Assignment: Leadership Responsibility

Length: 3-4 paragraphs

Second only to termination of an employee, leaders cite performance appraisals as the task they dislike the most. This is understandable given that the process of performance appraisal, as traditionally practiced, is fundamentally flawed. It is incongruent with the values-based, vision-driven, mission-oriented, participative work environments favored by forward thinking organizations today. It smacks of an old fashioned, paternalistic, top down, autocratic mode of management which treats employees as possessions of the company.

In the conventional performance appraisal or review process, the manager annually writes his opinions of the performance of a reporting staff member on a document supplied by the HR department. In some organizations, the staff member is asked to fill out a self-review to share with the supervisor. Most of the time, the appraisal reflects what the manager can remember; this is usually the most recent events. Almost always, the appraisal is based on opinions as real performance measurement takes time and follow-up to do well. The documents in use in many organizations also ask the supervisor to make judgments based on concepts and words such as excellent performance (what's that?), exhibits enthusiasm (hmmm, laughs a lot?) and achievement oriented (likes to score?).

Many managers are uncomfortable in the role of judge, so uncomfortable, in fact, that performance appraisals are often months overdue. The HR professional, who manages the appraisal system, finds his most important roles are to develop the form and maintain an employee official file, notify supervisors of due dates, and then nag, nag, nag when the review is long overdue. Despite the fact that annual raises are often tied to the performance evaluation, managers avoid doing them as long as possible. This results in an unmotivated employee who feels his manager doesn't care about him enough to facilitate his annual raise. (Heathfield, 2011)

Address the following:

• Do traditional performance appraisals adequately measure employee performance?
• Locate 3 different peer-reviewed articles on ethical treatment of subjects in clinical research.
• Post 1 of the articles as an attachment.
• State whether you agree or disagree with the use of performance appraisals to measure employee performance.

Reference

Heathfield, S. A. (2011). Performance appraisals don't work.