The Conversation: Down with the Performance Review
Professor Samuel Culbert tells ABC's David Muir why annual reviews are bad.
July 9, 2010— -- Of all the fixtures of modern day office life, perhaps none is as dreaded as the annual performance review.
Samuel Culbert, a management professor at UCLA, is on a crusade to get rid of the reviews, which he calls "one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activies," in his new book, ""Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing -- and Focus on What Really Matters."
Culbert says that the reviews are bad for employees, bosses, and companies.
"They're fraudulent and dishonest, and they reflect bad management," Culbert told ABC's David Muir in today's Conversation.
"The boss's job is to ensure the success of each employee," Culbert said. He added, the boss must "get employees to talk honestly and candidly about what's going wrong."
Instead, performance reviews encourage the exact opposite behavior, urging employees to highlight only what's going right and conceal the information that could really make the company better.
"The employee is just going to give the boss what he or she thinks the boss wants," Culbert said.
While he wants the performance review to be scrapped, Culbert also has an idea for an alternative -- a performance preview.
"The boss should be out there saying to the employees, 'Please, tell me, how can I help you? What are the resources that you need?'"
That, Culbert says, has the potential to change corporate culture and make companies better for employees and for shareholders.
We hope you'll listen to this very honest Conversation.
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ABC News' Karen Travers contributed to this report.
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