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I would like to add my two cents to this discussion. First, don't throw out the baby with bath water. Just because many performance appraisals are done poorly does not mean that all of them should not be done. The problems that can occur with both the interpersonal process and the performance appraisal itself are well documented. Too few organizations have made any serious attempt at tackling them. For those of us in the academic world, could you imagine if we graduated all those who met the qualifications to be admitted to your college or university? For those of you in the commercial world, could you imagine hiring graduates of a college or university that did such? Performance appraisals, selection tools, and academic exams are not perfect, and they probably never will be, but to stop doing them and to stop improving them will likely impede, not assist their improvement as well as individual and organizational improvement.

Second, performance appraisals should not be treated as a discrete event. Performance appraisals are simply one part of Clark Wilson's Management Task Cycle. If the manger has done a good job with the subordinate at goal setting, planning and problem solving, facilitating their work, and coaching, then the performance appraisal in a natural next step followed by reinforcing good performance. To borrow a line, the best surprise in a performance appraisal is no surprise. Where managers and organizations get themselves in trouble is when there is an abrupt change in signals given to individuals regarding their performance.



Frank Shipper, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
Perdue School of Business
Salisbury State University
Salisbury, MD 21801
Phone: (410) 543-6333
FAX: (410) 546-6208
E-mail: fmshipper@ssu.edu
Home Page: http://perdue.ssu.edu/~fmshippe/home/welcome.htm

Frank,

You wrote:

>> For those of us in the academic world, could you imagine if we graduated
all those who met the qualifications to be admitted to your college or
university? For those of you in the commercial world, could you imagine
hiring graduates of a college or university that did such?

Do I read you right - are you saying that there is a natural law that says
some of our students have got to fail because that is what industry expects?

As an academic, it is not my job to try and weed out the failures but to try
and help everyone who has the wherewithal to enrol to pass. If they are good
enough to enrol then surely they are also good enough to graduate. After
all, the greatest impact placed upon them between enrolment and graduation
is imposed by us - the academics.

Secondly, as a business manager, if I found a tertiary institution that
cared enough about its students to work hard to ensure that they all pass
then I would go out of my way to hunt out their graduates.

I know that there are universities who aim to maintain the status quo when
it comes to priests, politicians and public servants, but more and more are
standing behind the concept that their job is not to weed out the weak but
to help them grow. And if that makes life harder for their teachers and
examiners then that is just bad luck.

Having followed and enjoyed your postings for some time now, so I'm sure
that this isn't the message you were sending, but that is what I read. Your
enlightenment would be appreciated.

Phil Rutherford

Phil,

It is refreshing to hear the message you express. I'm sure there are
many more like you. But from personal experience in teaching and
corporate life, many of us have suffered under the clearly stated
(though not written) expectation that you "grade on the curve".
Unfortunately, that mindset remains common if not dominant in both
worlds.
Bob

Phillip Rutherford wrote:
>
<snip>
>
> As an academic, it is not my job to try and weed out the failures but to try
> and help everyone who has the wherewithal to enrol to pass. If they are good
> enough to enrol then surely they are also good enough to graduate.

Phil

Suppose as a student, I just don't wish to put out the effort and finds
sports much more interesting are my mentors to exhaust themselves on me??
Goint out as I came in is okay?

Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Management Education and Development Discussion
> [mailto:MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU]On Behalf Of Phillip Rutherford
> Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2000 8:10 PM
> To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: Re: Regarding Performance Appraisals
>
>
> Frank,
>
> You wrote:
>
> >> For those of us in the academic world, could you imagine if we
> graduated
> all those who met the qualifications to be admitted to your college or
> university? For those of you in the commercial world, could you imagine
> hiring graduates of a college or university that did such?
>
> Do I read you right - are you saying that there is a natural law that says
> some of our students have got to fail because that is what
> industry expects?
>
> As an academic, it is not my job to try and weed out the failures
> but to try
> and help everyone who has the wherewithal to enrol to pass. If
> they are good
> enough to enrol then surely they are also good enough to graduate. After
> all, the greatest impact placed upon them between enrolment and graduation
> is imposed by us - the academics.
>
> Secondly, as a business manager, if I found a tertiary institution that
> cared enough about its students to work hard to ensure that they all pass
> then I would go out of my way to hunt out their graduates.
>
> I know that there are universities who aim to maintain the status quo when
> it comes to priests, politicians and public servants, but more
> and more are
> standing behind the concept that their job is not to weed out the weak but
> to help them grow. And if that makes life harder for their teachers and
> examiners then that is just bad luck.
>
> Having followed and enjoyed your postings for some time now, so I'm sure
> that this isn't the message you were sending, but that is what I
> read. Your
> enlightenment would be appreciated.
>
> Phil Rutherford
>

Phil wrote:

"Do I read you right - are you saying that there is a natural law that says some of our students have got to fail because that is what industry expects?

