Hal to Bruce on performance reviews

Like Norwegian universities which have only three pay grades at each
of three ranks (with COLA adjustments), one can try to minimize such
evaluation. (There, too, getting a job is the hard part; tenure is no
big deal.) As long as hierarchical evaluation systems exist, the one
way I've found which most undoes their harm is to open the system to
all concerned during negotiation of the ratings. For instance, my
favorite dean/chair of all time used to invite each of individually
twice to discuss not only our own pay raises but those he was
contemplating for others--before and after his allocations.

My theory of democratizing violence would lead me to expect in these
situations that evaluation differentials shrink in the course of
repeated negotiation. l&p hal