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Why Managerial Performance Appraisals Are Ineffective: Causes and Lessons

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Why managerial performance appraisals are ineffective: causes and lessons

Clinton O. Longenecker Graduate School of Management, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

Claims that, in the quest for competitive advantage, modern organizations are making increasing demands on their change managers. Questions what organizations are doing to help managers develop the skills necessary to operate in a rapidly changing work environment. Suggests that systematic management development efforts at organizational level are vital to accelerate and sustain management change. Seeks to identify why managerial appraisals frequently fail and are ineffective as a management development tool. Proposes that, if an organization is going to rely heavily …show more content…

A number of studies suggest that managers regularly find the formal appraisal process to be frustrating, political and a less than meaningful experience, which does not bode well for management development[2]. The manager in the opening quote states, “I see an awful lot of problems that have a lot of negative consequences associated with managerial appraisals.” The purpose of this effort is to identify the specific causes of why managerial appraisals frequently fail and are ineffective as a management development tool.

Career Development International 2/5 [1997] 212–218 © MCB University Press [ISSN 1362-0436]

Exploring why managerial appraisals fail
To explore the causes of ineffective managerial appraisals a qualitative research method was employed using 120 seasoned managers

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Clinton O. Longenecker Why managerial performance appraisals are ineffective: causes and lessons Career Development International 2/5 [1997] 212–218

from five different large US organizations. These managers had an average of eight years of managerial experience and all five of these organizations had formal management appraisal systems in place at the time of this study These managers were asked to respond . individually to the following open-ended research question, “Based on your experience, what factors cause managerial performance appraisals to be

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