What is the advantages and disadvantages of MBO?Can it be applied in the Chinese society?
... and Giegold, the process of MBO could be simply be the plan, performance and review stage, it could be seen as a process of participation, collaboration and evaluation. The plan stage Superiors and subordinates jointly set up the overall organizational objectives that are clear, clarity, specificity, measurability, achievability and can be segment into the individual objectives. Also a time frame will also be set for the subordinates to achieve the objectives within a certain period of time. The performance stage After setting up the objective of the organization and having a mutual agreement on that objective, they are motivated by the superior in order to concentrate on their works so as to achieve the objective The review stage Within the time frame set by the organization, each subordinate should review and appraise the result. The superior then assess their performance by the details and the measure of the objectives that have set in the earlier stage. The results of performance review and appraisal process therefore are fed back to the organization. Comments will be used as the guidelines for setting up the next objective or the basis for the subordinates・ development. Advantages of MBO MBO is a rational system that is relatively easy for everyone in the organization to understand. It has wide ranges of advantages. First, as the superior and the subordinates jointly identify objectives, the participation of the subordinates in the companies・ management would induce their sense of belonging and thus increase their commitment to the organization. Second, as the objectives have been set up in the earlier stages, and both the superior and the subordinates have reached the agreement about the objectives, the subordinates will have concrete objectives and thus save the time in getting to the right direction. It also avoids the any conflict and misunderstanding about the objectives. Also it will be more efficient in determining training and recruitment needs. Third, MBO encourages the co-ordination between the departments and also between the individuals. Productivities will be increased due to the communication and it will be more efficient in managing the company. On the other hand, as every position in the organization has their own objectives, the co-ordination would reduce any misallocating or wastage of resources. Lastly, MBO has the process of performance appraisal. The subordinates・ performances will be appraisal if they have achieved the objectives or even better. This kind of appraisal system will motivate the individuals to work hard and try their best to achieve their own objectives. The companies・ output may increase due to this reason. Also it can help in eliminating the subjectivity from the manager. Disadvantages of MBO No system is prefect, and MBO has its share of problems. The main problem is that the excessive formal requirement of the MBO --- the process of completing forms, updating changes, and providing other information to the personnel unit monitoring the MBO system. MBO has some other disadvantages. First, the goals set by the superior and subordinates may be unrealistic that could not possibly be achieved. This could lead to a wastage of resources and time when they find it unattainable. Thus causes inefficient of the process. Also there are some goals that may be hard to quantify but are important to the subordinates・ job success, such as team morality, advertisement of the product or the company. Second, the organizations those operate in volatile or unstable external environment (e.g. economy, political) may disprize the effectiveness of the MBO system. Such organizations must manage with imprecise goals that may vary rapidly in time. As a result, MBO which attempts to develop specific objectives is usually not appropriate in these situations. Also, subordinates may fail to complete the task if they are not given enough resources or authority to do so. In addition, the subordinates may only concentrate on the individuals・ goals or shot-term goals and put a lot of efforts on it rather than the organization goals or long goals. This may harmful to the development of the organization, as well as break down the team spirits. Can MBO be applied in the Chinese society? In this part, I will express my view on whether the MBO can be applied in the Chinese society or not. Before draw out the conclusion, let me indicate the favourable and unfavourable factors of applying MBO in the Chinese society. There are some favourable factors for the MBO to apply in the Chinese society. First, Chinese people believe that ：cooperation is the power；. The Chinese people are willing to work with different people so as to achieve the task more quickly and efficiently. Therefore, the Chinese people often work in group. As communication and teamwork is important in applying MBO, this kind of sense allow the superior and the subordinates jointly together to set the organization objective. Second, Chinese people has a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is effective for the development of the organization as well as the performance of the subordinates. To do so, one of the methods is the participation of the subordinates with superior in the goals setting and frequent discussion between them. MBO encourages the subordinates・ participation in the goals setting. If the subordinate are engage in setting up of the objectives, they will be more likely to obey the superior and accept the company goals. In addition, Chinese people prefer appreciation than reproach. With a certain amount of reward and appraisal, Chinese people are more likely to work harder and intend to have better performance. As the process of MBO includes the performance review and it encourages rewards for outstanding performance, this kind of thought can bloom up the outputs of the organizations. In contrast, there are some unfavourable factors that hinder the applying of the MBO in the Chinese society. First, Chinese people has the culture of ：face；. Subordinates may find it humiliated if the superior reprove about the bad performance and assess the negative performance review within the group. This may lead to conflicts between the subordinates and the superior, weaken t...