10.7 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND THE

10.7 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND THE LAW
Although we have not discussed legal issues in depth. Several chapters have touched upon how to design and implement performance management systems that are fair and acceptable to employees are also legally sound. A basic principle that guides the design of a fair system is the application of standardized procedures to all employees. In other words, when the rules and procedures are known by everyone, and they are applied in the same way to everyone, the system is likely to be regarded as a fair one. This is also the basic principle that underlies the implementation of performance management systems that are legally sound. Legislation and court cases in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries around the world indicate that discriminatory effects of a performance management system can be minimized by applying this basic principle: Treat everyone in exactly the same way. Unfortunately, this does not happen very often. As a consequence, there has been a 100% increase in the number of employment discrimination cases filed in the United States from 1995 to 2005, and many of these cases have involved issues around the design and implementation of the performance management system.