In his book, Out of the Crisis, quality management guru, Edward Deming gave as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” that undermine quality, the following:“Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or a

In his book, Out of the Crisis, quality management guru, Edward Deming gave as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” that undermine quality, the following:

“Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review... The idea of a merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for; motivate people to do their best, for their own good. The effect is exactly the opposite of what the words promise.”

Stephen Covey had this to say about it in his Beyond the Performance Review (Aug 2005):

"The old-time performance review has become a meaningless ritual, a holdover from the Industrial Age mindset of treating people like interchangeable parts in a machine... Some organizations talk a lot about the customer, and then neglect the employees who deal with the customer. This mindset produces unmotivated employees, worker-manager disputes and poor business results."

Following Deming and Covey, many others have criticized performance appraisal (PA) as being counter to other organizational goals. Do you agree or disagree with the criticism? Why? What, according to you, are the benefits of a PA process for an organization and an individual? What, according to you, are the problems that are part of a PA process for an organization and an individual?

Among the various methods of PA, which are the strongest and, thus, more likely to be effective if employed in most situations?

If the decision to have a PA process in the organization was yours, would you have one? Explain your decision and justify your answer using reasoning.