Grading Degrades Performance LO17531

Tadeems (Tadeems@aol.com)
Tue, 24 Mar 1998 22:57:32 EST

Replying to LO17513 --

I'd have to agree, in large part:

> I have still to be convinced that Performance Appraisal as it is generally
> practiced is congruent with an LO. Fear in any organisation reduces the
> ability of organisation members to learn. Appraisals engender fear

One way of getting around this is to employ portfolio assessment-type of
appraisal. Such a system demands that people work very collaboratively to
develop indicators of quality most relevant to their role within the
organization, and people develop their own portfolios (or whatever you
want to call them) over quarterly, bi-annual, or annual time frames.

I've found the process to be quite time consuming initially, as people
struggle with trying to figure out what to include or not, and to work
closely with their group or group leader to articulate the strengths and
areas for improvement indicated by the collected materials. But the time
element seems to be greatly reduced as everyone 'catches on' and we've
seen a great amount of success.

Perhaps the neatest thing is seeing people look forward to the dialogue
meetings on their portfolios, rather than dreading them or becoming
fearful that someone else will somehow judge them to be inadequate.

-- 

Terri Deems DAI/Center for WorkLife Design tadeems@aol.com

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