Public Service Law: Individual Performance Appraisals and Target‐setting Processes Available to Purchase

In the German Civil Service, a system of performance appraisals has played a pivotal role with regard to promotion. Therefore, individual appraisals have frequently been objects of far‐reaching judicial review. In addition, the modern target culture leads to an integration of elements of target setting and evaluation into the work of the civil service. Resulting tensions are an expression of a fundamental difference between traditional bureaucratic administrations based on the principles of the Rechtsstaat and the demands of a culture associated with the impacts of New Public Management. The article depicts that in an environment based on judicial scrutiny, performance‐related elements almost necessarily lead to more, rather than less, bureaucracy and possibly even to negative impacts on the motivation of the people evaluated. Consequently, the full‐scale Rechtsstaat might prevent the efficiency‐enhancing elements from taking effect.