The End of Performance Appraisal: A Practitioners' Guide to Alternatives in Agile Organisations

189 Pages·2017·3.22 MB·English

by  Armin Trost (auth.)

Management for Professionals
Armin Trost
The End of
Performance
Appraisal
A Practitioners’ Guide to
Alternatives in Agile Organisations
Management for Professionals
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/10101
Armin Trost
The End of Performance
Appraisal
A Practitioners’ Guide to Alternatives
in Agile Organisations
ArminTrost
Tübingen,Germany
TranslatedbyEmilyPlank
ISSN2192-8096 ISSN2192-810X (electronic)
ManagementforProfessionals
ISBN978-3-319-54234-8 ISBN978-3-319-54235-5 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-54235-5
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017939705
#SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017
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To Elena
Preface
ThefirstprojectofmycareerasanHRprofessionalinvolvedintroducinganannual
performance appraisal at SAP AG. I actively participated in countless project
meetings and workshops on the topic and attended numerous information events
foremployeesandmanagers.Asanemployee,Iwasthevictimoftheperformance
appraisal,andasamanager,theperpetrator.Inthebackofmymindwasaconstant
nagging feeling that something about the whole matter just wasn’t right. It was
moreavagueimpression,fuelledbyless-than-euphoricreactionsfromthepartiesin
question.Butwhatcouldbewrongwiththeideathatmanagerssettargetswiththeir
employees at least once a year, discuss their development and provide structured
feedback?
Years later, I became a professor. In this capacity, coupled with my role as
academic, advisor and coach, I held many controversial discussions with HR
professionals,managers andMBAstudentswho had designed orexperienced this
instrument during their careers. The dilemma still remained. What appeared so
simple and well intended in theory proved to be a highly complex, multifaceted
conceptinpractice.Naivetyappearedtobethelastthinganyonewouldwanthere.
In 2012, more out of acute despair than anything else, I dedicated one of my
columnsintheGermanversionoftheHarvardBusinessReviewtothistopic.The
article was, admittedly, highly polarising, even cynical. The first day after it was
published,itreceivedmorethan10,000hits.Thiswasthenfollowedbyadelugeof
comments and opinions, most of which were sent to me by email. The topic had
evidentlycausedquiteastir.Buttherewasstillnosolutioninsight.Somesawitone
way;otherssawitanotherway.
In2013,Ithenbegangraduallycollatingrelevantinformation.Istudiedtomesof
literature, developed models and sought out discussions with HR professionals,
managers and students. Things eventually started making more sense, and I feel
I am now in a position to provide more clarity and structure to this issue. Before
embarking on this book project, I engaged in extensive dialogue with relevant
figuresfromtherealworld.Iwouldliketotakethisopportunitytosincerelythank
them.Iftheirfeedbackhadn’tbeensopositive,Iwouldnothavewrittenthisbook.
vii
viii Preface
Ibelievetheideasraisedinitarehighlyrelevanttopracticeandhopeitcanserveas
a source of guidance and consolidation for anyone having to deal with annual
performanceappraisals.
Tübingen,Germany ArminTrost
31/9/2016
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 TheAnnualPerformanceAppraisalSystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 It’saSystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 WeAllayWorldHunger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 WhoAretheCustomersofPerformanceAppraisals?. . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 FromBenefittoDesign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 TheUsualIntendedBenefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 PerformanceAppraisalCustomers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.4 InternalPositioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.5 ObjectiveRelevance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 RelevantFrameworkConditionsofPerformanceAppraisals. . . . 49
4.1 TaskEnvironment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2 LeadershipRole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3 Organisation. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . 73
4.4 HierarchicalWorld:AgileWorld. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . 84
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5 PossibilitiesandLimitsofTraditionalPerformanceAppraisals. . . 91
5.1 RewardingtheBest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.2 AddressingtheWeak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.3 IdentifyingTalent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.4 EstablishingInternalSuitability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.5 EmployeeDevelopment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.6 OfferingProspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.7 LearningThroughFeedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.8 ManagingCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.9 MotivatingbyObjectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
ix
x Contents
5.10 RetainingEmployees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.11 InterimConclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6 BetterAlternativestoPerformanceAppraisalinanAgile
Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.1 Responsibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.2 OpennessandDiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.3 NetworkedThinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.4 SortedFormats,Content,TimesandPlayers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.5 LettingGo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.6 WhatNow?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7 ConclusionandFinalRemarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
AbouttheAuthor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
AbouttheTranslator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183