The logic behind forced-ranking systems is that employee performance falls on a bell-shaped curve- the normal distribution, as you learned in your statistics courses. Thus, only a small percentage of employees fall into the outstanding category, and an approx- imately equal number fall into the unsatisfactory category. Most employees are considered average in terms of their performance and need further coach- ing and/or training to improve. Large organizations have recently been questioning whether such systems work. Concerns have been raised that forced rankings are demotivating and harm cooperation and team- work. Some companies, including Microsoft and Adobe Systems, have even removed numerical ratings from their evaluation systems after learning that employees stop listening after they get their number and don't hear the essential feedback they need to improve their performance. Shelly Carlin, senior vice president of human resources at Motorola Solutions, agrees: "In a traditional review, the employee listens until he hears the rating and then tunes out because he's doing the calculation in his head about how that will affect his bonus." At Adobe Systems, Donna Morris, the senior vice president of human resources, noticed that turn- over increased each year after the performance review process. There has also been a trend toward more fre- quent reviews-quarterly or monthly-rather than the traditional 1-year review." Morris stated the following: We came to a fairly quick decision that we would abolish the performance review, which meant we would no longer have one- time-of-the-year formal written review. What's more, we would abolish performance rankings and levels in order to move away from people feeling like they were labeled." The company changed to a process where check-in conversations that focus on ongoing feedback were instituted instead of numerical ratings each year." In addition to reducing turnover, increasing regular feed- back, and improving teamwork, many organizations feel that the performance review process must change because organizations themselves have changed. According to the founder and principal at Bersin by Deloitte, a research-based provider of human resource systems, "Organization structures have changed and companies need to be more agile. We have a shortage of key talent and the keys to success now focus on reg- ular alignment, coaching, creating passion and engage- ment, and continuous employee development."67 Discussion Questions List the pros of performance appraisals. Provide an example of when a performance appraisal has a positive benefit. 2. List the cons of performance appraisals. Provide an example of when a performance appraisal has a negative outcome. 3. Based on motivation theory, we know that employees need feedback to perform well. Describe an alternative to performance appraisal that provides necessary feedback.