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Why Is Performance Management Broken?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Elaine D. Pulakos  and
Ryan S. O’Leary
Elaine D. Pulakos*
Affiliation:
PDRI, an SHL Company
Ryan S. O’Leary
Affiliation:
PDRI, an SHL Company
*
E-mail: elaine.pulakos@pdri.com, Address: PDRI, an SHL Company, 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22209
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Abstract

Although extensive research and practice have focused on understanding and improving performance management systems in organizations, the formula for effective performance management remains elusive. We propose that a significant part of the problem is that performance management has been reduced to prescribed steps within formal administrative systems that are disconnected from the day-to-day activities that determine performance management effectiveness (e.g., communicating clear work expectations, setting short-term objectives and deadlines, and providing continual guidance). We argue that interventions to improve performance management should cease their exclusive focus on reinventing formal system features. Although well-developed tools and systems can facilitate performance management, these alone do not yield effective performance management. In lieu of making further changes to formal performance management systems, we argue for devoting more attention to improving manager–employee communication and aspects of the manager–employee relationship and propose an approach we believe holds promise for improving performance management processes in organizations.

Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 146 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2011 

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Footnotes

This article was based on Elaine Pulakos' Distinguished Professional Practice Award address at the 2010 SIOP conference in Atlanta, GA. The authors would like to thank Thomas K. Coghlan and Edward K. Moe for providing insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article. These individuals bring valuable perspectives based on their roles leading to large, complex, and challenging performance management interventions in major organizations. We also thank Rose A. Mueller-Hanson and Anne M. Hansen of PDRI for their helpful reviews of this article.

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