Secondly, as a business manager, if I found a tertiary institution that cared enough about its students to work hard to ensure that they all pass then I would go out of my way to hunt out their graduates."

No, there is no natural law that says some of our students have to fail. In fact my grade distribution varies from class to class. I am always somewhat shocked when at the end of the semester I find wide variation in the grade distributions in the same course taught in back-to-back classes. As I learned in my prior career, it is really important to spend time up-front laying out the requirements of the class and than trying my best to facilitate the students in achieving them.

Ideally, I would like to see all my students succeed. My observation is that the majority of students who fail to perform are certainly bright enough, they simply do not out forth the effort required by the class. That does not mean that they are lazy, they simply may be putting out effort in a different direction. Another possibility is that they simply are not turned on by the educator's mode of instruction. The great educators are able to motivate a wide proportion of the student population. The rest of us have got to figure out a way to motivate more of our students.

This does not mean that all the responsibility lies with the educator. I am a case in point. I got my undergraduate degree during the Vietnam era. I was told by one professor that I had that I was the greatest underachiever that he had ever seen. I knew that I had a job waiting for me when I graduated. Three days after I graduated, I was on active duty.

Regarding your second comment, my university monitors both retention and graduation rates and tries to improve both. My comparative measurement, we do a pretty good job. Ideally it would be nice to reach 100%. Realistically, I do not think that we will reach that point because there are too many other variables over which the educator and the institution do not have control.

I hope that this clarifies my position on these issues.


Frank Shipper, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
Perdue School of Business
Salisbury State University
Salisbury, MD 21801
Phone: (410) 543-6333
FAX: (410) 546-6208
E-mail: fmshipper@ssu.edu
Home Page: http://perdue.ssu.edu/~fmshippe/home/welcome.htm

Good point, Phil.

If you are not moving ahead, you are moving behind. You can't stand
still.

The question remains, "Is there pre-established criteria for success?"
Whether in grading or in the workplace, honesty demands that I establish
standards up front. If I wait till the end of the semester, and then
apply the curve, some will be graded less than average. If I have
failed to establish challenging standards, I run the risk of lowering my
standards ("shoot first and call whatever you hit, the target). This
results in "dumbing down" the educational system. Same thing in the
workplace.

>
> Phil
>
> Suppose as a student, I just don't wish to put out the effort and finds
> sports much more interesting are my mentors to exhaust themselves on me??
> Goint out as I came in is okay?
>

Paul,
Good thought. To my mind you won't have failed me (and therefore my course)
but yourself, and to me that is a different matter.

Someone who just isn't interested in doing the course should not be
pressured into continuing. His/her candidature should be terminated, not as
a failure but as a 'not tryer' (new word for the century). That person can't
be deemed a failure because he/she never even really tried. On the other
hand, he/she (in your example) might turn out to be a successful sports
person - a winner in another arena but, unfortunately (for me), not mine.

Phil


----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Moschella <mosch@MAIL.HARTFORD.EDU>
To: <MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: [MG-ED-DV] Regarding Performance Appraisals


> Phil
>
> Suppose as a student, I just don't wish to put out the effort and finds
> sports much more interesting are my mentors to exhaust themselves on me??
> Goint out as I came in is okay?
>
> Paul
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Management Education and Development Discussion
> > [mailto:MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU]On Behalf Of Phillip Rutherford
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2000 8:10 PM
> > To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Regarding Performance Appraisals
> >
> >
> > Frank,
> >
> > You wrote:
> >
> > >> For those of us in the academic world, could you imagine if we
> > graduated
> > all those who met the qualifications to be admitted to your college or
> > university? For those of you in the commercial world, could you imagine
> > hiring graduates of a college or university that did such?
> >
> > Do I read you right - are you saying that there is a natural law that
says
> > some of our students have got to fail because that is what
> > industry expects?
> >
> > As an academic, it is not my job to try and weed out the failures
> > but to try
> > and help everyone who has the wherewithal to enrol to pass. If
> > they are good
> > enough to enrol then surely they are also good enough to graduate. After
> > all, the greatest impact placed upon them between enrolment and
graduation
> > is imposed by us - the academics.
> >
> > Secondly, as a business manager, if I found a tertiary institution that
> > cared enough about its students to work hard to ensure that they all
pass
> > then I would go out of my way to hunt out their graduates.
> >
> > I know that there are universities who aim to maintain the status quo
when
> > it comes to priests, politicians and public servants, but more
> > and more are
> > standing behind the concept that their job is not to weed out the weak
but
> > to help them grow. And if that makes life harder for their teachers and
> > examiners then that is just bad luck.
> >
> > Having followed and enjoyed your postings for some time now, so I'm sure
> > that this isn't the message you were sending, but that is what I
> > read. Your
> > enlightenment would be appreciated.
> >
> > Phil Rutherford
> >
>

