A lucid and funny article on performance reviews by Lucy Kellaway, at the Financial Times:

Over the past 30 years, I have been appraised three dozen times – as banker, journalist and non-executive director. […] But never have I learnt anything about myself as a result. I have never set any target that I subsequently hit. […] The resulting form is then put on file, making you feel vaguely paranoid, even though you know from experience how much attention will be subsequently paid to it: none whatsoever. […]

The most sinister thing about the current system is that it allows managers to delude themselves into thinking that they are managing their people.

With this delusion stripped away, some managers might take matters into their own hands. They might even start saying “that’s good” and “that’s not so good” at the only helpful time to say such things: when they have just happened. This sort of thing is called managing, and the beauty of it is that it makes formal appraisals quite unnecessary.