Wednesday 2 February 2011

Objectively Speaking.......

Objective - the object of one's endeavours; goal; aim

My question is....who owns the objectives? We all know that once a year we have to justify our actions and the results against a set of objectives, and usually we will be rewarded for our efforts. But if we get back to basics....whose objectives are they? Are they the employees, the line manager or the companies?

My reason for asking this questions is....what happens if you don't have objectives? What then? Who's role is it to write them?

If the employee is proactive and requests them, or even writes them, then they may not be right from a business point of view, or they may not match the perception of their role/duties of the line manager. This could lead to all sorts of issues around performance management, meeting expectations, managing roles and responsibilities.

Ultimately, I know the best practice answer is that the line manager and the employee should write the objectives together...but lets be honest....sometimes best practice is not feasible for various reasons.

So...what does the employee do? Do they write themselves a set of objectives, and work to them to demonstrate their ability to meet targets and goals? Or do they carry on regardless, and hope that what they do is good enough?

I'd be really interested in thoughts and comments, and how you would advise on this situation.


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