Corporate Jungle and Performance Management

Its that time of the year every manager dreads. Yes,its the time for performance appraisals.

It's not about the performance itself or the whole process which is scary but the scale of expectations from staff is!

As is said always,every one thinks he/she is a super performer and every one thinks he/she deserves a solid rating at the end of the year.

What i find missing in people is acceptance that a year has not been great,he or she has not performed well . Managers are chastised for handing out poor rating, as if they got up from bed thinking X or Y should not be given good rating even if they have performed well.

Performance in my opinion is always relative and its true in an organization. Comparison has to happen on relative scale.If X has performed at a super status level with the same tools as Y has had , it is only fair to rate X higher than Y,even if Y is more experienced and senior in the role.

Expectations from people have soared,even in this economic climate that's not changed. That is what intrigues me quite a lot. When an organization is performing well , they need it to give promotions year after year and so is the case when the markets are tough. This is a sheer paradox or even a Pandora's box for me.

There are two things that i see are the problems. On the one hand not all managers are fair in their ratings , some times being in the boss's cabin or doing stuff for him/her do get things done.On the other hand people ,especially at lower levels also need to understand that not every year things remain the same and performance is relative. One more bigger head ache is that how well has the organization clarified what its goals are ,if this isn't done properly,it can be a real problem answering people at the end

Then comes the big daddy of statistics the bell-curve, i would not delve into it but this some times inhibits rewarding very good performers.

In a nutshell, organization,managers and employees need to do their bit to ensure a smooth and a transparent performance management.

The reason i called this post "Corporate Jungle" is because as in a jungle , even in a corporation only the best gets rewarded,not that average performers do not again its a question of relativity and matter what in economics is called "Bandwagon Effect" or "Network Externality" i.e. a person next to me has got a promotion or a solid rating so should "i",without thinking am i really worth it?

If people can ask themselves that question and reason it out , how much of a camaraderie would be there in organizations. Well its anybody's guess on how much better it would be.