Appraising the Most Important and Expensive Company Asset — People: A Review Essay

Abstract

FOR some reason, the Motorola Corporatian has recently spent a lot of money on a series of advertlsements in upmarket U.S. magazines, simply to proclaim the excellence and effectiveness of their personnel management programmes. Earlier enthusiasm in the U.S. for 'Theory Z' and admiration for the sense of involvement that the Japanese feel at work appears to have been followed by a backlash and there have been a number of articles making sarcastic remarks about company songs and callisthenics. However it is interesting that one of Motorola's boasts is of "on going staff involvement and two way communication through regular, open, performance appraisal".

Russell Lansbury recently wrote that one of the main reasons for performance appraisal becoming popular again, is the increased demand for staff participation in management. On the other hand, William Ouchi's book on 'Theory Z' makes it clear that one significant difference between Japanese and U.S. management styles is in the area of staff appraisal. The difference is one that Ouchi constantly refers to — a difference in time perspective — the Japanese perspective on performance being a much longer one. The issues of 'participation', of time perspective and management styles associated with performance appraisal, are important and will be referred to again in the following review.