Chapter 7: Electronic Performance Management: Does Altering the Process Improve the Outcome?

Electronic performance management (ePM) systems have flourished and are now used by a large percentage of US Organizations (Sierra-Cedar, 2016). Considering the fast-paced growth of adoption, it is important to determine if these changes are helping or hurting corresponding human resource management processes. In the meantime, another workforce trend is a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional performance appraisal process (Aguinis, Joo, & Gottfredson, 2011; Pulakos & O’Leary, 2011). Although the formal annual evaluation has traditionally been the cornerstone of performance management, there is a growing perception in practice that performance ratings are of little value to organizations (Adler et al., 2016). In light of these issues, many organizations claim to have stopped gathering performance ratings entirely (Culbert, 2008; Resker, 2017; Rock, Davis & Jones, 2014; Rock & Jones, 2015). The purpose of this chapter is to describe how technology impacts the performance management process and can potentially address some of the concerns raised about traditional performance appraisal. We propose that technology influences the performance management process in the following five ways. It (1) automates, (2) documents, (3) integrates, (4) structures, and (5) makes the process more accessible and these changes can in turn result in altered employee outcomes. We summarize the limited research on ePM, describe how ePM has the potential to address various age-old performance appraisal problems, and put forward 15 propositions and research questions in order to inspire new research-based insights and empirical evidence to support corresponding practice.