The Washington Post has the article What if you could replace performance evaluations with four simple questions?

Everyone loves to hate performance evaluations, and with good reason: Research has shown them to be ineffective, unreliable and unsatisfactory for seemingly everyone involved. They consume way too much time, leave most workers deflated and feel increasingly out of step with reality.

I have been railing against performance reviews for many years.  I had many deficiencies and problems with being a manager, but what really drove me out of the ranks of management was the need to do performance reviews.  I even got myself into a position where my manager wrote performance reviews that I had to deliver to employees.  I once asked this manager whether or not he thought performance reviews were intended to demotivate employees?  The review he had just prepared would certainly do that to its intended target.  Even the toned down review that I had to deliver motivated this valued employee right out the door of the company.  I certainly couldn’t soften the blow to the employee by telling him, “You should have seen this review before I had it toned down.”