat because of the recent findings of the ABC newspaper and also their article which clearly reveals the ineffective performance management system used by the concerned organization. The article clearly reveals that concerned organization not only provides the kind of salary which is below par in comparison to the industry standards but at the same time the employees are required to overtime for which they are provided extra wages (ABC News 2018). In addition to this, it is seen that the employees are provided stiff targets and in order to meet these targets the employees often take the help of unethical as well as unfair means (ABC News 2018). Thus, it can be said that there is a need for the use of effective performance management system on the part of the organization and also to use adequate reward management strategies, incentives and others which will help the employees to perform in a much better manner taking the help of ethical and also fair means.

Literature Review

Performance management is one of the most debated topics within the cannon of the modern business world and the prominent position that the concept holds can easily be explained by virtue of its close correlation with the construct of employee performance (Cardy and Leonard 2014). Employee performance is seen as the building block of an organization and experts are of the viewpoint that the overall performance of an enterprise depends directly on the individual performances of all the individuals who are associated with the enterprise (Arnaboldi, Lapsley and Steccolini 2015). The tool of performance management not only provides the much needed opportunity to the various enterprises to quantify the isolated performances of the employees and thereby measure it but it also provides them to window of opportunity to actually enhance it in an effective manner (Van Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015). This is important since until and unless an organization does not have the measure or the manner in which its employees are performance the scope of improving it does not comes into the picture. It is precisely here that the construct of performance management gains prominence. The prominence that the concept under discussion here holds can easily be seen in the extensive usage of the same by the diverse organizations like Woolworths Limited, Amazon, Wesfarmers and others (Kearney 2018). However, at the same time, it needs to be said that there are various factors which affects the process of performance management like coaching, training, mentoring, delegation, effective leadership and others (Buckingham and Goodall 2015).

Shields et al. (2015) hold the viewpoint that the individual performance of an employee depends to a great extent on the kind of training that is given to the concerned individual. It is with this objective that the various organizations provide on-job and other kinds of trainings to the employees at the time of their joining the organization. This is done with the inherent desire to equip the employees with the necessary tools as well as skill sets which are likely to help them to perform their job roles in an effective manner (DeNisi and Smith 2014). In addition to these, it is seen that the diverse organizations also provide upgraded kind of training to the employees so that they not have an updated knowledge regarding the industry in which they are working but also have the necessary updated skill sets to perform better (DeNisi and Smith 2014). Thus, it can be said that the various training programs by means of providing the required kind of knowledge and skill sets to the employees is an important part of the construct of performance management.

Leadership has emerged as one of the most important processes of the business world of the modern-era and is used by the diverse organizations for the improvement of the performance of the employees (McDonnell, Gunnigle and Murphy 2018). Furthermore, the primary job role of the leaders is to motivate as well as inspire the subordinates so that they are being able to achieve the objective or the target which has been outlined for them (Bititci, Cocca and Ates 2016). In addition to this, the leaders of the present organizations are also required to mentor as well as coach the followers as well. The mentoring and the coaching services that the leaders offer to the followers not only boosts the confidence level of the followers but also helps them to achieve the targets which has been set for him (Bititci, Cocca and Ates 2016). Moreover, the leaders by means of mentoring and the coaching also inspires the followers to come out of their comfort zone and do the kind of tasks which they were initially reluctant to do (McDonnell, Gunnigle and Murphy 2018). This not only helps them to perform better but also contributes in a substantial manner towards the overall organizational productivity.

Performance Management

Delegation is another important job role of the leaders of the present times and thus the leaders are required to understand the competencies of the followers and assign tasks to them accordingly (Van Dooren and Walle 2016). Recent researches have shown that the performance of an individual depends greatly on the kind of tasks which are being allocated to him or her (Mone and London 2018). In this regard, the job role of the leader becomes very important since the leader is required to understand the strengths and the weaknesses of the individual and allocate the right kind of tasks to them so that they are being able to perform in a much better manner (Mone and London 2018).

The kind of reward and incentives that an organization offers to the employees so decides to a great extent the performance or the productivity of the employees (Bourne et al. 2014). The net result of this aspect is the fact that the various business enterprises of the present times like Amazon, Tesco and others have developed effective incentive and reward policies wherein they not only reward the employees who are working hard to meet the expectation of the organization (McDonnell, Gunnigle and Murphy 2018). In addition to this, monetary incentives are being provided to the employees with the inherent desire to motivate them to give their best performance.

Pulakos et al. (2015) have opined that the culture which is predominant within an organization to a great extent determines the productivity of the employees. In this regard, Hertzberg’s Dual Factor theory becomes important to note which discusses about the positive and the negative factors within an organization that affects the productivity of the employees (Cardy and Leonard 2014). The goal of the organization thus should be enhance the effectiveness of the positive factors and to reduce the adverse effects of the negative factor. Furthermore, it is seen that the creation of a congenial culture within an organization wherein the employees are able to work in a collective manner so contributes in a significant manner to enhance the job productivity of the employees (Cardy and Leonard 2014).

