Managing Government Employees

CHAPTER 5

Performance Management

Principles

A performance appraisal system is designed with three overriding principles in mind:

1. To align and communicate organizational goals

2. To improve organizational, group, and individual performance by holding everyone accountable

3. To serve the customer

The better the system achieves all three goals in an integrated manner, the more effective the organization will be. Let’s look at each principle in greater detail.

Many organizations make the mistake of rarely explaining what their performance goals are. They may include them in a report or in a chart, but that information rarely cascades down to the individual employee.

The most effective way of doing this is to first ensure that there is a clear ...