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African Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 3, 2013 ISSN 2079-410X, ISBN 978-9966-1570-3-4

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PERCEIVED VARIABLES AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF FRONTLINE MANAGERS IN INDIAN POWER DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

Suresh VishwakarmaPhD Scholar, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, India

sureshvishwakarma@hotmail.com

Alka DwivediAssistant Professor, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, India

adwivedi@ddn.upes.ac.in

Abstract

Frontline managers in power distribution companies play a key role in providing the most essential services to a large section of country’s population. Consequent to power sector reforms in India, the job of frontline managers has acquired new dimensions and puts various demands on the time and expertise of the job incumbent. In this context the present paper attempts to identify the extrinsic and intrinsic variables that affect the job performance of frontline managers in lately formed power distribution companies (DISCOMs). The data collected from a sample of 100 frontline managers, on analysis, results in a 30-scale item with Cronbach Alpha value 0.965. The validated instrument comprised of five factors: personal support, organizational support, work structure, freedom, and skill variety. Regression analysis shows the relative significance of various factors. The results confirmed significant impact on the performance level depending upon the conducive or contrary status of different variables under study. This paper can help in understanding the perception of frontline managers on various factors affecting their performance at workplace. Replication of the study in different companies and regions can help in overcoming the culture specificity and respondent’s bias which may have affected the results of the study.

Key words: Frontline managers, power distribution companies, engineers, variables, performance.

Introduction and Reserach Objective

Prior to the power sector reforms introduced in India in 1990s, most of the state owned electricity boards and utilities providing the most essential services to a large population were like sick giants suffering from poor infrastructure, financial crunch, non-professional management of the system, low tariffs, high technical, and commercial losses, power theft, misuse, corruption and erosion of values, political interference (IGNOU, 2007). Consequent to reforms, the newly formed power distribution companies (DISCOMs) need to operate more efficiently, generate revenue, and better serve the customers.

Upon introducing reforms, the change management is successfully ongoing. A sense of belongingness is being developed among the human capital (IGNOU, 2007). Efforts are underway to gain confidence of existing employees by assuring employees-friendly policies. Management is stressing on promoting in-house training programmes on quality, skills and technical management to focus on customer satisfaction. The

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management however still faces the challenges of changing the mind-set of employees from the arrogance of monopoly status to politeness in competitive business environment continue to be a great challenge (IGNOU, 2007). More progressive personnel policies and employment conditions are needed to attract and retain highly skilled staff and providing incentives to constantly upgrade their skills.

Frontline managers play a very significant role in the electric utility companies. They act as an inter-face between the customers / public and the utility company (Parvatiyar and Sheth 2002). Frontline Managers in any power distribution companies are the field officers mainly Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers posted at Operation & Maintenance offices in the town, sub-urban, and rural area who interact with the public and different categories of customers on a daily basis. Upon restructuring of the erstwhile State Electricity Boards, new positions of Customer Liaison Officer, Customer Relations Officer, and Customer Advocates have also been created at the frontline level in DISCOMs. Power sector reforms in most of the developing countries including India are still going through the implementation phase and facing problems in achieving their targeted objectives. Frontline managers are now assigned with the responsibilities of playing changed role as per their redesigned jobs. The objective of the study was to understand the reasons that impede frontline managers’ performance and possibilities of improving the same to ensure better customer services at DISCOMs. There are several areas related to work-performance of frontline managers demanding further study and research. From a practical perspective, researchers intend to use the results of this study to identify the various factors perceived by DISCOMs’ frontline managers that affect their performance.

Literature Review

The review of related literature leads to the assumption that various intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence performance of frontline line staff differ on degree and scale along the different variables which contribute to their performance. Ensuring a conducive, cordial, and harmonious work environment (equalityni, 2009) to the frontline managers contributes positively to their individual performance and virtually the overall organizational performance and business results. When it comes to translating a company’s strategy into results, there is no denying the importance of first level leaders-those who manage others who do not manage others. First level leaders are the ones who are most responsible for a firm’s day-to-day relationships with customers and the bulk of employees (Priestland and Hanig 2005). Managers in the frontline are critical to sustaining quality, service, innovation, and financial performance. First-line management is the level in the organization from which come the most frequent reports of incompetence, burnouts, and excessive attrition (Hill, 2003).

Research on the link between human resource management and organizational performance has neglected the role of front-line managers, yet it is these managers who are increasingly charged with the implementation of many human resources practices (Purcell and Hutchinson 2007). Often HR services or programs fail to meet optimum performance not because the systems developed by HR are poor, but because line managers fail to implement these systems effectively. HR needs to devote more effort to working with line executives through influence, training, and communication to

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help them effectively implement the systems developed by HR function (Wright, Snell, McMahan and Gerhart 1998). Various types of culture impacts the motivation level and therefore, the organization should strive to nurture and develop the right type of culture in order to foster the motivation level of the employees which will become a source of competitive advantage. Greater involvement leads to higher level of motivation and engagement with the organization, and this would result in increased performance (Sinha, Singh, Gupta and Dutt 2010).

Managers put performance management into practice, and by doing so will affect employees’ perception as well as their commitment, motivation, and trust (Hartog, Boselie and Paauwe 2004). Work on leadership, leader-member exchange, goal-setting and motivation, perceived supervisory and organizational support, and procedural and interactional justice may help further delineate the importance of direct supervisors and front-line managers in implementing HR practices (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter and Ng, 2001; De Haas, Algera, Van Tuijl and Meulman 2000; Den Hartog and Koopman 2001; Locke and Latham 2002; Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002). The results of study carried out on Performance Productivity and Quality of Frontline Employees in Service Organizations (Singh, 2000) indicate support for the distinction between productivity and quality. Moreover, with increasing burnout levels, Front line employees are found to maintain their productivity levels while their quality deteriorates directly. Relative to boss support, task control emerges as a more powerful resource in aiding front line employees in coping with role tension.

A research on ‘Factors affecting High Performance Work Practices’ revealed that resistance to change was shown by managers when they referred to a fear of losing influence over decision-making and employees in general as new tasks and responsibilities were given to them. This study also found that a poor reward system contributed to an increase in staff turnover, as a result of dissatisfaction with salary levels, causing employees to seek better jobs and higher salaries elsewhere (Shamsi, 2009). Providing the right quality staff is even more important than having the right number of staff. Front-line work is basically a routine activity in many cases, but it may involve a great responsibility in financial or other terms. If this stress factor is not recognized by means of cash or non-cash awards frontline jobs will not necessarily be very attractive to jobseekers. Customers’ opinion of overall service quality is very much influenced by the impression, when they encounter front-line staff (Bencsik and Feher 2006).

When most people picture knowledge workers, they think of engi neers, scientists, or service professionals, not hourly sales people or call center agents (Tichy and DeRose 2006). However, as numerous companies increasingly attempt to differentiate themselves through their service, they are recognizing that the best strategy is creating judgment capability at the front lines. The paradox of shifting power to the front lines is that it requires senior leaders to use their authority to overcome the technical, political, and cultural barriers that often stand in the way (Tichy and Bennis 2008). Com panies must actively invest in creating the support systems that enable frontline leaders to make good judgment calls. When they do, they realize that frontline leaders are those most skilled in mak ing local decisions to simultaneously delight customers and protect the bottom line (Tichy and DeRose 2006).Pay and benefits are equally important to every employee, good or bad (Buckingham

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and Coffman 2005). The companies must therefore ensure bringing its pay and benefits package of their employees at par with the market level. Such initiatives will keep them motivated and performing better because each staff member’s job performance influences the group or team performance and overall organizational effectiveness as well (Gibson, 2000). McKinsey & Company carried out a survey on “How companies manage the front line today”. On the basis of 1674 responses, it reported (2009) that most companies don’t offer sufficient for frontline managers or structure their roles to create the most value. Aggravating the problem, the senior leaders are often unaware of the issues that hinder frontline performance. Companies with effective frontline managers take a different approach. Other McKinsey work has shown that empowering frontline managers to make decisions, anticipate problems, and coach their direct reports (rather than simply following and giving orders and solving crisis) generates higher productivity and benefits (Smet, McGurk and Vinson 2009).

The survey results yielded three important looking ahead. Firstly, increasing the total number of hours dedicated to training and providing training programs that develop leadership and interpersonal skills could help managers improve their performance. Secondly, lack of satisfaction with the performance of frontline management is tied to the way frontline managers’ jobs are designed. By redefining the responsibilities and expectations of frontline management, companies can improve the front line’s performance. Rather than focussing on fixing problems and auditing the work of others, these managers could focus on anticipating problems and coaching their direct reports. Thirdly, senior leaders and frontline managers have different perceptions of what hinders the performance of the front line. They must set aside the belief that frontline employees lack the necessary skills to coach their direct reports or make quality decisions. Further, leaders could actively model the behavior they expect from frontline.

