Conducting performance appraisals is often a frustrating human resource management task. One management guru , Edward Lawler, noted the considerable documentation showing that performance appraisal systems neither motivate individuals nor effectively guide their development. Instead ,he maintains, they create conflict between supervisors and subordinates and lead to dysfunctional behavior. 1 A bit of advice to the team-oriented workgroups in the twenty-first century:"De-emphasize elaborate individual performance evaluations: use more informal feedback." 2 These caveats are important, for it is certain that if a performance appraisal system has a faulty design or is improperly administered, the employees will dread receiving appraisals and the managers will despise giving them. In fact, some managers have always loathed the time, paperwork, difficult choices, and discomfort that often accompany the appraisal process. 3 Going through the procedure cuts into a manager's high-priority workload, and the experience can be quite unpleasant when the employee in question has not been toe the line.