As someone who is relieved to have left Ford, I can honestly say the problem is everything is a checkbox exercise. Anything that sounds good in theory is completely warped beyond recognition during execution. Every training session with HR devolves into the same unaddressed complaints (to the point where they would have to shut down questions).
Theory: We should reward those who perform well, so they are motivated to continue to perform at a high level. We should provide negative feedback to those who need improvement, so they have the opportunity to correct and improve.
Execution: We need to ensure that 40% of our employees are rated below expectations (even if they didn't do anything wrong). Because it is quota-based, even if there were something to correct/improve, it would not matter as it would require someone else to be bumped down. To add insult to injury, none of this even matters because at the end of the day, employee ratings will be told to you by someone higher up, and those ratings are already pre-determined ahead of time. It's all song and dance, and I'm surprised there wasn't a class action lawsuit over wrongful termination, constructive discharge, discrimination, or some such. There's so much to go after; just subpoena internal communications on anything connected to the review/calibration process.
For a company already in trouble with alleged securities fraud, it was appalling to see such willful negligence/incompetence (at best), if not malicious intent to drive attrition and save on severance packages/unemployment.