Category Archives: Performance Appraisal

Jeffrey Pfeffer on Evidence-Based Practices

Posted on March 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Jeffrey Pfeffer Testifies to Congress About Evidence-Based Practices [the broken link was removed]: In this short statement, I want to make five points as succinctly as possible, providing references for background and documentation for my arguments. First, organizations in both the public and private sector ought to base policies not on casual benchmarking, on ideology or belief, on what they have done in the past or what they are comfortable with doing, but instead should implement evidence-based management. Second, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Public Sector, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged ,

Performance Appraisals Performance

Posted on February 21, 2007 by John Hunter

Appraising the Performance Of Performance Appraisals [the link that IEEE broke was removed] by Harry Goldstein: The traditional annual review covers a lot of ground: coaching and guidance for the employee, feedback and communication, compensation, staffing decisions and professional development, legal documentation, and ultimately, improvement for both the employee and the organization. According to Jenkins and Coens, all of the above can be done better and far less painfully by untangling these functions and designing a process for each. First, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , ,

Performance Appraisals – Is Good Execution the Solution?

Posted on January 15, 2007 by John Hunter

Performance review proponents say the way it is done matters most[the broken link was removed] (based on reaction to: Performance appraisals get low marks[the broken link was removed]): Deming, it seems, has many fans. His view of performance reviews? He included them in his catalog of the “seven deadly diseases” afflicting U.S. management in the late 20th Century. Byrne referred to Deming when he wrote: “The ‘report card’ type of yearly review [does] more harm than good. Review the person … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

How to Prevent Innovation

Posted on December 19, 2006 by John Hunter

Top ten tips for preventing innovation give some great ideas many companies are already doing but you may find some your company hasn’t mastered 🙂 For example: Make performance reviews easy. Create some easy-to-measure metrics (like # of sick-days taken, # of powerpoint slides created, # of meetings attended), and use those for performance reviews. People always gravitate toward the metric. We can run the reviews with a minimum of effort, giving us more time to tell them how to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Righter Performance Appraisal

Posted on October 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Speaking of “doing the wrong things righter” Microsoft has eliminated forced rankings in performance appraisal: to do performance appraisals righter. Microsoft exec puts her stamp on human resources: The forced curve was company policy. And it climbed up a list of employee gripes that grew as Microsoft’s stock, which accounts for much of the company’s compensation, languished. In May, after barely a year as Microsoft’s human-resources chief, Lisa Brummel swept away “artifacts of the past,” starting with the widely disliked … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hiring the Right People

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting on managing by the numbers even when the most important figures are unknown and maybe unknowable. Using HR to find the right person to work in a process they don’t understand (which reinforces the desire to focus on specifications instead … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Recalls at Toyota and Sony

Posted on September 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Recalls by Toyota and Sony shock Japan’s pride [the broken link was removed]: another article discussing the recent recalls at Toyota and Sony. Some have also begun to blame the decline on recent American-style management changes, like performance-based pay, the end of traditional lifetime job guarantees and increased use of temporary workers in order to cut costs. I don’t actually think this is right in Toyota’s case anyway; Toyota seems to have resisted adopting poor management practices form the west … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged | 2 Comments

Signs You Have a Great Job … or Not

Posted on June 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Signs you have a great job … or not by Jeanne Sahadi This article, while presenting an overly simplistic view in my opinion, actually provides some good reminders. The article focuses on 12 questions that seem to be the focus of a recent business book. And some of those questions provide good reminders to managers of things they should pay attention to, such as: Do I know what’s expected of me at work? At work, do I have the opportunity … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Problems Caused by Performance Appraisal

Posted on May 17, 2006 by John Hunter

People are increasingly challenging the notion that we just have to live with performance appraisal systems. As usually, I will make my suggestion that chapter 9 of the Leader’s Handbook offers great material on performing without appraisal (and the rest of the book is great too). Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Problems with Bonuses

Posted on April 3, 2006 by John Hunter

What sort of bonuses should we pay? by Seth Godin: Money, it’s been shown time and time again, is a demotivator. I’m not talking about a fair or even generous salary. Being a cheapskate is no way to find a great employee. But once people have joined your team, incremental money–bonuses and the like–usually demotivate people. He is right. Why salary bonus and other incentives fail to meet their objectives by Dale Asberry. Lean Manufacturing Visionary Jim Womack On Frontiers … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Performance Appraisal Problems

Posted on February 15, 2006 by John Hunter

The Struggle To Measure Performance [the broken link was removed], Business Week: One company that recently decided to dump forced rankings altogether is Chemtura (CEM), a $3 billion specialty chemicals company formed by the July merger of Crompton in Middlebury, Conn., and Great Lakes Chemical in Indianapolis. “The system forced me to turn people who were excellent performers into people who were getting mediocre ratings,” says Eric Wisnefsky, Chemtura’s vice-president for corporate finance. “That demotivates them, and they’d follow up … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Psychology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Performance of People and Appraisal

Posted on December 5, 2005 by John Hunter

The Statistical and Scientific Thinking blog, by John Dowd, has several interesting posts on the Performance of People [the broken link was removed]: Why can’t performance be numerically rated and ranked? It can’t be defined operationally, it can’t be measured with any degree of precision, it can’t be separated from other effects, and it is destined to vary over time in any case. Any one of these factors present significant (if not insurmountable) problems itself. Combined the problems create an … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , ,

Performance Without Appraisal

Posted on October 1, 2005 by John Hunter

In response to the Alternatives to Stack Ranking? post on the popular Mini-Microsoft blog. I’m also taking some time to contemplate on Deming’s points and assess how Microsoft is doing against them. … What I would deeply appreciate is real-world experience from people living with stack ranking alternatives. I strongly suggest chapter 9 (Performance Without Appraisal) of The Leader’s Handbooks, by Peter Scholtes. You mentioned Deming. When asked “If we eliminate performance appraisals, as you suggest, what do we do … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Failed Practice: Forced Ranking

Posted on August 19, 2005 by John Hunter

The ABCs of Rank and Fire Management [the broken link has been removed] by Mark Edmondson Due in part to the influence of GE, employee ranking has become more widely adopted over the past 20 years. According to a 2004 study, currently about 34 percent of firms rank employees. … Our clients have learned that a performance management system that reinforces a culture of engaged employees can be at tremendous competitive advantage. While at least one-third of your competitors are … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged | 1 Comment

Why Go Through the Painful Performance Process

Posted on May 19, 2005 by John Hunter

Why Go Through the Painful Performance Process: The performance management blog points to an interesting study by PeopleIQ [the broken link was removed] that says that only 13 percent of employees and managers and 6 percent of CEOs think their organization’s performance appraisal is useful. And 88 percent say their current performance appraisal negatively impacts their opinion of HR. See also the previous Curious Cat posts on Performance Appraisals.

Posted in Management Articles, Performance Appraisal | Tagged

Performance without Appraisal

Posted on April 2, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Managing with Trust post from Coding Horror This interesting post includes the quote: “It seems cheap to dispatch [performance reviews] without suggesting some alternative.” Dr. Deming would mention Peter Scholtes thoughts on why performance appraisals were bad management when asked about his belief that performance appraisals should be eliminated. In the short article Performance Without Appraisal: What to do Instead of Performance Appraisals, Peter wrote: Dr. Deming said of Performance Appraisals, “Stop doing them and things will get better.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments