From Performance Appraisal to Performance Management: One Agency's Experience

Abstract

This article first outlines recent suggestions for improving agencies' performance appraisal systems: incorporating the developments of Total Quality Management (TQM) and core competencies into appraisals, and moving toward performance management. We then relate the experience of a state enforcement agency in applying these suggestions. What began as an objective of updating officers' performance appraisals to include recent agency developments, evolved into significantly overhauling this appraisal system; adding a new performance mechanism at the manager level; and using both of these processes to drive the agency's new strategic plan and promote “a different way of doing business.” This agency's experience seems applicable beyond enforcement agencies, and relevant both for those wanting to move performance in new directions, and for those wanting to energize ongoing performance. Suggestions are offered for moving toward effective performance management.