The article “Why Most Performance Evaluations Are Biased, and How to Fix Them” is an analysis of the performance approach in management. The report states that most performance reviews follow a standard format (Harvard Business Review, 2019). In the study, the interviewer asks employees to write about their accomplishments and areas for improvement. Then, managers analyze the work of their employees. While managers may try to be as meritocratic as possible, subjective assessments are often misguided and biased. Even if the standard form may seem innocent, research has shown that it usually allows our hidden biases to seep into it (Harvard Business Review, 2019). The problem is in the “open box.”
This means that most forms give managers an empty space to add ratings, suggestions, and criticisms as they see fit. These forms often ask managers general questions about their personality. However, prejudice is more common when the context and evaluation criteria are unclear. Research has also shown that people can take steps to reduce this uncertainty and be more objective when answering open-ended questions.
An illustration of macroeconomic international performance management is given in a paper by van Thielen et al. (2018). The academics analyze and critique the strategy, using Europe as an illustration. Like everywhere, new public administration reforms in Europe rely heavily on performance metrics and goals (van Thielen et al., 2018). Every aspect of the public sector was impacted, from local to European, from management techniques to policymaking. This measure focus is consistent with a lengthy measurement history and state formation (van Thielen et al., 2018). Performance management, however, has been the subject of increased disappointment in recent years. Target modes typically result in dysfunctional outcomes. Although goal performance modes do not perform well enough, management is evolving. Performance management should promote learning and communication rather than an accountability system. The next concept whose time has come may very well be performance management as a learning system.
Many governmental companies have developed an employee performance management system as part of the ongoing public sector reforms. While it has been discovered that such a system boosts productivity, it can also increase work demands, jeopardizing employee wellbeing (van Dooren & Hoffmann, 2018). In a different investigation, information was gathered from one of Belgium’s central police departments. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that pairing performance planning and assessment positively impacts police officers’ wellbeing (van Dooren & Hoffmann, 2018). The results suggest that police forces must ensure that performance evaluation is preceded and linked with performance planning.
There is also an article that analyzes the impact of performance management over the past decades. Since the late 1980s, performance management has become fashionable in the research and practice of central and local governments (Beeri et al., 2018). Its appearance is primarily the result of neoliberal ideas and reforms of the New Public Administration. The researchers answered several questions using data collected by local Israeli authorities in recent years (Beeri et al., 2018). First, the direct positive relationship researchers have found between performance management and satisfaction with local government services supports the well-studied claim that performance management is an internal, rational, economic, and professional tool worthy of effort and financial investment (Beeri et al., 2018). Accordingly, local performance management appears to help develop results-based management by turning local politicians and bureaucrats into more effective strategic managers and decision makers (Beeri et al., 2018). In addition, it can impact citizens by increasing their satisfaction with the services and work of local governments and their confidence in local governments.
Based on the above studies, it can be concluded that the performance management approach works and is exceptionally successfully applied. Implementing this approach in various areas, from macroeconomics and state and municipal institutions to small work teams, demonstrates efficiency. This is also relevant for the consequences of using different tools within the performance management approach itself. Thus, the performance management approach demonstrates that several impressive results can be achieved by creating mechanisms to avoid bias in the analysis.
References
Beeri, I., Uster, A., & Vigoda-Gadot, E. (2018). Does performance management relate to good governance? A study of its relationship with citizens’ satisfaction with and trust in israeli local government.Public Performance & Management Review, 42(2), 241–279.
Harvard Business Review. (2019). Why most performance evaluations are biased, and how to fix them.Harvard Business Review.
van Dooren, W., & Hoffmann, C. (2018). Performance management in Europe: An idea whose time has come and gone?The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe, 207–225.
van Thielen, T., Bauwens, R., Audenaert, M., van Waeyenberg, T., & Decramer, A. (2018). How to foster the well-being of police officers: The role of the employee performance management system. Evaluation and Program Planning, 70, 90–98.