• Performance management systems serve multiple purposes. First, they serve a strategic purpose because
They help link employee activities with the organization’s mission and goals, they identify results and behaviors
needed to carry out strategy, and they maximize the extent to which employees exhibit the desired behaviors
and produce the desired results. Second, they serve an administrative purpose in that they produce information
used by the reward system and other HR decision making(e.g., promotions, termination,disciplinary actions).
Third, they serve and informational purpose because they enable employees to learn about their performance in
relation to the organization’s expectations. Fourth, they serve a developmental purpose in that performance
feedback allows individuals to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, to identify training needs, and to
make better decisions regarding job assignments. Fifth, performance management systems serve an organizational
maintenance purpose because they provide useful information for workforce planning and for evaluating the
effectiveness of other HR systems(e.g., comparing performance before and after an expensive training program to
determine whether training made a difference). Finally, performance management systems also serve a
documentational purpose; for example, they support HR decisions and help meet legal requirements.