Get Rid of the Performance Review! by Samuel A. Culbert (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122426318874844933.html) Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2008.
- A common complaint against Pair Programming and collective ownership of problem solving is that it makes it difficult to measure the performance of individuals. This article points out many different ways in which such performance evaluation comes up lacking, or is counter productive, in terms of the goals of the business.
- "The Promise: Performance reviews are supposed to provide an objective evaluation that helps determine pay and lets employees know where they can do better.
- The Problems: That's not most people's experience with performance reviews. Inevitably reviews are political and subjective, and create schisms in boss-employee relationships. The link between pay and performance is tenuous at best. And the notion of objectivity is absurd; people who switch jobs often get much different evaluations from their new bosses.
- The Solution: Performance previews instead of reviews. In contrast to one-side-accountable reviews, performance previews are reciprocally accountable discussions about how boss and employee are going to work together even more effectively than they did in the past. Previews weld fates together. The boss's skin is now in the game."