In a March 16, 2011 keynote address, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said, “Our formal performance reviews are infrequent and rote…the formal review process seems to take place in Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, where everyone is above average. If that doesn’t make our performance ratings suspect, I don’t know what would.” In short, it is widely recognized in both public and private sectors that performance management (PM) is “broken” and must be reformed.

Improving performance management has been a long sought-after goal for many organizations, and has recently been targeted by OPM as an area for reform. Many agree that PM is broken, but given that it has been the subject of numerous reform efforts over many years, a critical question becomes: Can performance management actually be fixed? Keep reading →