Chapter 6 - Extra Readings

Get Rid of the Performance Review!

Samuel Culbert builds a compelling argument against Performance Reviews, but some of his assumptions are weak at best. First, Performance Doesn't Determine Pay is in no way a truisms. In every company I ever worked for, performance within the established system was directly linked to promotions and pay increases, including bonuses. The only place I have seen where performance was not linked to pay was in union shops. Secondly, One Size Does Not Fit All. Well, true, but I am not convinced that it is even remotely beneficial to allow major deviations from the system accepted normal behavior just because not everyone is the same. Companies have certain corporate images that they want their employees to portray the public, and employees that can not, or will not act within the accepted normal behavior of the job, should not have to be tolerated just because the poor person has personal issues at home. Finally, in the section Immorality of Justifying Corporate Improvement, he states that "it's immoral to maintain the façade that annual pay and performance reviews lead to corporate improvement." I think immoral is a strong word, inappropriately used, and inflammatory. Additionally, he states in this section that he feels that "every organization should be considered partially a public entity" which smacks of Fascism.

I guess I just don’t get it, or I am just still fighting some of the ideas and philosophies that are presented on the book and the extra readings. Maybe its that I don’t work with 5,000 highly educated engineers and MBA's at SAS. I understand the theory, but does the theory really work in practice. It makes for a much more employee friendly work place. Disney is a great place where these ideas and theories are put to practice, but do these theories work everywhere on every business.

I believe that if used correctly, performance reviews can be useful for both the employee and the company. I do not think that waiting for 12 months to give any feed back to the employee is wise at all. Open communication and a strategy of positive reinforcements and extinction should be used to guide to workforce proactively. To a lesser degree, punishments should be used prior to firing an employee. I like goal setting and management by objectives, and I liked Culbert's "Alternative." Managing people is not a one time a year evaluation. It’s a constant interaction between manager and employee. I think performance reviews fall short of the mark when weak managers use them as the primary interaction with their workforce.