Time To Change the Bathwater: Correcting Misconceptions About Performance Ratings

Recent commentary has suggested that performance management (PM) is fundamentally “broken,” with negative feelings from managers and employees toward the process at an all-time high (Pulakos, Hanson, Arad, & Moye, 2015; Pulakos & O'Leary, 2011). In response, some high-profile organizati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndustrial and organizational psychology Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 314 - 322
Main Authors Gorman, C. Allen, Cunningham, Christopher J. L., Bergman, Shawn M., Meriac, John P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.06.2016
Subjects
Commentaries
Intervention
Job performance
Performance management
Quality
Quantitative psychology
Ratings & rankings
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Summary:Recent commentary has suggested that performance management (PM) is fundamentally “broken,” with negative feelings from managers and employees toward the process at an all-time high (Pulakos, Hanson, Arad, & Moye, 2015; Pulakos & O'Leary, 2011). In response, some high-profile organizations have decided to eliminate performance ratings altogether as a solution to the growing disenchantment. Adler et al. (2016) offer arguments both in support of and against eliminating performance ratings in organizations. Although both sides of the debate in the focal article make some strong arguments both for and against utilizing performance ratings in organizations, we believe there continue to be misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, and misinformation with respect to some of the measurement issues in PM. We offer the following commentary not to persuade readers to adopt one particular side over another but as a call to critically reconsider and reevaluate some of the assumptions underlying measurement issues in PM and to dispel some of the pervasive beliefs throughout the performance rating literature.
ISSN:1754-9426
1754-9434
DOI:10.1017/iop.2016.17