Inroduction
I became interested in this topic awhile back while I was receiving one of my annual reviews. I could not stop thinking about how difficult it must be for a supervisor to develop on a continual basis several individual reviews for large department and still be unique and objective review after review. It became even more apparent to me how little I knew about the process, when I was promoted into a coaching position and was allowed to begin giving input on my team member¡¦s performance reviews.
Although I have no complaints about the current review process in my company, I often wonder if there is not a better or easier way to go about the process. So my question is: What, if any, are the alternatives? In this paper, I will review the aspects of the traditional performance appraisal, the 3600 degree performance review and Debundling, an alternative approach to the traditional performance appraisal proposed by Peter R. Scholtes in The Leader¡¦s Handbook, in an attempt to build the better performance appraisal.
The Traditional Performance Appraisal
Most often the performance appraisal for employees is conducted once a year and traditionally is a backward looking event. The process is based on a rating system and sums up what has been discussed and accomplished throughout the previous 12 months. The purpose is to give an employee opportunities in areas that need to be further developed. Performance appraisal for evaluation using the traditional approach serves the following purposes: (Grote, p. 4-5)
?Ï Promotion, separation and transfer decisions
?Ï Feedback to employees about their performance
?Ï Evaluations of relative contributions made by the individuals
?Ï Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of selection and ...