A descriptive study was carried out by Longenecker and Ariss (2005) to identify why service organizations fail to get desired results in this rapidly changing time from frontline managers’ perspective. Providing clear focus, preparing for high performance, creating a high performance climate, creating human resources capability, and practicing organization renewal were the key lessons of this study. The intense literature review was also supported with the inferences drawn from interactive conversation with several frontline managers as well their superiors working with the power distribution companies from Junior Engineer level to Chief Engineer level. The conversation with stake holders in particular customers of different categories, contractors, and regulators on the factors affecting frontline mangers’ gave quite a lot of valuable information.

Methodology

The study started with intense literature review of work done on human resource management in power sector post reforms in India. Due to limited research done on training requirement in Indian power sector in general and power distribution in particular, only few papers were available in public domain. Variables were extracted from the published literature. Additionally three focused group interviews were conducted; each group had about 25 executives employed with four different DISCOMs in central and western India.Based upon the review of literature and group interviews a questionnaire was developed

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(Appendix). The questionnaire had two sections. Section A was designed for collecting demographic details of the respondents. It also records the satisfaction of respondents with their own performance and their perception on satisfaction of their peers, customers/ clients and seniors with their performance on a scale of 1–10. Section B had 30 scale items which described various conditions perceived as affecting positively or negatively the performance of the frontline managers. The responses were collected on a five point Likert Scale where 1 represented ‘Performance is badly affected’, 2 represented ‘Performance decreases a little’, 3= ‘Makes no difference’, 4= ‘Performance improves’ and 5= ‘Performance improves manifold’.

Before finalizing the questionnaire pilot study was carried out on 10 complete responses to test the feasibility. Section B of the questionnaire had 30 scale items which described various intrinsic and extrinsic variables at the workplace of DISCOMs’ frontline managers. Cronbach’s Alpha value for the 30 variables included in the Sections B of the 10 questionnaires was found to be 0.965, which was quite high and acceptable confirming internal consistency (reliability) of data for this group. The acceptable Cronbach’s alpha values range from 0.70 to 0.95 (Tavakol and Dennick, 2011).

The questionnaires were then mailed to 100 frontline managers at four DISCOMs. 50 forms were received completed in all respect with a response rate of 50%. Descriptive analysis was conducted on collected data to understand the demographic profile.

Table 1: Demographic ProfileSr. Variable N = 50 PercentageI Age

25-35 0 036-45 40 8046-55 10 2056 and above 0 0

II GenderMale 45 90Female 05 10

III Experience0-10 0 011-20 5 1021-30 40 8031 and above 5 10

IV DesignationJunior Engineer 5 10Assistant Engineer 25 50Assistant Executive Engineer 5 10Executive Engineer 10 20Others 5 10

V CompanyMPER Power Distr. Company 15 30MPWR Power Distr. Company 25 50MPCR Power Distr. Company 5 10CS Power Distr. Company 5 10

VI DepartmentOperations & Maintenance 10 20Testing 5 10Planning 15 30Extra High Tension 5 10Commercial 15 30

Results of Research Correlations were found between the respondent’s ages, experience, self satisfaction with performance, his perception regarding the peers’, customers’, seniors’ satisfaction with his performance. Factor analysis was done to identify the factors affecting their performance as perceived by the respondents.

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Table 2: Correlations Age Experience Satisfaction

with JobPerformance rated

by customersPerformance rated

by seniorsExperience 0.881**Satisfaction with Job 0.075 0.212Performance rated by Peers -0.712** -0.449** 0.335*Performance rated by customers -0.378** -0.135 0.086 0.713**Performance rated by seniors -0.230 0.051 0.145 0.726** 0.916**

** Significant at 0.01 *Significant at 0.05

The correlation between the frontline manager’s perception of seniors’ rating and customers’ rating of his performance was high and significant (r = 0.916), similarly the correlation between the perceived evaluations by customers and peers was also high (r = 0.713).

Principal Component Analysis was used to extract the components. Varimax rotation with Kaisar normalization resulted in 8 components after 17 iterations. Table 3 shows the components so extracted.

Table 3: Components extractedSr. Factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8I Personal support

Promotion .914 .145 -.236 -.025 .175 .146 .168 -.081Feedback .786 -.042 .391 .020 .171 .155 .210 .360Work culture .515 .461 .325 .168 .138 .482 -.059 .365Family support .630 .104 .515 .320 .227 .116 -.244 .315Experience .806 .169 .220 .055 -.195 -.102 -.470 -.037Political pressure -.910 -.136 .118 -.228 .034 .054 -.076 .278Peers’ Pressure -.613 -.177 -.279 -.279 -.015 .479 .424 .167Communication .824 .263 .298 .068 .238 .138 -.082 .276

