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CHAPTER 16PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AGREEMENTS

Performance appraisal does not and cannot work. It’s a new century now. It’s time to start over now and look for new ways to liberate the human spirit in organizational life.

—Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins, Abolishing Performance Appraisals

Everyone endures them in some form or another. And everybody hates them! I have no doubt that when reporting relationships are working well, appraisals are no surprise—merely a summary of what everyone already knows. They are more for other people than for those directly involved. I think the primary reason appraisals are not productive is because they play into people’s aversion to authority and the perceived underlying power imbalances. Once power comes into ...

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