Implementation of Performance Management

You are a passionate performance management consultant with expertise in performance management, you have been hired by the CEO of a large company to change a performance appraisal system to a performance management system.With your previous experience in bringing about such transitions, you know such transitions depends heavily upon top managerial understanding of and support for the performance management system at hand.

The top management team is a hard sell, and they remain skeptical about whether your proposed performance management system is any different or more effective than the performance appraisal system that the company has had in place for decades. To make matters worse, the prevailing attitude across all levels of the organization seems to be characterized by the commonly heard statement: We have been doing this for a long time, and it seems to work just fine. Moreover, one of the managers has challenged your plan by voicing his concern that a performance management system might create or increase the demands (such as excessive paperwork) on managers and employees time and resources.

Q: How would you educate the top management to correct their mistaken belief of equating Performance Appraisal with Performance Management?