comma

[Hanka]

Hi,

could you please tell me how the meaning of the following sentence would change if I omitted the comma?

The employee’s manager will prepare a plan to improve performance, which will set the goals and requirements and the term by which the goals are to be achieved.

Thank you very much.

Hanka

[Mariner]

to improve performance, which will set the goals

Actually, without the comma you would need to add "the" before "performance", and then the meaning would change, specifying which performance you're talking about, i.e. the performance which will set the goals... (and not e.g. the performance which we discussed last month)

As you see, the comma is needed there.

EDIT:
with the comma, the whole sentence after "which" refers to "plan", as it should. Without it, as I showed you above, it refers to "performance"