Performance Management in Accenture

Performance Management in Accenture

“Performance management is about people. It's not about systems or processes or rules or computer systems. It's about people” (Business Balls).

Scores of contemporary academic scholars from the strategic management literature have proposed several ways through which organisations can achieve better advantage and become better amongst their competitors. Porter (1985) has for example proposed the competitive advantage strategy. In his seminal work, Ansoff (1965) have proposed the growth strategy as a strategy towards achieving growth within a competitive environment while in human resource management - prominent scholar like Ulrich (1998) has proposed strategic HR - all as ways of achieving core competencies and gaining competitive advantage. Indeed, there is consensus amongst academia’s that all these strategies are central to the growth and profitability of any organisation. However, important to achieving any modicum of such growth is the dedication, commitment and motivation of employees in organisations.

To establish and manage motivation and employee commitment, contemporary organisations have employed performance management systems as a way of linking employee interest to that of overall management objective. In its simplest sense, Pilbeam and Corbridge (2010) suggest that performance management system is a continuous process of managing employee motivation and aligning them with the overarching objective of the organisation (p. 5). In a more inclusive definition of Armstrong (2006) he defines performance management as a way of instituting a high performance culture in which individuals and teams take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and also for their own skills and contributions within a framework that is agreed on and provided by effective leadership. The authors further suggest that there are several stages which when followed will ensure a systematic and efficient performance management process. This process encompasses the setting of goals and a constant review of such goals. A more holistic process to managing performance has been proposed by Bratton and Gold (2007) conceptualises the diagram below.

Performance Management Model Source: Mullins (1999)

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the employee performance management of organisations using the role of a financial manager at Accenture as the focal point. Accenture is a global management consulting firm which offers a range of services to clients around the world. The firm offers institutional services such as advising, technology and outsourcing as well as collaborates with governments and private institutions around the World on different projects and services. As a financial manager at Accenture, the main function is to provide