The End of Performance Appraisal

Book excerpt: This book demonstrates, in detail, why annual performance appraisals might still work in hierarchical environments, but largely fail in agile ones. The annual performance appraisal is one of the world’s most widely used management tools. For many years, it was indeed seen as a pre-requisite for successful leadership and professional management. While most managers and employees have always been sceptical in this respect, those at a strategic level are now also realising it causes more harm than good, and a growing number of leading companies have similarly abolished this approach. One key reason lies in the changing working world, and the quest for greater organisational agility. Companies are moving away from rigid structuring. The arguments are presented objectively but with practical relevance, coherently illustrating the available alternatives for achieving what annual performance appraisals largely have not.