Performance Review Takes a Page from Facebook Research Paper - 1

Performance Review Takes a Page from Facebook - Research Paper Example It is true that social media has found massive inroads in the lives of many but delegating such an important task to informal social media conversation is not only time consuming but might also be ineffective. Formal performance evaluation not only tells people where they stand but also provides guidance as to how to increase performance in future. There are other important elements of performance feedback and evaluation as well like anonymity which might not be fulfilled through regular conversation. It is therefore safe to disagree with the statement that regular conversation eliminates the need for formal performance evaluations. Regular conversation is important in today’s society and people should have a forum where they can voice their concerns and can get help. There is no doubt in the efficacy of making regular conversations with employees but the purpose of formalized performance evaluation is to informs employees about their performance for a time period. Regular conversations might not fulfill this purpose because performance evaluation should be spaced accurately so that employees have a chance to show improvements. Performance evaluations cannot be taken every month and week, and this is why formal performance evaluation and feedback is important. In different age groups performance feedback effectiveness through social networks will be very different from each other. For example for veterans such a method might not work at all because they are not very technology friendly (Jeffries, 2007). They might be more comfortable with face to face performance evaluation or paper based evaluations. Baby boomers might also not as comfortable with technology as other younger age groups (Perez, 2009), and therefore they might also not prefer such system of performance evaluations. Other age groups like Generation X and generation Y might be more comfortable with performance evaluations done through social media. This is because of their