This document provides an overview of managing underperformance in the workplace. It discusses common symptoms and causes of underperformance, such as lack of skills, motivation, or sharing the company's work ethic. Specific causes covered include illness, inadequate work conditions, peer pressure to underperform, cultural differences, and alienation. The document then discusses potential solutions to underperformance, such as coaching, counseling, discipline, or reorganizing job roles. The overall aim is to help managers identify and address the root causes of underperformance among their staff.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
APPRAISAL SKILLS
Managing the Under-Performer

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Some managers of people dislike taking responsibility for
the chronic under-performers amongst their staff in the
belief that it will reflect badly on them. Instead they blame
management for "taking them on in the first place"; for "not
properly training them" or for "not dealing with them when
we had the chance". But not facing up to serious under-
performance doesn't manage it; it perpetuates it and by
seeming to condone it, makes it worse.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
UNDER-PERFORMANCE
The symptoms of under-performance can appear in various
guises. They all amount to a failure to reach minimum
standards or agreed targets.
Twelve common symptoms of low performance are...
1. poor attendance
2. insufficient work
3. slow work
4. sloppy work
5. lack of attention to important information
6. dishonesty
7. lack of trust
8. withdrawal from working with others
9. unwillingness to volunteer
10. irresponsible attitudes
11. setting of low targets
12. conflicts with others.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
CAUSES
The reasons why people fail to perform at work are wide
and varied. The appraisal process allows the manager to
uncover reasons for under-performance as a first step to
doing something about it.
Eight common causes of under-performance are...
1. a reluctance to share the work ethic
2. an inability to do the job because of lack of skills
3. a reluctance to do the job because of lack of motivation
4. ill-health
5. inadequate conditions of work
6. a lower standard being set by the group
7. alienation from others
8. the person doesn't share the cultural values of the
group

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THE WORK ETHIC
It used to be thought that the work ethic - the desire to
work and achieve - was a peculiarly Western concept: hence
the epithet, the Protestant Work Ethic. In recent years,
however, the traditional work ethic has been successfully
adopted by other cultures, such as the Japanese and other
Far Eastern societies.
Adrian Furnham defined the characteristics of the work
ethic as…
• a high achievement need
• a high level of individualism
• a belief that you control your life
• a belief that work is central to life
• a belief that work gives you identity ("I am a manager.")
Where these needs and beliefs are not shared, it is likely to
result in a lowering of job performance.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
CAN'T: LACK OF SKILLS
Under-performance at work may be due to a lack of ability,
skill or potential.
1. An Ability is the possession of the means to perform:
take away the means, as happens with physical
disability, and performance is impaired.
2. A Skill is the ability to reach a certain level of
performance. Thus someone may possess the ability to
present information but this ability only becomes a
worthwhile skill when they are able to speak in front of
a large audience and put a message across. The gap
between ability and skill is filled by training, practice
and feedback.
3. A Potential is the untapped ability to perform at a high
level of skill. People who have a potential may under-
perform if they are frightened to risk changes needed to
grow.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
TALENTS
We use the word "talent" to describe inbuilt gifts. The
parable of the talents as told in the Gospel of St Matthew
(chapter 25) says a lot about using the talents we have.
Before going off on business, a master gave his three
servants, according to their ability, five talents, two talents
and one talent. (A talent was originally an ancient unit of
money weighing 38 kilograms.) In his master's absence, the
first servant traded his five talents and made another five;
the second servant likewise made a gain of two; but the
third servant, out of idleness, wasted his one talent and had
nothing to show for it.
The returning master heaped praise on the first two
servants who had wisely used their talents. But the
unprofitable servant who had wasted his talent was "cast
into outer darkness."

