ABSTRACT
It is as well to begin a series of discussions highlighting key concepts in HRM with one that emphasises performance. Performance becomes vivid and measurable as an aspect of assessment otherwise referred to in terms such as (performance) ‘evaluation’, ‘appraisal’, or ‘review’. As discussed elsewhere in this book, performance can be measured and improved at various levels of HRM activity: organisational, team level, and individual. Assessment appears as a specialist and outsource able activity, e.g. the ‘assessment centres’ that specialise in recruiting and selecting the staff that organisations need. Thus, assessment is an important part of management including management of perform ance, discussed elsewhere in this book under specific concept head ings such as performance management and performance and rewards. From an HRM perspective, the ‘bottom line’ remains that performance at any level which becomes manifest and thereby (poten tially) manageable and improvable in as far as it can be assessed. This holds true regardless of national, organisational or regional context; and regardless of whether we are talking about HRM in ‘for profit’ or in ‘not for profit’ organisations, in family businesses or venture start ups, in established small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and in globally influential multi national enterprises or corporations (MNEs/MNCs).
