The most basic problem is that performance appraisals often don't accurately assess performance.
Hold everybody accountable? Ridiculous!
Any manager can do well in an expanding market.
We must understand variation.
To optimize the whole, we must sub-optimize the parts
Managers don't like giving appraisals, and employees don't like getting them. Perhaps they're not liked because both parties suspect what the evidence has proved for decades: Traditional performance appraisals don't work.