The hazards of performance management: An investigation into its effects on employee absenteeism and presenteeism

Performance management (PM) practices were conceived to improve employees’ performance. However, one may ask: do they also have unintended and accompanying consequences on employee well-being? In this study, we set out to answer this question, and examined the influence of three PM practices, namely goal setting, monitoring, and performance evaluation, on two behavioral indicators of employee well-being: sickness absenteeism (not working owing to illness) and presenteeism (working despite illness). Our assumption, based on labor process theory, is that PM practices are an instrument of managerial control that would intensify employees’ work and, via this process, lead to more absenteeism and presenteeism. Drawing on two matched waves of the French National Working Conditions survey (N = 17,081), we found that goal setting and monitoring are associated with more absenteeism and presenteeism indirectly via work intensification. By contrast, performance evaluation reported negative, albeit weak, indirect associations with both behaviors. These results show that PM can take a toll on employees’ well-being and that the organizational and social context of attendance behaviors matters. They also hold clear practical implications for designing managerial practices that minimize their negative impact on well-being.