{"id":711,"date":"2005-06-13T09:14:01","date_gmt":"2005-06-13T16:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/06\/who_gets_to_decide_what_perfor\/"},"modified":"2005-06-13T09:14:01","modified_gmt":"2005-06-13T16:14:01","slug":"who_gets_to_decide_what_perfor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/who_gets_to_decide_what_perfor.php","title":{"rendered":"Who gets to decide what ‘performance’ means?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several sources are talking about a new musician’s contract at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony (the New York Times<\/i> had a piece this Sunday<\/a>, drawing from an earlier article in Andante<\/a>, and discussed today at length<\/a> by my weblog neighbor, Drew McManus<\/a>). Says the Times<\/i>:<\/p>\n


\nThe Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, one of Japan’s top-tier orchestras, has its own financial challenges, and in its recent negotiations it suggested a radical fix: performance-based contracts, under which musicians’ raises and promotions — or, perhaps, their departures — would be based on ”objective” evaluations by management.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, the challenge in any performance-based job review and incentive system is deciding what ”good performance” looks like, what evidence it leaves behind, and who gets to measure. The danger comes when any side assumes it understands all the complexity and nuance of the ecosystem (which nobody can), and implements measures and goals that are detached from or detrimental to the true vitality of the organization.<\/p>\n

\nThe measures in Tokyo are still being negotiated, but the Times<\/i> gives a hint of the variables:<\/p>\n


\nThe criteria for judging the musicians are still being discussed, but in addition to straightforward musical performance, they’re likely to include attendance, onstage manners, teamwork and helping to publicize the orchestra.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The best performance evaluation and support systems begin with a deep and mutually honest conversation — where everyone<\/i> involved in the activity can describe the qualities of an ideal process, and the pieces required to make the puzzle work. Here, that would include management, musicians, audience members, board members, donors, civic leaders, educators, and others. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that such conversations are taking place in Tokyo, so whoever has the most power will likely pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several sources are talking about a new musician’s contract at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony (the New York Times had a piece this Sunday, drawing from an earlier article in Andante, and discussed today at length by my weblog neighbor, Drew McManus). Says the Times: The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, one of Japan’s top-tier orchestras, has its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}