Week 4 - Discussion 2

Eliminatin g Performailc€ Appraisals

Should organiz.tions stop doing perform:rnce appraisalsl' -t'he argumenl in t-avor o1 elirninating

them is that the.r treq.,ently do -n

o..: damage than good. Among the darnage that they are said to

do. the least trogbl.rt." is wasting time, and the: nlost troublesonle is thLe erlicnation ot employees and ,creatirLg conllicts between therrr a.nil their supervison;.

There is no doubt that in many orga'nizatiorts p';r[ormance appraisals ar'e poorly' done' ttnd that

they create a multitude of protlems. HorvevDr, it is important to point out that they exist because

of the need to motivate, diicct, ancl imprc,ve the performance of in,lividuLals ancl organi;zations'

Those who adv,ccate eli6inating perforntance appraisals don't disagrec lvith these needs, but

they point out tlhat ma.nagers .un una do this any'way' and that therelbre' performance appraisals

are a redundant bureaucratic lroublesome actil it'y'

It is hard to argue with the point that "good managers" do what a good Jrerlbrmance aFrprilisal is

supposed to do, 'l'he fact thit they can ancl do it suprports the argunrcnt that appraisals can be

eliminated, or ert least, radically iimplifie,d. I'he "problern" is tlrat manS' managcrs do not manage

in ways that make p.ifbrton.e appiaisals unnecessary' Dcspitc ttris, somc conlpanies havc

declaied that thLey are pcrlbnnancc appra.isal-flce organizations.

Organizations do not havc to makc a chc,ice bctrveen no perfbrmance appraisals and e'/eryonc

haiing a performancc appraisal. An interesting eLltornative is to rc'quire perlornlance allpraisals

only wheie thcy are ,.....rro.y. One appnrac;h organizations carrtakc to elinrinating unn.a.rrury pr"f,rrn1,rnce appraisals is to lbcus on identil'ying thosc miinagers

who ha'u'c the

motivation, marnagement skiils, ancl behaviors tha1. make their doing lbrmal pcrfbtmance

appraisals unngcessary. In essence. this approaclh iitcntihes nlanaliers rvho are good manitgers

and leaders an<j, as a result, do not neocl to tlo per{brmancc apprair;als. 'l'hey can be cerlified as

not needing to do perforn.)ance appraisals r,r ithL tlheir direct reports and tlncir part of the

organ ization can be clec I ared performirn cc i'ppra.i sa I -free.

The challcnge in operatirrg with this approtrch, of'course, is deciding wlnich manitgers in an

organization nee,J io do p-r{ormance appraLsals and which do not' Parl o[-this process needs to

be training managers to Le sure thcy hai)c trc ri1gh1. skills, and gathering data showing that the

people wo-rking 1br tlhem have been treirled in wa;,s that rnake trarjitiorral perftrrmance appraisals

unnecessary.

A clear advanl.age o1'this appraisal-fiec approaoh j,s that it will mtltivatr-- managers thrcughout an

organization to become certifled as perfbrnranc,J appraisal-free ffL?Ilitg€rrS. It can rnake:being

aplraisal-free valueclas a part of a manager's pacltage of'skills. Without this approach' there

often is little incenti.,re for manage,rs 1o liearn t.hr: srl<ills that are necessal'y to do good perlbrmance

appraisals, and to learn thc skills that make th.em unnessary.

One needed feature rtf an appraisal-free approar;h is a training course fi)r employ'ees a'bout what

they, should expect from their manager .giu." that there will be ntl lbnrLal perfornlanc': appraisal'

Unfortunately, in most organizations tolal', employees are not e','en trained in how tlLey should

behave in the performance appraisal. This is one 9f the many feasonsi why they are not

particularly effective i n most organi zatiorrs'

Of course, even the be,st performance managenrent systcm cannot make rall managers el,I'ective at

setting goals, cc,aching, and giving fee<lback. The a:rswer lbr them is not eliminating the

appraisal systenr; ,it is eliminating ttrerl'

At this point, you ma),be wondering if'l lkncw o1'any organization that has utilizetl the idea of

certifying managers a:s appraisal-fi"ee. 'fhe ansrver jLrs no, but there i:Lre probably some out there' If

not, hopefully tlhis; piece will stimglate so'me organizations to seric'usly c'onsider this idea' and

develop a progranl that ultimately leads to plrlbrmtrnce appraisal f iec zones in organizations and

ultimaiely orgarnizations that are efl'ectiVe arrd performance apprai';al-fi'e:e'