I read this paper - “Appraising Performance Appraisals: A Critical Look at an External Control Management Technique” And from the very start of the paper you understand that annual performance evaluation sux! Hm, how long are we going to this?.. Must stop. One more idea for the experiment in the company to make things better!
Coens and Jenkins (2002, pp. 13-14) identify five elements common to almost all performance appraisal systems:
1) the performance, behaviors or traits of individuals (not teams, groups, or departments) are rated or judged by someone else;
2) these ratings/judgments are scheduled (usually annually or quarterly) as opposed to being tied to completion of particular tasks or projects;
3) such ratings and judgments are not applied to selected individuals, but rather are systematically undertaken with all employees of a particular department or organizational unit;
4) the process is either strictly mandatory or tied to some reward system (such as pay raises or promotions);
5)information is recorded and kept in the employee’s file by the employer.
Not one to mince his words, Deming wrote:
“In practice, annual ratings are a disease, annihilating longterm planning, demobilizing teamwork, nourishing rivalry
and politics, leaving people bitter, crushed, bruised, battered, desolate, despondent, unfit for work for weeks after
receipt of rating, unable to comprehend why they are inferior. It is unfair, as it ascribes to the people in a group differences that may be caused totally by the system that they work in.” (Deming, 2000, p. 102).
p.s. you can download file here also. saved for myself for future reference