Performance Appraisals do More Harm Than GoodDonald LaCombe, Consultant, United States
My experience is that Deming was right: performance appraisals do more harm than good. Much of the time
what they show is how disconnected management is from the everyday realities of the work.
Given that most organizations feel this is an absolute necessity here are a few issues:
- How often are the stated performance objectives priorities over-ruled by "do this now" actions (fighting alligators versus draining the swamp).
- Are the performance objectives based on process realities or something that someone wants to happen but actually never does.
- Have the employees been coached frequently toward the objectives or is this an annual "leave alone-zap" (see Ken Blanchard) appraisal.
- I worked for a company whose CEO decided to get rid of the non performers or "un-promotables" what happened was everybody worked on getting promoted instead of doing the job. It took the company a decade to recover from that misstep..
