This image comes from When The Levees Broke, Spike Lee’s documentary about Hurricane Katrina:

Still looking for information about performance appraisals:

Do they improve performance by employees?
Do they work for managers?
How do they affect a company’s bottom line?

I’ve found a lot of opinions and impressions concerning questions 1 and 2 above, but no hard evidence, one way or the other, related to question 3.

Right now, I’m reading “Abolishing Performance Appraisals: [...]

More WorkUSA 2004 survey findings from Watson Wyatt (based on a survey of 1,191 US workers from a broad cross-section of industries):

Approximately 90 percent of surveyed employees participate in a performance management program.
Only 30 percent of employees believe the program helps them improve their performance.
Less than 40 percent say the system establishes clear performance goals [...]

I was in bed when my wife came in and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I remember walking into the living room and staring at the screen, trying to understand what I was seeing. I think the first thing I said is, “where’s the other tower?” I couldn’t see it [...]

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that performance appraisal systems hurt more than help. I’ve been looking for evidence performance review systems help or hurt the bottom line. A New York Times article by Kelley Holland entitled Performance Reviews: Many Need Improvement points to some interesting survey data:

“According to one study by Watson Wyatt, the human [...]