A good book

Credit Union Management,  Aug 2002  

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A GOOD BOOK

Title: The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Managers Author: Dick Grote Publisher: AMACOM ISBN: 0-8144-7151-X

The performance appraisal could easily be considered the ugly duckling of the management tool trade. While the performance appraisal, when used correctly, can mobilize employees toward the achievement of specific goals and focus their attention on the company's mission, vision and values, more often than not it ends up as the butt of interoffice jokes and the target of a vast number of Dilbert cartoons. Why do performance appraisals have such a lowly status, even among the managers charged with executing them? According to Grote, a nationally renowned author, consultant and speaker on the subject, it's because too often the negatives associated with performance appraisals-managers don't like to deliver bad news, bad news generates defensive reactions and promotes hostility, bad news can adversely impact an employee's career, unsatisfactory work can reflect badly on the manager, etc.-outweigh the positives.

Despite this motley reputation, Grote believes in the power of the performance appraisal. And though it would be easy for him to spend 238 pages waxing poetic on the virtues of the oft-used management tool, the author chooses brevity over bravado; organization over what could have been mass confusion.

After opening The Performance Appraisal with a concise overview of what performance appraisal is and should be, Grote delves directly into the 140 questions and answers (provided by past clients, colleagues and friends) that make up the book's nine chapters. The author covers all the bases, clearly and directly answering the most basic questions ("What is performance appraisal?" and "...Is performance appraisal all that important?") as well as the most critical ("How do I make sure that our performance appraisal system is legally defensible?").

Although questions and answers are the main focus of The Performance Appraisal, Grote wisely injects certain personal asides-- such as "hot tips," "red flag" warnings, checklists and examples-- wherever they are needed most.

Performance appraisals may have obtained their tainted reputations due to management misuse, but Grote's easy-to-read resource should help them get back on the employee-assessment track.

Order at www.cues.org/barnes.html.

Copyright Credit Union Executives Society Aug 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved