Many people flinch at the mention of evaluation, and with reason. Research shows that in many workplaces, the main effect of employee reviews is to hurt productivity by annually lowering morale. In congregations, staff evaluation too often is conducted as a popularity poll with anonymous respondents rating staff performance on the basis of subjective impressions. In effect, staff members are encouraged to feel that they report to dozens of semi-invisible bosses who can invent new things to blame them for at any time. This approach raises stress even for popular staff members and does little to improve performance.

A second reason to dislike staff evaluation is that people who are in conflict with a staff member often propose evaluation as a way to express unhappiness. For the staff, this ploy turns evaluation into a harbinger of doom, like the arrival of the priest in an old movie. Evaluation is a poor way to deal with conflict, whether the conflict is really about staff or (as is often the case when a staff member is criticized) the congregation itself is divided over an underlying issue.

A third reason to dislike evaluation is that supervisors often wait until they have decided to fire someone before engaging in evaluation seriously. As a consequence, evaluation becomes associated with the notion of "building up a file" to protect against lawsuits or other conflicts after discharging an employee.

Understandably, some clergy and staff erect rigid boundaries around themselves and refuse to be evaluated or (more often) simply never get around to it. Volunteers do the same thing, sometimes expressing surprise at the very suggestion that their performance ought to be evaluated. In frustration, boards sometimes insist on punitive or inappropriately quantitative systems of evaluation, in the hope of cracking down. Such rigid, unilateral approaches to the subject of evaluation often express underlying tensions needing to be addressed directly-perhaps with the help of a consultant-before evaluation can become healthy and constructive. Increased emphasis on evaluation is rarely a good first step in conflict management, though it can be helpful in stabilizing a relationship that is working reasonably well.

To be constructive, evaluation has to become a routine, non-threatening part of congregational culture. This can happen when leaders stick to a routine of serious, periodic evaluation, and set an example of openness to feedback and respond to it by learning and improving their performance.