Product Description

The authors separate the five discrete functions of appraisal: coaching, feedback, compensation, employee development, and legal documentation and clarify the objectives of each. They examine the atrocious track record of appraisals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240490 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Customer Reviews

Refreshing thoughts! Whether you abolish or not!
I found the book very refreshing. It deals with all the functions of the traditional performance appraisal process, and for each function systematically mentions the classic (most common) underlying assumptions as well as alternatives. Reading a more classical book like Dick Grote's 'The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal' and this book gives you a panorama-view of all aspects involved. It teaches one that there is no one best approach: choose the approach you like for your organisation, and avoid drawbacks of some too rigid popular opinions! Very enjoyable reading.

Abolish Bureaucracy to Encourage Improvement!
This book has more perspectives and detail about the problems with performance appraisals than you would have learned about in 20 years combined. As a result, the suggestion to abolish performance appraisals comes as no surprise (especially since that's the title) and the logic is appealing, as well. To get rid of performance appraisals will be difficult in most companies, because people will not be able to imagine what the alternatives can be. The book's rich detail about the problems, and then the many suggestions in it for how to develop replacements fill those gaps.

If you are like me and dislike performance appraisals, get this book to help you to migrate away from them.

Since I never liked performance appraisals, I abolished them years ago in our consulting firm. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the mechanisms that I had substituted for performance appraisals were consistent with the authors' recommendations.

I am a big believer in complexity science, and like to see organizations operating in more free form ways. You have to eliminate strait jackets like performance appraisals to get to that point.

The thrust of the alternative is to place the responsibility with each person in the company for their own development, but be sure that they get access to the resources and feedback they need to improve. This is also very revealing because people vary enormously in how interested they are in improving. If you put the ball in their court, you will learn a great deal about the future potential of the people in the organization. Some will try very little. Some will try a lot. Many will not follow through. But you will have opened a doorway through which the most motivated to improve can go as far as they want. That's terrific!

The only part of the book that I disagreed with is that the authors think that all performance measures are bad. In my experience and in my research, I find that performance measures that people set for themselves that they think are important are extremely valuable for focusing and stimulating performance. The authors seem to think that employees will always focus on goals that help their little area rather than the whole company. That occurs only when people don't understand how the whole business works. That's an education issue, not a performance measurement issue.

After you have read and begun to apply this book, I suggest that you also think about where else in your organization you have bureaucratic practices that stifle innovation, hurt morale, and slow down progress. Then, use this book as a model for how to undo those harms as well. In many companies, processes for controlling capital expenditures and authorizing new product development often have these effects. As a result, little experiments are inhibited that the company can afford to fail in by processes designed to keep from making big mistakes with billions.

Free up everyone to feel good about themselves, to become better, and to cooperate more freely to improve the organization!

A new way of approaching an old problem
I am going to write my final paper about 360-degree evaluation and this book was recommended to me. It was worth while. Contrary to many books I read this one offers new ways of approaching an old problem.

More and more employees depend on a good work-climate and also a good personal relationship to superiors. This is partly due to the fact that strong personal bounds to relatives, neighbours and so on no longer exist. So positive emotions and feed-back have to come from the work surroundings.

Also people today feel more independent and should be more creative as ever before. Being evaluated by superiors the traditional way is contra-productive here. This wonderful book can help to improve the situation and create a better atmosphere at work.