Research On Performance Management For Knowledge Workers Based On PDCA Cycle

As the most precious element of the intellect capital, knowledge workers (KW), the carrier and creator of knowledge, are the most important resources strategically in the modern organization, which is more and more concerned and emphasized. In view of their particularities on individual trait, psychological demand, work behaviors and so on, the performance management (PM) becomes the difficulty and emphasis of managing KW, which influences the success or failure of the organization operating directly.Assimilating and referring the existing and available research results sufficiently, on the basis of defining the concept of the KW and analyzing their characteristics and PM systematically, the dissertation constructs the basic model of PDCA cycle of PM system for KW with the guide of the theory of Total Quality Management (TQM), Systematic Science, HRM etc., mainly utilizing the qualitative and quantitative analysis, normative and case research synthetically. Mainly based on the basic idea of TQM and intending to solve the actual and existent problems of the current PM, the model involves the prior control, process control and feedback control, which fully reflects the advantage on controlling of PDCA cycle. Meanwhile, the improvement of the performance is just achieved by the unceasing circulating of P, D, C, A. Subsequently, on the principle of continuous improvement and enhancement, the process of the PM system for KW is established with the thought of PDCA cycle. Besides, the four phases including Plan, Check, Do and Action (PDCA) are elaborated.During the phase of Performance Plan, after analyzing the traditional viewpoint on the worker’s performance synthetically, the thesis argues that KW’s performance is a comprehensive entity including the result, process and prospective return. In addition, the characteristics of KW’s performance are dissertated in detail. And then the author emphatically studies the construction of the performance evaluation index system for KW. Based on the idea of looking-forward on the performance management and to reflect KW’s overall work in view of the possession, exertion and potential of their abilities, the performance evaluation index system for them is constructed from four dimensions which are dissertated respectively in detail including the basic quality, the task performance, the contextual performance, and the prospective performance. The basic quality which appraises the possession of KW’s abilities consists of four indexes including the moral character, the professional knowledge and the experiential level. The task performance involves three indexes including the task’s quantity, the task’s quality as well as the creative productions. The contextual performance is sorted into three indexes composing of the unity and cooperation, the sense of responsibility, and the positivity. The exertion of KW’s abilities is just assessed by both the task performance and the contextual performance. The prospective performance which checks the potential of KW’s abilities consists of four indexes including the innovation ability, the communication ability, the work efficiency, the learning and share ability of their knowledge. Wholly, there are four primary indexes and thirteen secondary indexes. And then the paper dynamically analyzes the design of the index system among which the author points out that the evaluation indexes and their weight should be adjusted correspondingly along with KW’s different phase of their professional career development and also states the establishment of the performance contract. During the phase of Performance Appraisal, the model of the performance appraisal system for KW is constructed with the Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation. Lastly, in view of the requirements of PDCA cycle and the characteristics of KW and their performance, some measures and suggestions are put forward to apply PDCA cycle in the PM system for KW successfully. Hopefully, the dissertation could be of great help for some organizations and managers.