In theory performance management should be about helping people improve. In practice performance management is about four things:
1) Pay
2) Promotions
3) Accountability (e.g. firing)
4) To satisfy legal requirements (perceived and real)
Performance management falls under the umbrella of HR. HR's historical roots are in compliance. In the 90's when cost vs. profit center was the rage, the HRBP model emerged to prove HR could provide business value beyond compliance. HRBP is the dominant model now but it hasn't had the impact its creator intended. Inertia is a powerful thing.
Combine HR's roots in compliance, with the above four reasons performance management exists in practice and that will give you a good way to understand why performance management works the way it does.
If you're learning about these things in an effort to improve your own organization's practices then you can also use the above to evaluate any proposed changes and think about what they would have to contend with. History is replete with failures. Unless you are in a small organization, with total control over incentives and the culture then I will leave you with a quote from Blade:
"Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill."
1) Pay
2) Promotions
3) Accountability (e.g. firing)
4) To satisfy legal requirements (perceived and real)
Performance management falls under the umbrella of HR. HR's historical roots are in compliance. In the 90's when cost vs. profit center was the rage, the HRBP model emerged to prove HR could provide business value beyond compliance. HRBP is the dominant model now but it hasn't had the impact its creator intended. Inertia is a powerful thing.
Combine HR's roots in compliance, with the above four reasons performance management exists in practice and that will give you a good way to understand why performance management works the way it does.
If you're learning about these things in an effort to improve your own organization's practices then you can also use the above to evaluate any proposed changes and think about what they would have to contend with. History is replete with failures. Unless you are in a small organization, with total control over incentives and the culture then I will leave you with a quote from Blade:
"Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill."