The Influence of Industry Characteristics on Employees Performance Management Practices: A Comparative Study of East Africa Trading House and Segon-Marill International Movers”
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Companies face critical difficulties when implementing performance management in different industrial and cultural contexts. In addition, HR professionals are also facing challenges from employees and managements that their industry environment or characteristics could not allow them to implement a performance management system (PMS). While Performance management has been studied by many researchers in different contexts, researches about the impacts of industry environment on employee PMS is generally lacking and it has been suggested by researchers that more studies are required to understand them. Several attempts have been made to analyze employee performance management in different contexts such culture, country, or any other external factors. However, the lack of studies of performance management in industrial context imposes this phenomenon to be investigated in various industrial contexts for sound academic contributions. This study aims to investigate industry’s environments influences on the employees’ performance management practices in different industrial context and to examine how PM practices vary by industry. This study used a mixed-method approach and conducted two case studies, consisting of both quantitative (employee survey) and qualitative research (interviews) as data collection method, in two privately owned organizations operating in two different industries in Ethiopia, by exploring a range of research objectives drawing on existing performance management literature. Based on the results of the pilot study, a scale was developed to measure the impact of industry environment on PM, which includes three factors “industry environment impact on PM course of actions”, industry environment’s impact on important sub-dimensions of PM and “industry environment’s impact on outcomes of PM”. The statistical analysis of the employee survey indicated that industry environment’s impact on PM course of actions and important sub-dimensions of PM was positively related to all dependent variables except talent development and appraisal; while no significant relationship has been found in this study between industry environment’s impact on outcomes of PM and any dependent variables. According to the comparative study of the PM practices in the two industries, there was a significant difference between East Africa Trading House and Segon-Marill Movers, in terms of the following aspects: PM purpose, frequency of appraisal, communication style, supervisors’ feedback, employees’ participation, talent development activities, objective setting process and alignment with incentives and pay systems. The thesis concludes that the industry environment influence on performance management practices vary in the two organizations operating in Fast Moving Consumer Goods(FMCGs) and logistics industries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings indicate that the industry environment’s impact is positively related to employees’ performance management practices. The findings of this study provide a solid evidence base for considering industry characteristics in implementing performance management. It is evidently clear from the findings that both companies operating in different industries are faced with different problems when implementing performance management in industrial context. This study should therefore be of value to practitioners wishing to overcome certain industrial related problems during implementation of performance management
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Keywords
Industry, Industry Environment, Performance Management