Open AccessEmployees of Greatness: Signifying Values in Performance Appraisal Criteria
Author(s) -
Ylva Ulfsdotter Eriksson,
Bengt Larsson,
Petra Adolfsson
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nordic journal of working life studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.322
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 2245-0157
DOI - 10.18291/njwls.122589
Subject(s) - greatness , valuation (finance) , remuneration , ideal (ethics) , performance appraisal , respondent , job evaluation , business valuation , social psychology , sociology , classical economics , positive economics , public relations , economics , business , accounting , management , psychology , political science , law , finance , job analysis , job satisfaction
The spread of performance-based and variable pay systems has affected expectations on employee contributions and remuneration, which have become increasingly personalized and individualized. Based on a theoretical valuation studies approach, this study of performance-based pay systems in Sweden shows that performance appraisals are (e)valuations of employees’ yearly performance in which they are prized and (ap)praised at the same time. Through a document analysis of performance criteria from four organizations, the study analyzes how values expressed refer to Boltanski and Thévenot’s six orders of worth. The analysis resulted in a theoretical construction of a joint ideal of Employees of Greatness, against which employees are measured and remunerated. The existence of the ideal of employee greatness is explained by the increasing congruence of organizational ideals in private and public sectors, as principles from emotional and cognitive forms of capitalist organization are superimposed on traditional industrial capitalist organizational ideals.