Performance management: a solution to or a part of inequality regimes?

Rooted in Joan Acker's 'Gender Organisations' framework, the paper explores the impact of developmental performance management systems (DPMS) on employees' perceived well-being, highlighting gender- and age-based intersectional power imbalances within the organisations. Data stemming from a questionnaire administered to a sample of Italian employees in the summer of 2021 were analysed by using three different regression models. The first, preliminary model, analyzed the DPMS index's impact on employee wellbeing; the second included a gender interaction term; and the third incorporated a three-way interaction, assessing DPMS effects concerning genders and age categories. The results of the analysis unveil three primary investigative strands. Firstly, our findings dismiss the idea, contained in the existing literature, suggesting that DPMS can be regarded as inclusive performance management systems, confirming the discriminating patterns inherent in most traditional performance management systems. Secondly, the analysis discloses the need for intersectional analysis of inequalities data. In fact, against all expectations, our results do not reveal any significant gender-based moderation in the relationship between DPMS and well-being, yet, by employing an intersectional lens, we do reveal nuanced power dynamics, notably apparent for intersections of genders and ages. Lastly, through the exploration of performance management systems, the resulting power and consequent well-being, we consider how men and women move closer to and farther away from the 'ideal worker' concept over the course of their lifetime.