II Organizational SupportRecognition .324 .775 .399 .079 -.156 .109 .012 -.303Rest interval -.071 .683 .229 -.434 .210 .450 .128 .155Office layout .566 .700 .403 -.090 .032 .120 -.011 .067Safety and security .131 .873 .077 .343 .219 -.176 .040 -.129Use of training .131 .873 .077 .343 .219 -.176 .040 -.129

III Work structureIntervals in work .120 -.344 .682 .129 -.373 -.248 .388 .185Higher education .115 .504 .773 -.154 -.142 .081 .185 .223Day offs -.061 .146 .975 .066 .031 -.057 .066 -.104Policy and performance .302 .324 .766 .306 .169 -.002 -.260 -.167

IV FreedomInformation .572 -.164 -.089 .647 .439 -.054 -.108 .108Work life balance .249 .321 .368 .768 .232 -.072 -.218 -.062Freedom to take decision -.206 -.014 .071 .879 -.249 .008 .340 .055Culture of trust .263 .232 .032 .925 -.010 .056 -.122 -.058

V Skill VarietyMultitask -.170 -.167 -.002 .089 -.850 .426 .022 -.177Better equipment .126 .615 -.149 -.092 -.702 -.261 .124 -.005Applying new skills .251 .311 -.076 .030 .881 .145 .125 -.145

VI Factor 6Task configuration .059 -.075 -.098 -.009 -.006 .979 .151 -.013Incentive .368 .075 .039 .087 -.057 .706 .539 .242

VII Factor 7Overbear boss .025 .305 .128 .079 .132 .143 .913 -.113Training -.117 -.175 .047 -.218 -.203 .477 .750 .273

VII Factor 8Support from colleagues -.004 -.098 -.033 -.020 .051 .033 .134 .983Age mix -.134 .370 -.023 .031 .377 -.393 .405 -.618

As the factors six, seven and eight have only two variables loading on them they are

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removed from further analysis. This leaves us with five factors named as Personal support, Organizational support, Work structure, and Autonomy and Skill variety. The first group included eight items related to personal support namely promotion, feedback, work culture, family support, experience, political pressure, peer pressure, and communication. The second group related to organizational support and had the scale items namely recognition, rest interval, office layout, safety & security, and use of training The third factor related to interesting work profile, higher education, day offs, policies and performance. The fourth factor – autonomy included the scale items related to information, work life balance, freedom to take decision, culture of trust in the organization. The fifth factor had only three scale items loaded on it i.e. performing multitasks, better equipment, and applying new skill and was interpreted as skills variety.

The responses collected from different groups confirmed considerable impact of as many as 30 extrinsic and intrinsic variables on the job performance and mental state of the frontline managers at DISCOMs.

Table 4: Impact of variablesSubscale

Personal Support

Organizational Support

Work Structure

Freedom Skill Variety

Number of items 8 5 4 4 3Mean 3.85 4.04 4.18 4.38 3.90Variance 1.36 .08 .02 .05 1.27Cronbach’s Alpha .59 .91 .86 .87 .32

In spite of the geographical, cultural, and other demographical differences, the variables under study have proved to have significant impact on frontline managers’ performance at their respective workplaces. The results confirmed remarkable increase or decrease in the performance level depending upon the conducive or contrary status of different variables under study. As seen in the Table 4, the mean value of each of the 5 extracted factors is above 3.8 confirming that frontline managers’ performance will improve for sure if they get support from their superiors and their working environment is conducive. The consequences included reduced morale, decreased satisfaction, increased stress to the frontline managers and ultimately retention issues for both DISCOMs and frontline managers.

Regression analysis was used out to find out the relative significance of the perceived factors affecting performance of frontline managers.

Table 5: Regression Analysis results Independent Variable R2/Sig Beta t Sig Order of

ImportancePersonal Support (PS) 0.615 5.467 0.000 2Organizational Support (OS) -0.16 -0.125 0.901 5Work Structure (WS) 0.592/0.000 -0.617 -5.522 0.000 1Freedom (FR) -0.309 -3.221 0.002 4Skill Variety (SV) 0.382 3.752 0.001 3

Constant = -4.441 (t= -1.190, p= .241)

The overall regression model was found significant. For the given scale F = 15.208, p<

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0.001 with 59.2 percent variance explained by the identified factors.

The results of the above table can be expressed in the form of the regression equation:

JS = -4.441 + 0.615 (PS) – 0.16 (OS) -0.617(WS) -0.309 (FR) + 0.382 (SV)

The equation clearly shows that work structure has maximum impact upon the perceived job satisfaction of frontline managers in DISCOMs, followed by personal support and skill variety. Freedom to take action or make decisions, and organizational support are least impactful among the identified variables. At the same time it is noticed that the personal support and skill variety are positively correlated with perceived satisfaction with job while organizational support, work structure and freedom are negatively correlated with it.

