performance standard

Benchmark against which actual performance is measured.

The supreme irony of business management is that it is far easier for an inadequate CEO to keep his job than it is for an inadequate subordinate. A CEO who doesn't perform is frequently carried indefinitely. One reason is that performance standards for his job seldom exist. Another important, but seldom recognized, distinction between the boss and the foot soldier is that the CEO has no immediate superior whose performance is itself getting measured. Finally, relations between the Board and the CEO are expected to be congenial. At board meetings, criticism of the CEO's performance is often viewed as the social equivalent of belching. No such inhibitions restrain the office manager from critically evaluating the substandard typist.