Bell curve is used for performance management. This theory was conceived by Hernstein & Murray in 1994.
If you have 100 employees in a group / tea / project, you rate everybody and colect their self appraisal rating. When you compare you usually come out with a graph, where you have ratings or scores on one hand and number of employees on the other hand.
The logic is, as per the bell-curve rule, you got to classify certain number of emplyees forcefully under some defined rules. This is forced distribution, and that is one of the drawback of this theory because you are forcefully by classifying an employee as outstanding or unsatifactory, underestimating his potential, usually this kind of model is nowadays used in companies which are into restructuring, business process reengineering, and into cutting down their workforce for cost advantages etc.
Because by inducing this model you can term somebody unsatisfactory compared to someone who may not be outstanding but comparitively is outstanding..... the good part is... if it is applied properly and aligned with good practices like competency development and talent management, it can be used evry effectively, but seldom practitioners end up doing so.. . Regards, Sanjay Mewar
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