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
WON'T: LACK OF MOTIVATION
People with skill and ability may under-perform if they lack
the motivation to try. This can happen if...
1. it is more attractive not to try, for example, if there are
serious risks involved in trying
2. people don't think that making the effort is worthwhile,
ie they have nothing to gain
3. the rewards in trying do not out-balance the rewards in
not trying
4. nobody else is trying very hard. De-motivation is more
infectious than motivation.
5. the group culture is to do so much and then stop. Doing
any more is seen as against group interests.
6. people reserve working energy for non-organisational
activities.
These problems can only be addressed by motivational
management.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
ILL-HEALTH
Ill-health can be the cause of under-performance when a
job-holder is ill, infirm, injured, unfit or temporarily unwell
but decides to stay at work.
There are three common categories of ill-health at work:
mental ill-health such as depression and anxiety, physical
limitations that restrict what employees can and can't do,
and stress.
• statistics show that 1 in 7 men and 1 in 4 women suffer
from some form of mental ill-health at some time in
their working lives.
• statistics also show that many people continue to work
while suffering from disabling ailments such as diabetes,
epilepsy, pre-menstrual tension, migraine and back
problems.
• statistics show that people continue to work while
suffering various degrees of physical and mental stress.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
INADEQUATE CONDITIONS
Industrial psychologists such as Frederick Herzberg suggest
that, while good conditions may not positively motivate
employees, bad conditions de-motivate and result in poor
performance.
The "Adam" Factors: the de-motivators at work include
poor physical conditions, noise, dirt, unsafe systems of
work, insufficient rest periods. Because they are basic,
Herzberg called them the "Adam" factors, after the Adam of
the Bible. He pointed out that when these are put right they
have limited power to motivate people.
The "Abraham" Factors: the satisfiers that positively
motivate people are of a higher order than the de-
motivators. They include having responsibility, being
involved in the aims of the organisation and personal
growth. Because they help us change, Herzberg called these
the "Abraham" factors, after the Biblical Abraham.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
LITTLE THINGS MATTER
In a survey of legal secretaries in a "lacklustre department",
author Malcolm Bird discovered that many petty grumbles
affected morale and performance. In the case of the
secretaries, these included....
1. faulty paper being used in the computers which wasted
time and effort
2. a frustratingly inefficient photocopier
3. bosses who disappeared without saying where they were
going and were therefore hard to locate.
All of these performance-sapping grumbles could be simply
eliminated by management attention.
Often they persist because managers are unaware of them
or don't rate them as highly as employees do. Appraisals are
useful opportunities to discuss the petty niggles and take
action to put them right.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
PEER GROUP PRESSURE
One of the performance ideals which managers strive for is
to get the best out of everyone. This means that individuals
perform to their personal best and so inspire the rest of the
team to do likewise. Unfortunately this does not always
happen: personal performance may be restricted by
pressure from the team.
In the studies carried out at the GEC Hawthorne plant by
Elton Mayo's research team in the 1930's, it was discovered
that the work group tacitly agreed to restrict output to 6000
units a day, even though they all knew they could achieve
far more than that.
Anyone who was a rate-buster and went above this level, or
was a rate-chiseler and went below this level, were
threatened with expulsion from the group.

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
ALIENATION
Alienation from others arises when people are excluded
from a group or exclude themselves. It can occur in the
workplace when a person is noticeably different from others
in the group, perhaps because they are of a different class,
race, education or sex.
It is not surprising therefore that when someone is alienated
from the rest of the group, there is a lack of teamwork, low
morale and more energy diverted into dealing with the
exclusion, for example in playing win-lose games between
the person and the rest of the team.
Blauner said that the result of alienation for individual
employees was a feeling of powerlessness,
meaninglessness, isolation, and loneliness, a sure recipe for
under-performance.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
CULTURAL MYOPIA
When all other performance ingredients are present,
problems may still arise between an employee and the
organisation if he or she does not share the deep-seated
beliefs and culture of the organisation.
1. Navajo Indians love to run but they cannot see the point
in racing. They are thus natural athletes but
uncompetitive.
2. Inhabitants of certain parts of East Africa have difficulty
following straight lines since these do not form part of
their visual landscape. When asked to follow a flow-
chart, they cannot do it.
Failing to acknowledge how things are done can lead to
more than just under-performance. The story is told of the
new broom employed by an old firm who broke the taboo
of parking each day in the founding father's car space, until
the old man's patience finally snapped and, "new broom or
not", fired him.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
SOLUTIONS
When under-performance has been identified, it is
important to consider ways to bring people back up to
standard and onto target. Many of the solutions will be
found in the causes. When these are removed, particularly if
they are temporary, things will return to normal.
In development appraisal, the following range of solutions
may lead to action which will improve performance:
1. encouraging people if there is low self-esteem
2. counselling if there are personal blocks
3. coaching if there is an absence of skills
4. re-organising if a person is in the wrong job
5. discipline if the reasons for under-performance are
deliberate and wilful refusal or negligence.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Managing the Under-Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
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