Employee Evaluation

Chapter 1: Introduction

“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it...[otherwise] your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in thought advanced to the stage of science”. (Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) 1824-1907)

Performance measurement is a topic which is discussed very often these days. Literally it is the process of quantifying action, where measurement is the process of quantification and action leads to performance Andy Neely el al., (1995). The pressure for achieving and continuously improving performances leads firms to develop formal performance management processes. The performance management process should be considered as one of the key business processes and, according to Bititci et al., (1997, p. 524), it can be defined as “the process by which the company manages its performance in line with its corporate and functional strategies and objectives”. The performance management process covers a broad set of activities, spanning from strategy formulation and revision, to accounting, personnel appraisal, etc.

Performance measurement is a broad topic, nevertheless, this research will focus on the issues associated with methods of performance measurement, and evaluation, and try to come to a conclusion of the best or effective methods for measuring performance, basically this research will be to trying to answer the following questions:

• What are some the contemporary performance measures used?
• Where are these measures used?
• What do these measures provide? (benefits that they provide, and disadvantages)
• Are these measures effective and give the required outcomes?

By answering these questions it is expected that we will come to a better understanding about performance measurement and evaluation.