Can We Defend Subjective Performance Appraisal? (A Comment)

Abstract

The article presents a comment on an earlier article titled “In Defense of Executive Appraisal,” by George H. Labovitz in the September 1969 issue of this publication. The author agrees that executives should be judged on their ability to interact, but takes issue with the apparent theoretical gap in the assumption that interaction correlates to the level of performance or the achievement of organizational goals. Second, the author argues that the attainment of personal goals does not necessarily correlate with the achievement of organizational goals. Finally, the author argues that subjective performance criteria should be distinguished from subjective appraisal. The author discusses the fairness of quantitative assessment.