Beer, M. and Bingham, J.B. (2012, July 12) Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc. Harvard Business Publishing Brief Cases, Prod. #: 913501-PDF-ENG. Submit a case study report on this case. Your analysis should include cited support from the assigned course readings, plus additional research from other sources that you apply to the case. The main text of the report should be 8 - 10 pages in length.

Vitality Health Enterprises, a medium-sized firm that manufactures health and personal care products, has experienced six straight quarters of strong revenue growth. Jaes Hoffman, the new Senior Vice President of Human Resources, fears that the chain of success is shifting the company's focus away from effective performance management. Recently, Vitality has been faced with increasing turnover among the company's talented research scientists that may be due to a performance management system that leaves top performing employees slighted by the practice of uniform ratings. In an effort to retain top employees, the company institutes a forced distribution model of performance rankings, moving from an absolute ranking system to a relative one. Hoffman and his performance management evaluation team must assess the practical and strategic effectiveness of the new system and present their findings and recommendations to the Board.
The main text of your analysis should include two sections, besides introduction and conclusion:
Section One: A summary of the case and identification of the problem proposed by the case. This should not be more than 3 pages in length.
Section Two: Answer the following questions:
How effective has Vitality's Performance Management System been?
Should Vitality continue to use the normal/bell-shaped grading distribution?
How should Vitality manage those who ranked consistently at the bottom of the distribution?
If you were in charge of improving the Performance Management System at Vitality, what changes would you make?