Performance Management around the Globe: where are we now?

In this chapter, the authors present brief synopses of the various chapters in the two parts of the book, comparing and contrasting key findings, as appropriate. However, as noted at the outset, this is the second edition of this book - the first appeared in 2008. Therefore, another goal of the present chapter is to suggest where progress has been made over the past years and where it has not. One aspect of this topic that has not changed over the years is the fact that there are some things about performance management that can be applied almost universally but that there are other aspects of performance management that are incompatible with some cultures or traditions so that, when systems in different countries are compared, both universal and unique aspects of the performance management systems are found in each. In the earlier edition, the term ‘crossvergence’ was used to describe this phenomenon. This term refers to the blending of work practices around the globe, due to the level of active interface among human resource managers from different countries (see also Gopalan & Stahl, 1998). The authors still believe that this term applies and endeavor to examine where the similarities exist and where the differences/uniqueness endure and try to understand how these findings can help guide multinational enterprises in setting up effective performance management systems across the globe.