Sure. That's all true. But it doesn't change the situation.
There are difficulties, but there are difficulties in any job. It's still the job of management to evaluate the performance and contribution of their employees.
The more rote the process, the worse it will be, since, as you say, it will be able to be gamed. As a general rule, I've found larger organizations are worse at it because they have more rote processes, with complicated matrices, charts, etc.
I've been a cog at small, medium, and large orgs. I've been team or project-level management at small and large orgs. I was happiest being management at the small level. Much less politic-y stuff and more freedom to manage the way I saw best. I enjoyed being managed most at the mid-level company. Less room for managerial whims that small companies can suffer from. (Yes, I know I'm playing both sides on that. Heh.) And less of the 7,000 item Employee Evaluation Form Of Doom that big companies have.
It's hard, no doubt. But a manager saying they can't accurately evaluate their employees is literally saying, "I can't do my job." Any manager should always have a very, very good idea what's going on with their employees and their contributions.
There are difficulties, but there are difficulties in any job. It's still the job of management to evaluate the performance and contribution of their employees.
The more rote the process, the worse it will be, since, as you say, it will be able to be gamed. As a general rule, I've found larger organizations are worse at it because they have more rote processes, with complicated matrices, charts, etc.
I've been a cog at small, medium, and large orgs. I've been team or project-level management at small and large orgs. I was happiest being management at the small level. Much less politic-y stuff and more freedom to manage the way I saw best. I enjoyed being managed most at the mid-level company. Less room for managerial whims that small companies can suffer from. (Yes, I know I'm playing both sides on that. Heh.) And less of the 7,000 item Employee Evaluation Form Of Doom that big companies have.
It's hard, no doubt. But a manager saying they can't accurately evaluate their employees is literally saying, "I can't do my job." Any manager should always have a very, very good idea what's going on with their employees and their contributions.