Managers, like everyone else, want their performance positively appraised. They seek approval. Even if individual managers have full freedom to act in accordance with the currently conceived social responsibilities, they might not do so because of standards applied in evaluating their performance. That’s where the performance management software plays a helping hand.

Therefore, if their success is measured by profit, living within a budget, tax collection as a percentage of income, or the volume of blood contributed to a blood bank, managers will tend to strive for excellence in these regards. If success is measured in familiar terms – such as pollution control, the number of reformed convicts returned successfully to society, the dollar support for employees seeking university degrees, the ratio of “disadvantaged” to total number of employees, achievements in raising the productivity of subordinates, or combinations of these and similar goals – then managers will strive to achieve them.

The most appropriate standards to use for appraising managers as managers are the fundamentals of management. It is not enough to appraise a manager broadly, evaluating only performance of the basic functions of the manager; appraisal should go further. The best approach, also been used by the performance management software is to utilize the basic techniques and principles of management as standards.

If they are basic, as they have been found to be in a wide variety of managerial positions and environments, they should serve as reasonably good standards. As crude as they may be, and even though some judgment may be necessary in applying them to practice, they give the evaluator some benchmarks for measuring how well subordinates understand and are following the functions of managing. They are definitely more specific and more applicable than evaluations based on such broad standards as work and dress habits, cooperation, intelligence, judgment or loyalty. They at least focus attention on what may be expected of a manager as a manager.