This is a high-level overview of an in-depth research article. If this piques your curiosity, please visit the article listed at the bottom of this blog summary.
While slightly dated, Angelo DeNisi provides great insights about performance management and its relationship to motivating behavior change. The author provides an excellent historical perspective of performance appraisal - purposes, methods, and why it is still done today. Additionally, the article articulates the role performance management can play in behavior change.
Key ingredients
Historically, the field of organizational behavior management (OBM) focused on the accuracy of ratings. However, in more recent times the focus has broadened to the role of performance management on behavior change. To change behavior the following conditions need to be met:
- Employee must see the need for change
- Employee must be able to change
- Employee must see how change is connected to positive outcomes
Before any of this can happen, the employee needs to believe and accept the feedback. As such, accuracy does not matter as much as perceived fairness. Additionally, transparency and simplicity in the process are enablers to acceptance.
DeNisi suggests that performance management can have dual focus: improving performance and motivating behavior change. As you consider your performance management systems, what are you doing to motivate employees? To provide them agency (i.e., empowerment) in their own change process?
Reference
Angelo S. DeNisi (2011) Managing Performance to Change Behavior, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 31:4, 262-276, DOI: 10.1080/01608061.2011.619414