????西雅圖企業生產力研究所(Institute for Corporate Productivity)首席研究員克利福德?史蒂文森表示，根據2011年的一項調查，采用韋爾奇式評估體系的公司數量正在下降，尤其值得注意的是，一些業績領先的公司已經放棄了這種做法。

????他說：“聲稱使用強制排名體系的公司占比已經從42％下降到了14％?！?/p>

????他說：“受訪的大多數公司（大約57%）以整個組織的薪酬和績效作為員工評價基準，還有一些所占比重較低的公司則采用分公司、部門、團隊或區域水平作為標準?！?/p>

????就員工評級而言，這種靈活性給予了管理者更大的自由裁量權，但它也“增加了管理者的負擔，因為他們需要對員工業績做出主觀判斷?！?/p>

????強制排名體系因公司而異，但這種評價方式通常都要求管理者把員工劃分為“三六九等”：一部分員工必須被作為表現不佳者，列入最底層的10%；一部分員工作為合格者，列入中間的50-60%；剩余的員工則屬于業績優秀者。明星員工將獲得加薪、晉升、培訓和教育機會。

????管理者被迫評估員工時，個人因素（比如最喜歡的員工類型和個性）會不可避免地發揮作用。有鑒于此，管理者和員工常常花費更多時間來營造關系網絡，討好上級，以彰顯自己實際上可能并未獲取的成就。但專家們表示，最不健康的結果是，工作團隊的某位成員被評為失敗者。

????批評者認為，微軟公司近些年來競爭力的退化與員工之間缺乏創意分享有莫大的關系。這家公司的人力資源部主管麗薩?布魯梅爾表示，微軟將著重打造團隊協作精神，同時開發員工的潛能。

????她說，微軟公司將“不再繪制評級曲線”，管理者將獲得獎勵員工個人的酌情權。

????喬治敦大學(Georgetown University)麥克多諾商學院(McDonough School of Business)教授布魯克斯?霍爾特姆聲稱，雖然強制評級體系存在相當大的缺點，但在工商界中，它或許還有一席之地。

????“這種評價方式或許帶有武斷的成分，也可能會對創造力和團隊共享產生嚴重的負面影響，但它或許具有優勝劣汰的作用，”他說。“不過，通常來說，強制排名體系只能在頭一兩年發揮作用，所以說，它只是一項短期戰略?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W）

????譯者：葉寒?????????

????Clifford Stevenson, lead management researcher for the Institute for Corporate Productivity, a Seattle research firm, said his organization's 2011 survey found a decline in the number of companies, especially those that are high-performing, using the approach.

????"The percentage of companies reporting that they used a forced-ranking system declined from 42% to 14%," he says.

????"The majority of organizations surveyed, about 57%, calibrate pay and performance outcomes for the entire organization, while smaller percentages calibrate at the division, department, team, or geographic level instead," he says.

????That flexibility allows managers, he says, to exercise more discretion in assigning ratings, but it also places "an increased burden on managers to make subjective decisions on employee performance."

????”

????There are variations by company, but forced rankings typically require managers to divide their employees, sorting a fixed percentage of workers into the bottom 10% or so as underperforming, the middle 50-60% as passing, and the rest as superior or top-performing. The stars receive raises, promotions, training, and education opportunities.

????When managers are forced to rate their employees, personal factors come into play -- like favorites and personalities -- and managers and employees spend more time networking and currying favor to highlight their accomplishments than actually achieving them. But the unhealthiest result, experts say, is the fact that someone on the work team will be pigeonholed as a failure.

????Microsoft, whose competitive momentum, critics argue, has been hindered by lack of idea-sharing, is going to focus on teamwork and collaboration and developing its employees, according to an announcement by its human rights director Lisa Brummel.

????She has said there will be "no more curve" at Microsoft, and that managers will have the discretion to reward individual employees.

????While forced ratings systems have considerable downsides, there can be a place for them at companies, argues Brooks Holtom, a professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

????"The ratings can be arbitrary, and they can have serious effects on creativity and team-sharing, but they can have the benefit of helping cut the deadwood," he says. "But, typically speaking, forced rankings can work in the first year or two, so it's only a short-term strategy."????????