Perhaps annual or six monthly performance appraisals are a resounding success in your organisation.  If that is the case, then count your blessings because on the whole, performance appraisal is a failed enterprise. Consider for example the fact that, as research shows: 

• Managers don’t like doing appraisals - some would rather attend ten dentists’ appointments on the same day than do an employee appraisal.
• Employees don’t always find a positive experience

Or consider this:

• Employees hired by the appraiser receive higher scores than others
• Evaluations are more positive for underlings with managers from the same social demographic
• Performance reviews (in jobs where work is difficult to assess objectively) mostly reflect employees’ ability to ingratiate themselves with the boss

The spectacularly damming aspect of the traditional review process is that it fails to help employees to learn something about a better way to work. But as Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer’s article suggests ‘A recession is a good time for managers to focus more on evidence and less on received wisdom or old habits. Asking hard questions about performance management would be a good place to start.’ Read his whole article for further discussion

Tags: appraisal, Jeffrey+Pfeffer, performance+review

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Engaging People, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.