Book excerpt: When used to its full potential, performance management is an HR system that can provide an organization with a substantial competitive advantage. Yet it remains a much maligned, poorly used process in most companies today. For these companies it is a boring, time-consuming ritual that yields little tangible benefit, without a hint of impact on the bottom line. Realizing the Promise of Performance Management dispels the notion that performance management is an exercise in futility. Indeed, it paints the picture of an invaluable system that can underpin and permeate all organizational effortsdriving straight through to an improved bottom line. This book describes a system that can enable an organization to seamlessly execute its business and cultural strategies in full alignment with its other important HR systems, such as selection, promotion, succession planning, and compensationand it can be done in todays intense business environments. Realizing the Promise of Performance Management presents more than a dozen case studiesdepicting how some of the best-known global companies have leveraged their performance management systems to retain top talent, invigorate their workforces, reduce turnover, align capabilities, and grow their business. Drawing on lessons learned from more than 30 years experience with hundreds of companies, Robert W. Rogers presents a strong case for the whys of performance managementwhy spend time doing it right, why insist that senior executives model the process, why track how well the system works, and most of all, why demand that managers become skilled users of the system. In other words, why will an effective performance management system give your organization a competitive edge? Ultimately, as youll see by reading this book, because it will get results.