of the people who had helped her put together her proposals, she always dropped the name of a few powerful people in her acknowledgements. She seemed to know the important people in the company, and she came through with some impressive clients. The fact that she rarely followed through and dumped her work on the other groups and the brokers seemed to escape the attention of upper management. Brooks could not help but envy Baskin’s success. He was also puzzled by how she had become successful given her actual performance. Yes, she had brought in some major clients, but overall her performance was lower than that of several other group managers, including himself. Her brokers disliked her and complained about her temper tantrums, her threats, her lack of support, and her unreasonable demands. Yet, she was going places. Brooks shared his discontent with his manager and asked his manager to provide an explanation for Baskin’s promotion versus Brook’s promotion. His manager response was that “she is just really good” without providing any further information. Brooks is very frustrated and feels his manager is not considering all performance aspects when making his decision for promoting Baskin. Brook has started to talk to other managers and has recently become aware of a document called “Goal Setting Document” that other departments in the organization are using to evaluate employee performance and want to learn more about this document and how it can help him receive a fair promotional opportunity. Brooks has decided to reach out to you as the HR department manager asking for help and support. Discussion Questions 1) As the HR manager, critically evaluate the current performance appraisal process at the Financial Security Investment including Brook’s manager’s behavior and decision making as well as the organization’s role in this process. Based on your knowledge of HR and performance appraisal best practices recommend at least two changes besides having a goal setting document to improve this process and provide your rational for each recommendation. 2)
