research-based findings and up-to-date applications that help increase an organization s talent pool. Performance management is ongoing and cyclical; however, for pedagogical reasons, the book needs to follow a linear structure. Because performance observation, evaluation, and improvement are ongoing processes, some concepts and practices may be introduced early in a cursory manner, but receive more detailed treatment in later sections. In addition, many issues such as training of raters and employee development will be discussed in multiple chapters. So, you will see that several chapters may refer to similar issues. When this happens, content included in more than one chapter will be cross-referenced. Finally, this book focuses on best practices and describes the necessary steps to create a top-notch performance management system. As a result of practical constraints and lack of knowledge about system design and implementation, many organizations cut corners and do not have systems that follow best practices. Environmental and political issues (e.g., goals of raters may not be aligned with goals of the organization) also play a role. Because the way in which systems are implemented in practice is often not close to the ideal system, the book includes numerous examples from actual organizations to illustrate how systems are implemented, given actual situational constraints.

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