Jane Maley
Charles Sturt University
Jane Maley is an academic at Charles Sturt University, Australia and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Business Research. Jane has published over 60 articles in high ranking journals. Her research interests include global performance management and global mobility.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of the performance appraisal (PA) and performance management (PM) literature based on an analysis of the content of the past 20 years of PA/PM research published in the leading journals in the field, namely, the International Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM), Personal Review(PR), European Journal of International Management (EJIM), Human Resource Management (HRM), Business Horizons(BH), International Journal of Manpower (IJMP), Performance Management Systems: A global Perspective (PMS), British Journal of Management (BJM), Employee Relations (ER) and Human Resource Management Review (HRMR).
The paper serves not only to assess the structure and past evolution of the content of the PA/PM field and its different subfields, but also presents some conjectures about further developments in this literature. By helping PM scholars to understand better the direction in which the field is going and where the gaps are, the paper is intended to provide a guideline for scholars in positioning their future research efforts.
We seek to develop an integrative review; that is, a piece of research that focuses on a specific topic and uses a replicable methodology in order to reveal the intellectual structure of this research (Callahan, 2010). This outcome “reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on this PM in an integrated way so that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic can be generated” (Torraco, 2005; p. 356). In short, the review will provide a comprehensive picture of PM, as well as isolating important gaps in the extant literature in order to guide opportunities for future research. Our methodology uses a Bibliometric Analysis that allows the representation of the underlying intellectual structure of the area with a thorough reflection derived from the research team’s analysis and interpretation of both the map and the content of the articles. Our review uncovers what has transpired in the measurement research, cognitive research and if the step-up to PM has been the answer to the inherent problems of assessing and developing human capital. It will review the locus of PM research in the new century.
