Performance appraisal as icon: Oscar-winning performance or dressing to impress?

This article firstly examines the changing focus of performance appraisal in relation to the control exercised by management over the work process and its ‘pre-defined’ outcomes. Here it assesses the subtle control strategies employed in the (post)modern 1990s form of management and, more specifically, the requirement on individuals to present the right image as a means of subordination. The work of Foucault is put forward as an alternative conception to traditional perspectives on performance appraisal and is then used to analyse data gathered from a case study in the Midlands. Foucault's work examining the manipulation of power/knowledge is used to interpret the changing strategy for individuals. The privileges ordinarily associated with non-manual employment are viewed as increasingly vulnerable in these circumstances to the dictates of performance appraisal. The case study highlights some of these issues in situ and illustrates the arbitrary use of power/knowledge over employees.