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Feedback time: performance appraisal and management

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Book cover Communication Skills for Effective Management

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Abstract

All of us enjoy passing judgements on other people. For this reason, gossip is a central ingredient of much of human communication. The informal appraisals in which we routinely engage are often concerned with making ourselves feel better at the expense of someone else, rather than honestly examining the facts. Such judgements are frequently based on flimsy evidence: in effect, a verdict is pronounced before any testimony has been heard. This was well shown by a newspaper report on the appointment of General Boonthin Wrongakmit as Assistant Police Director in Thailand some years ago.1 Speaking after his appointment he said I shall be introducing an all-round shoot-to-kill policy towards our criminals. As police chief of North-East Thailand for 37 years 1 always used this policy.’ Asked how he could be sure his men always shot the right people, the General replied: ‘You could tell by the look of them.’

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Authors
  1. Owen Hargie
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  2. David Dickson
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  3. Dennis Tourish
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© 2004 Owen Hargie, David Dickson and Dennis Tourish

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Hargie, O., Dickson, D., Tourish, D. (2004). Feedback time: performance appraisal and management. In: Communication Skills for Effective Management. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-3893-0_14

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