Page 73 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

Communication in organizations 62

Next the manager asks the employee whether he has any ideas for improvement of his
own: ‘Do you have any suggestions as to how we can arrange this better in the future?’ If
the manager agrees with the employee’s solution, he can then move on to formulation of
the agreement to be made. If he has a different idea, he should paraphrase the employee’s
proposal and then give his own opinion.
On all points of discussion the manager and employee are working towards concrete
agreements for the coming period. These agreements are formulated as clearly as
possible: for example, ‘We agree that we will meet more often, namely once a week.
Hopefully this will take some pressure off you, since you won’t have to take difficult
decisions all by yourself.’ Finally the manager checks whether the employee agrees with
this formulation.

Ending the interview
At the end of the interview the manager first summarizes the agreements made and asks
the employee’s opinion about them. Afterwards some attention may be paid to the
performance evaluation interview itself. When an employee has a performance evaluation
interview for the first time, this subject gets more attention than if it is a routine event.
The purpose of the interview is mentioned again: ‘The purpose of this interview was to
discuss what we both think of your functioning and our cooperation.’
Next the manager asks whether the interview has met the expectations of the
employee: ‘Are you satisfied with the way we reached the agreements?’ The manager
also explicitly asks the opinion of the employee about the interview: ‘Do you think it has
been a useful interview?’
Finally the manager gives his own judgement of the interview. He closes off by
making appointments concerning the written report of the interview and possibly setting
the next interview with the employee. (See Figure 7.1 for an overview of the performance
evaluation interview.)