Page 247 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

phases in the implementation process 231
implemented for individual jobs (see Pritchard, 1995), for example, bank employees and
university teachers. Looking in more detail to the implementation process, there seem
to be no big differences between implementing ProMES for work teams compared to
implementing ProMES for individual jobs. The main reason is that if a goal-setting and
feedback system is developed for an individual job it pertains to jobs that are done by
many job incumbents. Problems encountered in the implementation process are very
much the same, such as the problem of adoption within the organisation, the problem of
acceptance of a system that has been designed by colleagues in the design team, or the
compatibility with other control systems. In addition to this, the distinction between in-
dividual tasks and group tasks is not always very clear. In the study of Kleingeld (1994),
the maintenance technician job was composed of individual task components and group
task components. A ProMES system was developed to cover both task components. In
our discussion on the implementation process, we therefore will refer to findings from
both group studies and individual studies.
The four phases that can be distinguished in implementing a goal-setting and feedback
system are starting conditions, system design, implementation and maintenance. We will
discuss possible pitfalls in each of the four phases. Table 11.1 presents an overview of
the four implementation phases including the main issues that have to be dealt with.

PHASE 0: STARTING CONDITIONS

This phase precedes the actual design of a goal-setting and feedback system. It includes
a check of the conditions as mentioned by Pritchard (1990), such as the full support of
top management, the common feeling in the organisation that performance improvement
is important but will take much effort and a mutual trust between management and the
employees. Most important, however, is the implementation strategy. One of the basic
characteristics of ProMES is the participation of employees in the design of the system
(Pritchard, 1990), both for the cognitive benefits (i.e., generating ideas for valid per-
formance indicators) and the motivational benefits (i.e., fostering feelings of employee

TABLE 11.1 Implementation model
Implementation phase Main issues and/or pitfalls to be avoided

Phase 0: Starting conditions • Check of the congruence between the principles underlying
the goal-setting and feedback system, e.g. more autonomy
for workers, and the basic values in the organisation
Phase 1: System development • Participation by all individuals involved or participation
by representation
• Time span for development
• Level of knowledge of workers
• Visible support of top management
Phase 2: Implementation • Availability of computerised information systems
• Controllability of performance indicators
• Links with other control systems, e.g. reward systems
Phase 3: Maintenance • Management attitudes and skills in handling feedback data
• Skills in problem solving to arrive at better task strategies