MGMT3012 Study Guide - Final Guide: French Foreign Legion, A Question Of Balance, Human Capital
22 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
MGMT3012 Short Answer Exam Practice Chap 6-8
Rebecca Myers
Why is it important to include hard, soft and contextual goals when assessing managerial
performance?
Hard goals: are those that are objective, quantifiable and can be directly measured – such as ROI,
market share, and so on.
Soft goals: tend to be relationship- or trait-based, such as leadership style or interpersonal skills.
Contextual goals: attempt to take into consideration factors that result from the situation in which
performance occurs.
Important to include all three when assessing managerial performance as alone they do not give a
clearer picture. Combining them builds upon the strengths of each while minimizing their
disadvantages.
For example: if you only assessed using hard goals such as obtainment of financial KPIs, and the
manager was posted at a subsidiary the assessor may not be clear on how the results were obtained
and the behaviours used to obtain the results
Furthermore, many of the criteria set out by soft goals is hard to measure, and appraisal of such is
somewhat objective. In an expatriate situation they may be difficult to obtain due to cultural
exchanges and clash of culture. This brings about the need for contextual goals- those that are more
realistic for the manager.
One way to ensure this is through 360 degree feedback, gaining information from the managers
subordinates who are working within the same cultural context, and this way the conductor of the
performance appraisal has a greater understanding of the difficulties faced by the manager in
achieving goals.
Why is there a greater degree of involvement in employee’s personal lives inevitable in many
IHRM practices?
Many practices which are specific to IHRM (compared to domestic HRM) are targeted towards
managing expatriates and the expatriation process, such as international recruitment and staffing,
culture training, language training, pre-departure training, taxation issues and international
legalities. Expatriation is a process by which an employee is sent on an overseas assignment for
business reasons for an extended period of time. Therefore, expatriation is very disruptive and has a
large impact on the employee’s personal lives. For this reason, MNEs become more involved with
the employees personal lives in preparation and execution of sending them overseas and to ensure
they can perform well. For example, they have to ensure the employees suitability by looking at their
health, their legal rights to working, their ability to adapt to different cultures and relocate, and their
family composition and whether they would be willing to relocate with the employee. The last point
is particularly important because family dissatisfaction is the greatest cause of expatriate failure so
ensuring the employee is suitable in every way is essential to best IHRM practice.
Think other things to include:
- Culture shock
- Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
What are the objectives of a good mentoring system for international assignees?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hard goals: are those that are objective, quantifiable and can be directly measured such as roi, market share, and so on. Soft goals: tend to be relationship- or trait-based, such as leadership style or interpersonal skills. Contextual goals: attempt to take into consideration factors that result from the situation in which performance occurs. Important to include all three when assessing managerial performance as alone they do not give a clearer picture. Combining them builds upon the strengths of each while minimizing their disadvantages. Furthermore, many of the criteria set out by soft goals is hard to measure, and appraisal of such is somewhat objective. In an expatriate situation they may be difficult to obtain due to cultural exchanges and clash of culture. This brings about the need for contextual goals- those that are more realistic for the manager. Why is there a greater degree of involvement in employee"s personal lives inevitable in many.
