ABSTRACT
The growth of performance management has been one of the main developments in HRM in the last decade, although the name itself dates from the 1970s and it is a development from the even older concept of management by objectives. At one level it is strategic in that it is concerned with integrating the different dimensions of an organization’s operations; but it is also concerned with the role of the individual manager and indeed expects responsibility to be shared by all members of the organization. The integration is primarily vertical, aligning organizational, team and individual objectives, but can also be functional, bringing together functional strategies in different parts of the organization and within functions, such as integrating different aspects of HRM. We cannot look at all the issues that might be involved in managing performance, but after introducing the principles and measurement of performance, we take up three major components of its operation, appraisal, rewards systems, and the training and development of staff.
