Abolishing Performance Appraisals

Foreword

by Peter Block

This is a foreword that I have been waiting to write. Performance appraisal has become more than a management tool. It has grown into a cultural, almost anthropological symbol of the parental, boss–subordinate relationship that is characteristic of patriarchal organizations. Appraisals are undertaken in good faith, but there is no escape from their basic nature. Their nature is that the boss takes responsibility for the development of the subordinate and exercises that responsibility through a discussion of strengths and weaknesses of the subordinate. This is the exercise of sovereignty, regardless of how lovingly it is done. It make no sense to talk of team- and partnership-oriented cultures, which the marketplace is ...