Employee Engagement

Why Performance Rankings Hurt Teams: Evidence from the Red Bead Experiment

In today’s competitive business environment, organizations often turn to performance rankings, stack rankings, or forced distribution methods to drive higher output from their teams. These controversial HR practices rate employees against each other, rewarding the “top performers” and penalizing or even terminating those who fall at the bottom. On the surface, this may appear to be a fair and merit-based approach. However, Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s Red Bead Experiment provides compelling evidence that these practices are deeply flawed and can actually harm organizational performance.

Why Blaming Workers Destroys Quality: What the Red Bead Experiment Teaches Leaders

Leaders searching for better quality outcomes and higher productivity often look to individual employee performance as the easiest target for improvement. From performance appraisals to bonuses and public recognition, management psychology has long encouraged a focus on the worker as the solution to every organizational problem. But what if the problem isn’t the worker at all? Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s Red Bead Experiment offers a powerful, evidence-based rebuke to the tradition of blaming workers for system defects—and demonstrates how misplaced accountability damages quality, morale, and the long-term health of organizations.