Performance Appraisal: State of the Art in Practice (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Hardcover]

James W. Smither (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0787909459 | ISBN-13: 978-0787909451 | Edition: 1

A research-based guide to performance appraisal written for real-world practitioners

A timely, useful and practical collection of chapters confronting and posing solutions to some of the more thorny performance management problems and dilemmas facing HR practitioners today. Practitioners would be wise to acquire this informative volume and to use it as a tool for developing leading-edge performance management systems.
—Edward M. Mone, HR division manager/strategic planning and development, AT&T

Part of the successful SIOP (Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology) series, this book fulfills the practitioner's long-standing need for a research-based guide to the best performance appraisal practices currently in use. Addressing an issue vital to all organizations, it introduces readers to thought and theories on the cutting-edge of their profession. Plus, it provides nuts-and-bolts guidance to a broad spectrum of timely issues such as legality, fairness, team settings, and incentive programs. A seamless fusion of state-of-the-art research and practical application, it will prove of great interest to both academics and practitioners in the field looking for ways to elevate and refine their craft.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"A timely, useful and practical collection of chapters confronting and posing solutions to to some of the more thorny performance management problems and dilemmas facing HR practioners today. Practitioners would be wise to acquire this informative volume and to use it as a tool for develooping leading-edge performance management systems."
--Edward M. Mone, HR division manager/strategic planning and development, AT&T

Part of the successful SIOP (Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology) series, this book fulfills the practitioner's long-standing need for a research-based guide to the best performance appraisal practices currently in use. Addressing an issue vital to all organizations, it introduces readers to thought and theories on the cutting-edge of their profession. Plus, it provides nuts-and-bolts guidance to a broad spectrum of timely issues such as legality, fairness, team settings, and incentive programs. A seamless fusion of state-of-the-art research and practical application, it will prove of great interest to both academics and practitioners in the field looking for ways to elevate and refine their craft.

From the Back Cover

A research-based guide to performance appraisal written for real-world practitioners!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer / Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (April 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787909459
• ISBN-13: 978-0787909451
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical source for HR professionals., September 19, 1999

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Performance Appraisal: State of the Art in Practice (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

As stated by series editor Manuel London, "the current volume, edited by J.W. Smither, provides state-of-the-art methods for performance management. The authors recognize the strategic, systemic role of a performance appraisal process that evaluates employees or behaviors that are important to organizational success and ties the appraisal results to rewards and development...The goal is to design a performance appraisal process that is fair and applies in different organizational situations and contexts. New forms of appraisal are described, such as 360-degree survey feedback and self-assessment. The book shows how to increase rater accuracy and how to use appraisals for employee development. Overall, the book is valuable resource to practitioners who want to evaluate and revamp their appraisal systems to meet the changing needs of their organizations."

In this context, as a sample, in thirteenth chapter of this book " Performance-Based Pay Plans" Robert L. Heneman and Maria T. Gresham focus the issue of how organizations can most effectively make the link between performance appraisal and compensation and incentive systems. As stated by them " this requires an understanding of the need for performance-based pay, the compensation context, types of reward systems, design issues, and implementation issues." Thus each of this topics have been examined as a literature review :

* types of pay and performance plans : merit pay, team-based merit pay, skill-based pay, competency-based pay, piece-rate pay, standart hour plan, group incentives, suggestion systems, team recognition plans, gainsharing, sales commissions and team sales plans, profit sharing and stock sharing, executive pay.

* pay and performance plan effectiveness.

* design issue : integration with business strategy and organizational culture, motivational considerations, performance measurement levels.

* implementation issues : measurement, fairness, communications.

Not only this chapter, but this book as a whole is highly recommended for HR professionals.

See also : Maximizing the Value of 360-Degree Feedback - Walter Tornow, Manuel London

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The standard in performance appraisal texts, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Performance Appraisal: State of the Art in Practice (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

Dr. Smither has pulled together a wonderful group of authors in developing a book that covers the most important aspects of performance appraisal. A must-have for those engaged in this often difficult aspect of management.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still an excellent resource, albeit a little old, February 20, 2007

By 

JJD (NJ, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Performance Appraisal: State of the Art in Practice (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

Although this is book is starting to get a little dated, it remains an outstanding resource for practitioners working in performance appraisal settings, and especially for researchers looking for a good overview of the topic. Particularly strong chapters cover topics including training raters (Hauenstein), politics in the performance appraisal process (Kozlowski et al.), and fairness in PA (Gilliland & Langdon). Chapters that have become somewhat outdated include the chapters on legal trends in PA (Malos) and multisource feedback (Dalessio). I still use selections from this book when teaching courses on performance appraisal, and I have only docked it one star due to its age. In most respects, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in performance management.