Performance Reviews - Hot or Not?

Is your performance review coming up? Do you think it has any value, beyond fulfilling a bureaucratic requirement before your boss can raise your salary?

The Wall Street Journal recently published a long essay attacking the insitution of the performance review. The essay was written by Samuel A. Culbert, a management consultant, author and professor at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

The real "primary purpose" of performance reviews, Culbert wrote, is "intimidation aimed at preserving the boss's authority and power advantage." Reviews are one-sided (giving only the boss's view of things), inherently subjective, and invariably counterproductive for both employer and employee, he said. He dismissed the assumed connection between performance reviews and salary reviews as a "cover story" meant to conceal how pay is really determined.

Do these observations reflect how you feel about performance reviews in your company?

Do Canadian employers handle the review process any differently than employers in the U.S.?

Post your thoughts below.