ABSTRACT
Rewarding and promoting effective performance in organizations, as well as identifying ineffective performers for developmental programs or other personnel actions, are essential to effective human resource management. The ability to perform these functions relies on evaluating employee performance in a fair and accurate manner. However, performance management is the Achilles’ heel of human resources management. A recent survey by Watson Wyatt showed that only 30% of employees felt that their company’s performance management system helped improve performance, and less than 40% said they had clear performance goals and received honest feedback. Although these results suggest that there may be many ineffective performance management systems in organizations, it typically is not poorly developed performance appraisal tools and processes that cause problems. Rather, difficulties arise because performance management is an inherently threatening process for both managers and employees.