Discussions

Reform in power sector, just being a decade old have reflected an immense need of reorientation of work practices at the power companies. With the rapid changes in the power sector, the updating of skills and competencies of the affected workforce becomes a primary concern. As the study proceeded to the phase of data collection, it was observed that not many people in the ranks of frontline managers were in the age group of 20-30 years. Employees with 21-30 years of work experience were working as frontline managers, which invariably reflected in the sample.

As the correlations were calculated between the age of a respondent and his perceived satisfaction with his job performance, his perception about his peers’, customers’ and seniors’ rating of his performance, it was found that age was negatively correlated with the later three and was insignificantly correlated with respondents’ own satisfaction with his job. This implies that although the frontline managers in power distribution companies do not feel too happy with their own performance and at the same time they perceives that their colleagues and customers are also not happy with their job. The phenomenon is more prominent with older employees. Interestingly, the correlation between the frontline manager’s perception of seniors’ rating and customers’ rating of his performance was high and significant (r = 0.916), similarly the correlation between the perceived evaluations by customers and peers was also high (r = 0.713). Thus when a frontline manager perceives that his customers like his performance he also believes that his peers and seniors also like his job performance but it is not so with his own perception of his performance. It can be observed that many of the respondents though believed that their peers and seniors may rate their performance high but they themselves did not view their own performance with similar positivity and evaluated themselves quite low. It may be taken as indicative of increase in the element of objectivity in performance appraisals as well as giving them challenging tasks and enabling environment so that they can explore their optimum potential.

The five factors which were identified as the ones perceived by the frontline managers of the selected DISCOMs to be affecting their performance are personal support, organizational support, work structure, freedom, and skill variety. The respondents believed that if they get continued recognition in the terms of promotion and feedback

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from the higher management and support from the family their performance gets positively affected. Political pressures, peer pressure and absence of performance supportive work culture hindered their work. One of the identified scale item with high reliability was organizational support indicated structural factors like office layouts, rest intervals, training implementation and safety and security provisions, affecting their performance. The other three factors viz. work structure freedom to take decision and skill variety looked similar to the factors mentioned in job characteristic model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). A task properly structured which provides the scope to apply new skills and also gives the freedom to take decisions within the given jurisdiction was seen by the respondents as supportive of high performance.

The results of the study were very much up to the expectations of authors. Most of the factors included in the five extracted components – personal support, organizational support, work structure, freedom, and skill variety perceived by the frontline managers were consistent with the outcomes of the past studies / surveys. The extracted component – organizational support is in line with the observations of the study on Impact of work culture on motivation level of employees in selected public sector companies in India (Sinha, Singh, Gupta, and Dutt 2010). The extracted component – Personal support agrees with the observations of Tichy and DeRose (2006) on Leadership Judgment. Two more extracted components – work structure and skill variety are in consistency with McKinsey & Company’s survey results (2009) on “How companies manage the front line today” which revealed that the performance of frontline management is tied to the way frontline managers’ jobs are designed, and skills development / training could help managers improve their performance.

Summary and Conclusions This study highlights the potential impact of various extrinsic and intrinsic variables on the performance of frontline managers in power distribution companies. The study gives valuable information to the management and human resources wing of the lately formed power distribution companies on the possibilities of improving the working environment and workplace culture to ensure better services to customers. It also contributes to the academics by giving supporting information on the impact of 30 different variables to further the research on understanding what additional variables may also exist and how they can be addressed to ensure higher productivity and customers’ satisfaction.

The results of the regression analysis confirm that various factors impact the work performance of the frontline managers at the power distribution companies. These companies should therefore strive to nurture and develop a suitable scenario in order to foster the performance of their frontline managers which will eventually become a source of competitive advantage. At the end of the day, an improved performance of frontline managers contributes to higher overall organizational performance.

Every research study is limited by the constraints placed on the researcher (Yin, 2009) and accordingly this study is no exception. These limitations would negatively affect its generalisation till further replications with larger samples. In this study, it was not possible to cover all work performance associated variables that affect the quality of study undertaken, since some were inherent within the companies while some are still in inception stage. Another major limitation was the non availability of published

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researches in the field. As reforms in power sector is a recent phenomenon not much of the research is done upon the employee perception of his changed job profile. Similar studies of frontline managers’ perception of the factors affecting their job performance in other power companies may help in giving a more accurate picture.

AcknowledgementsAuthors are grateful to various frontline managers, stakeholders, manufacturers, and contractors for sparing their valuable time and efforts in responding to the questionnaire at a short notice as well as sharing their experience with the authors on the subject.

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