Chapter 21: The Limited, INC.: Using Strategic Performance Management to Drive Brand Leadership

Source: Heneman, R.L. and Thomas, A.L., Compensation and Benefits Review, 27(6), 33-40, copyright © 1997 by Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.

Today’s management practices bring a new complexity to the way work is organized and managed. Companies are asking employees to become team players, rather than individual contributors. Managers are expected to relinquish their positions as authority figures with command and control responsibilities to become leaders, coaches, facilitators, and strategists. And executives are advised to temper their obsessions with quarterly numbers so as to develop a balanced focus on both short- and long-term results.

Many managers are not adequately prepared—or are perhaps unwilling—to deal with these complexities. In this regard, a company’s performance management system should serve as a catalyst for helping them assume these new roles. This is not always the case. And while some companies are creating performance management systems to support the new expectations of employees, relatively little attention is being devoted to developing similar systems for managers.