Book description
Performance appraisals are used in the overwhelming majority of workplaces. Yet, most organizations that use appraisal-and a similar percentage of givers and receivers of appraisal-are dissatisfied with the process. Many are beginning to deeply question whether appraisal is necessary and consistent with the work culture espoused by progressive organizations. Abolishing Performance Appraisals provides an insightful, well documented look at the flaws of appraisal-including its destructive, unintended effects-and offers practical guidance to organizations that want to move on to more progressive approaches to coaching, feedback, development, and compensation.
While many books prescribe cures for appraisal, this is the first to focus exclusively on eliminating appraisal altogether and creating alternative, non-appraisal approaches based upon progressive and healthier assumptions about people. The authors expose and dispel the widely accepted myths and false assumptions that underlie common management strategies surrounding the five key functions of appraisal-coaching, feedback, development, compensation, and legal documentation. They then offer step-by-step practical guidance on implementing alternative non-appraisal strategies that deliver the objectives of each function. And they suggest ways to give supervisors and managers the freedom to choose for themselves the most effective ways of working with people.
Filled with real-life examples, resources, tools, and detailed practical advice, Abolishing Performance Appraisals is an entirely fresh and radically different view of performance appraisal and its functions that will help people start over and discover new and more effective approaches.
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- What People Are Saying About Abolishing Performance Appraisals
- Foreword
- Preface
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Letting Go of a Hopeless Ritual
- Part One Why Appraisals Backfire: The Fatal Flaws
-
Part Two What to Do Instead: Five Functions of Appraisal
-
4 Coaching Employees In the New Workplace
- What Do We Mean By Coaching?
- The Changing Role of Supervisors
- Guidance and Direction
- Accountability or Control?
- Rating and Ranking As a Source of Guidance and Direction
- One-Size-Fits-All Approaches to Guidance and Direction
- Goal Setting—A Good Strategy for Improvement?
- What to Do Instead—New Perspectives On Coaching
- Conclusion
- Review of Chapter Assumptions
-
5 Feedback That Makes a Difference
- Starting With a Story
- Conditions for Effective Feedback
- Feedback Assumptions Within Appraisal
- Unhealthy Feedback Assumptions
- Noise Effect of Feedback
- Case Study Wheaton Franciscan Services
- Drawbacks of Feedback As an Improvement Strategy
- Mandated Feedback—Alternatives With Too Many Drawbacks
- Feedback Without Appraisal—What to Do Instead
- Case Study General Motors–Powertrain Division
- Conclusion
- Review of Chapter Assumptions
-
6 How Do We Pay People Without Appraisals?
- The Complexities of Money, Motivation, and Work
- Incentive Pay—Does It Get People to Do Their Best?
- De-Motivation and Motivation
- Our Expectation to Be Paid According to Our Contribution
- Designing Pay Structures With Different Objectives
- Pay Without Appraisal
- Non-Merit Pay Approaches
- What About Abolishing Appraisal With Merit Pay?
- A Little Advice About Changing Pay Practices
- What to Do Instead—Motivation
- Conclusion
- Review of Chapter Assumptions
-
7 Staffing, Promotions, and Development
- Creating a Common Language
- The Myth of the Objective Selection
- The Drawbacks of Appraisals In Selection Decisions
- The Impact of EEO Laws
- Promotions Without Appraisal
- Appraisal and Employee Growth and Development
- Alternative Approaches to Development and Growth
- Career Management and Mandated Development
- Appraisal and Career Track Advancement
- ■Appraisal In Making Layoffs and Downsizing Decisions
- Conclusion
- Review of Chapter Assumptions
- 8 Dispelling the Legal Myths and Dealing With Poor Performers
-
4 Coaching Employees In the New Workplace
-
Part Three How to Get There: The Transition to Alternatives
-
9 Disconnecting Appraisal and Designing Alternatives
- Overview of the Design Process
- Quick Overview of Initial Steps
- Step 1: Assess the Need for Change
- Step 2: Get a Charter from Top Management
- Step 3: Form a Design Team
- Step 4: Look At the Past—A Critical Step
- Step 5: Revisit and Clarify the Overall Objective
- Step 6: Build from a New Set of Assumptions
- Step 7: Begin the Process of Design
-
10 Creating Consensus and Confidence for Change
- Overview of Remaining Steps
- Step 8: Devise a Communication and Educational Strategy
- Step 9: Gather Feedback from Stakeholders
- Step 10: Refine the Design
- Step 11: Get Another Blessing
- Step 12: Complete the Design and Devise an Implementation Strategy
- Case Study Electronic Data Corporation (EDS)— Working Within Corporate Mandates
- Step 13: Plan a Pilot
- Case Study the Perils of Going for the Whole Enchilada
- Step 14: Unveil the Final Design
- Step 15: Educate and Train On the Alternative Systems
- Step 16: Implement and Continuously Improve
- The Remaining Functions of Appraisal
- Conclusion Free At Last!
- What to Do Instead of Appraisal—A Summary
-
9 Disconnecting Appraisal and Designing Alternatives
- What the Sages Say On Performance Appraisal and Related Issues
-
Further Reading and Resources
- On Alternative Approaches Generally
- Appraisals and Their Effects On the Organization and People
- Communication —Alternative Models
- Designing New HR Systems
- Employee Development Tools and Resources
- Feedback
- Legal Documentation
- Organizational Change
- Motivation
- Systems Theory and Emerging Organizational Models
- Notes
- About the Authors
- Index
Product information
- Title: Abolishing Performance Appraisals
- Author(s):
- Release date: October 2002
- Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
- ISBN: 9781605093956
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