Most new improvement methodologies typically begin with misunderstandings about what they are and are not. Perhaps that is why the famous business management author, Peter Drucker, observed that it can take decades before a new and reliable management technique becomes widely adopted. Misunderstandings are typically not a result of ignorance but rather inexperience. The latest buzzword, performance management, is predictably laden with misconceptions due to the lack of experience with it. That is now changing.

At the top of the heap of the misunderstandings that are delaying widespread application of performance management are three primary debates:

• What it should be called,
• What and how broad it is, and
• What it does.

Which Phrase Should Be Used to Describe Performance Management?

There is confusion in the marketplace about performance management in part due to semantics and language. We increasingly see in the press and media the acronyms BPM for business performance management, CPM for corporate performance management and EPM for enterprise performance management. But just as the words merci, gracias, dunke schein and thank you all mean the same thing, so do these acronyms. I have personally opted to refer to it in the short version and simply call it performance management.