Effective Communication in the Performance Appraisal Interview: Face-To-Face Communication for Public Managers in the Culturally Diverse Workplace

Abstract

This article first restates and then extends a thesis about the performance appraisal process first published in this journal almost 15 years ago—that the public manager's performance in the face-to-face encounter of “the appraisal interview itself is the Achilles' heel of the entire process.” This 1983 article held that many public managers experience discomfort approaching the actual performance appraisal interview and difficulty in conducting it. For they usually are untrained, and may even be unaware of the scholarly work that has identified the skills that make for more effective face-to-face communication. At that time the published literature in this area offered little help to public managers, so the 1983 article presented six specific “microcommunication skills” to help public managers communicate more effectively in the performance appraisal interview.