The use of effective reward management system wherein the employees who work hard for the organization would not only get appreciation but also monetary rewards would be really helpful for the organization Flight Centre. This would not only help the organization to mitigate the problems that it is facing at the current moment but also to enhance the job productivity (DeNisi and Smith 2014). Furthermore, the revising of the monthly targets which are provided to the employees would at the same time help the employees to achieve the targets in a quality manner rather than taking the help of the unethical and unfair activities that they normally resort to for the achievement of their monthly targets (Shields et al. 2015). In addition to this, providing extra pay to the employees who work outside their shift hours should also be incorporated within this reward management policy that the company should follow. Moreover, revising the salary that they pay to the employees and making it on par with the standard ones paid by the other organizations would also help them to deter the employees from taking the help of unethical practices.

Performance management and its related aspects

The organization would have to revise the existing the training and coaching it providing to the employees (Bourne et al. 2014). In addition to this, alterations in the delegation of the tasks would also help the organization in a substantial manner to overcome the problems that it is facing. The use of the strategy of total quality management would also help them to maximize the job productivity of the individuals and thereby improve the individual performance level (Kearney 2018). The effectiveness of the strategies of reward management and total quality management is being revealed through the extensive usage of these strategies by the various enterprises of the present times like Microsoft, Amazon and others (McDonnell, Gunnigle and Murphy 2018). This would however require the organization to provide effective training, coaching and delegation services to the employees. Thus, it is likely that the effective use of these strategies would help the organization to overcome the problems that it is facing currently.

The measures that the company Flight Centre can use for the resolution or the mitigation of the issues that it is facing at the current moment are-

• The introduction of effective reward management wherein the deserving employees who are performing as per the expectations of the company would be rewarded not only in terms of monetary rewards but also through intrinsic rewards as well.
• The use of the strategy of total quality management which will enable the organization to help the employees to give their best performance and thus would not have to depend on the use of unethical and unfair means for the achievement of their monthly targets.
• Providing effective training, coaching and mentoring to the employees would also be beneficial not only for the employees but also for the organization as well. This will not only help the employees to get the required skills to meet their monthly targets but would also motivate them as well.
• The integration of a congenial organizational culture within the organization would also help the organization in an effective manner. This would help the organization to create the kind of environment within the organization wherein the employees would not feel the need to take the help of unethical and unfair means for the improvement of their performance rather they look for fair means for the improvement of their performance by learning from others.

Conclusion

To conclude, the machinery of performance management has become an important one within the modern day business world and helps the organization to manage and also improve the performance of the employees. This becomes important from the perspective of the organization since it is seen that the overall productivity of an organization depends to a large extent on the individual performance of the employees. However, there are various factors which determine the performance or the productivity of the employees like the training, coaching, mentoring, delegation and others. Thus, to improve the performance of the employees, an organization would have to take into effective consideration these factors.

References

ABC News. 2018. Flight Centre accused of ‘ripping off’ customers, underpaying staff in ‘cult’ workplace. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-22/flight-centre-accused-of-ripping-off-customers-underpaying-staff/10051474 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

ABC News. 2018. Flight Centre accused of underpaying staff, workplace bullying. [online] ABC Radio. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/flight-centre-accused-of-underpaying-staff-workplace-bullying/10186340 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Arnaboldi, M., Lapsley, I. and Steccolini, I., 2015. Performance management in the public sector: The ultimate challenge. Financial Accountability & Management, 31(1), pp.1-22.

Bititci, U., Cocca, P. and Ates, A., 2016. Impact of visual performance management systems on the performance management practices of organisations. International Journal of Production Research, 54(6), pp.1571-1593.

Bourne, M., Melnyk, S.A., Bititci, U., Platts, K. and Andersen, B., 2014. Emerging issues in performance measurement. Management Accounting Research, 25(2), pp.117-118.

Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A., 2015. Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), pp.40-50.

Cardy, R. and Leonard, B., 2014. Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises: Concepts, Skills and Exercises. Routledge.

DeNisi, A. and Smith, C.E., 2014. Performance appraisal, performance management, and firm-level performance: A review, a proposed model, and new directions for future research. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.127-179.

Flight Centre. 2018. Home. [online] Available at: https://www.flightcentre.com/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Kearney, R., 2018. Public sector performance: management, motivation, and measurement. Routledge.

McDonnell, A., Gunnigle, P. and Murphy, K.R., 2018. Performance management. In Human Resource Management(pp. 262-279). Routledge.

Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

Pulakos, E.D., Hanson, R.M., Arad, S. and Moye, N., 2015. Performance management can be fixed: An on-the-job experiential learning approach for complex behavior change. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), pp.51-76.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Van Dooren, W. and Van de Walle, S. eds., 2016. Performance information in the public sector: How it is used. Springer.

Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015. Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.