Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal

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This book is the heavyweight of books on performance appraisal, in terms of size, price and detail. As such it's an excellent reference book for researchers, hr professionals, students and academics if their interest is the "traditional" way of doing appraisals.

On the other hand, it is not as practical for managers, due to its size and price. Or rather there are better choices. One other significant disadvantage of this book is that it is traditional, and lacks new ideas or approaches such as put forth by Deming, Scholtes and Coens.

Of course the manager who likes to read on these topics will also gain. It's just that these days it's hard to get anybody to read anything related to work that is this size.

I tried out this book when I taught a course on performance management. This is a sound text for a practitioner willing to sift through the text to find answers to specific problems. (It's not a briefcase book, so it will take some work to find the answers.) It is also useful in that it provides multiple examples of forms and procedures that can serve as templates.

On the other hand, Grote has a palpable disdain for research that is evident in the very first chapter. He rarely cites other literature, academic or otherwise, and is even loathe to provide general references. In fact, his recommendations seem based entirely on his own experiences, which in many cases are consistent with the best practices suggested by research, but in some respects are oddly divergent. (He also not above pushing his own programs, such as his "discipline without punishment" system, which are are not as widely accepted as the text would lead a reader to believe.) Additionally, the quality of the writing varies WILDLY between chapters. Some are quite coherent and smooth, whereas others are an absolute mess for students to outline and follow.

In the future, I will probably recommend this book as a supplemental text, particularly for MBA students or undergraduates who intend to go straight into the workforce. I would not recommend it as a primary text, especially in an I/O Psychology setting or for PhD students.