Bob,

Thanks for that. Unfortunately the approach you describe (shoot first and
whatever you hit is the target) appears to be that followed by some of our
academic and tertiary systems here to measure how well they are going. Those
organisations who set or accept certain performance standards as the desired
outcome of all training, education and development activities, find that at
the end of the given time (if, in fact, they have a cut-off point) students
are either competent or they aren't. There is no measure between greater or
lesser competence - it is either there or it ain't. Those organisations
(such as ours) who don't have such a tight time limitation on studies are
happy to accept that people are either competent now or they will be at some
time in the future.

Now, of course, there are going to be people who just can't demonstrate
their competence so rather than call them a failure (or even lesser their
placement in the 'pecking order') we simply move onto a different level of
performance. For example, someone not capable of demonstrating competence as
a manager might very well be competent as a supervisor, or a salesperson, or
a mechanic, or whatever.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Phil


----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Carr <bcarr@WFUBMC.EDU>
To: <MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 4:22 AM
Subject: Re: [MG-ED-DV] Regarding Performance Appraisals


> Good point, Phil.
>
> If you are not moving ahead, you are moving behind. You can't stand
> still.
>
> The question remains, "Is there pre-established criteria for success?"
> Whether in grading or in the workplace, honesty demands that I establish
> standards up front. If I wait till the end of the semester, and then
> apply the curve, some will be graded less than average. If I have
> failed to establish challenging standards, I run the risk of lowering my
> standards ("shoot first and call whatever you hit, the target). This
> results in "dumbing down" the educational system. Same thing in the
> workplace.
>
> >
> > Phil
> >
> > Suppose as a student, I just don't wish to put out the effort and finds
> > sports much more interesting are my mentors to exhaust themselves on
me??
> > Goint out as I came in is okay?
> >
>

The thought occurs to me, if we fire employees for inferior performance
(after proper disciplinary discussions), what would it be like if we
fired students rather than just let them drift till the end of the
semester and fail ("quit") on their own?
Bob

Phillip Rutherford wrote:
>
> Paul,
> Good thought. To my mind you won't have failed me (and therefore my course)
> but yourself, and to me that is a different matter.
>
> Someone who just isn't interested in doing the course should not be
> pressured into continuing. His/her candidature should be terminated, not as
> a failure but as a 'not tryer' (new word for the century). That person can't
> be deemed a failure because he/she never even really tried. On the other
> hand, he/she (in your example) might turn out to be a successful sports
> person - a winner in another arena but, unfortunately (for me), not mine.
>
>

Bob,

That students do get "fired".

The instructors that I admire take the time to get to know their students. This enables them to advise those that should to drop the course before the student suffers predictable consequences. In so doing, students whose principle failing is a lack of maturity or readiness for the material "survives" to fight (learn) another day. (I, too, subscribe to the idea that grades should not follow a bell curve, but that students should be given what is earned, even if the entire class gets an "A").

I think it takes a fair amount of courage, caring, and professional competence to do make such a call in a way that does not destroy the student.

On the other hand are instructors who feel they need to teach students "life lessons" regarding responsibility and consequences. When they see a student failing, they do nothing and almost relish the moment of "teaching" with the award of an "F". Those that subscribe to this philosophy greatly alarm me.

Ed
Drive On!

>>> bcarr@WFUBMC.EDU 05/05/00 08:28AM >>>
The thought occurs to me, if we fire employees for inferior performance
(after proper disciplinary discussions), what would it be like if we
fired students rather than just let them drift till the end of the
semester and fail ("quit") on their own?
Bob

Phillip Rutherford wrote:
>
> Paul,
> Good thought. To my mind you won't have failed me (and therefore my course)
> but yourself, and to me that is a different matter.
>
> Someone who just isn't interested in doing the course should not be
> pressured into continuing. His/her candidature should be terminated, not as
> a failure but as a 'not tryer' (new word for the century). That person can't
> be deemed a failure because he/she never even really tried. On the other
> hand, he/she (in your example) might turn out to be a successful sports
> person - a winner in another arena but, unfortunately (for me), not mine.
>
>