Question

ABC Company has a branch office in South Africa. The company follows a centralized Performance Development Review that is mainly linked to how the management decides on the employee annual salary increments. This year, the finance manager of their head office has given a 4 out of 5 score to the accountant in South Africa for a satisfactory performance in the previous year. Unfortunately, this was overruled by the senior management of ABC and was reduced to a score of 2. Although this initial PDR score has already been discussed during the review of the accountant, being in charge of the Human Resource Department, How will you explain this case to the accountant in a manner that will maintain his trust and morale in the company and or the management of ABC. In your answer, you may consider any factor that you may see fit but in a realistic scenario.

Answer 1

ABC company follows a centralized authority pattern wherein the primary decision-making power rests in the hands of the top authorities. The top authorities take the final decision on any issue or any report. In the current scenario, the HR head rated the performance of an employee as satisfactory. However, the top authorities decreased the rating to below average. It will definitely, and decrease the morale and satisfaction level of the employee because both the managers gave a different perception of the employee's performance. The main issue here is that the top authorities do not supervise the work at all times. However, the HR head supervises and motivates the employees at the same time. It means that there is less interaction between the top authorities and the lower-level employees. The second reason is that any co-worker might have filled a false report about the employee's work. The HR head should discuss the false complaint issue and the negative consequences with the authorities. In these scenarios, the employee is not at fault because he/she did the job with perfection. There can be misunderstandings between two managers at different levels because of a lack of supervision or interaction. However, due to these unavoidable circumstances, the employee should not degrade the performance and not lose morale. Hence, the HR head can solve the matter in the scenario.