Performance appraisal and performancerelated pay are increasingly popular in the UK
at present, and both seem to be viewed with
great favour by the present Government. In
most sectors appraisal is introduced first at
management level, and then “cascades” down
to less-exalted levels of staff. Before this happens, it might be timely to review research on
performance appraisal which documents the
many problems of performance ratings (PRs),
and casts serious doubt on their validity as
measures of true work performance.