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From annual ritual to daily routine: continuous performance management and its consequences for employment security
Author(s) -
Williams Glynne,
Beck Vanessa
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
new technology, work and employment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.889
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1468-005X
pISSN - 0268-1072
DOI - 10.1111/ntwe.12106
Subject(s) - dismissal , discretion , control (management) , ranking (information retrieval) , business , power (physics) , economics , accounting , actuarial science , public relations , political science , computer science , management , law , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning
Management control in the workplace ultimately rests on the power to dismiss employees who are deemed to be underperforming. This article examines a more recent trend away from annual appraisal and towards continual monitoring and review. Based on a study of specialist proprietary performance management ( PM ) software packages and interviews with the consultants who market them, the contention is that these developments are driven by the need to control dismissal. In the case of the UK , we argue that the adoption of PM systems needs to be understood as a means of ‘retiring’ older workers who might otherwise remain in employment. The systems studied here draw on a range of data, allowing managers considerable discretion in how this evidence is used. Specifically, by dispensing with explicit ranking methods, these systems suggest a new employer confidence in the use of subjective evidence.