Performance Appraisal

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Performance appraisal is a critical tool used by organizations to evaluate and measure the standard of the performance of the employees and provide feedback (Dijk, 2015). The process can be used to develop and strengthen the competencies of the employees.

 

In human resource management, performance appraisal is a vital task (Bhattacharyya, 2011). The main purpose of the performance appraisal is to improve employee performance (Murphy & Cleveland, 1991). After an employee has been selected for a job and trained and has worked for a period, his or her performance should be reviewed (Kaynak, 2003). Performance appraisal is a system for integrating the management of an organization and employee performance in order to support and improve organization’s overall business goals (Williams, 1988).

 

A few reasons why performance appraisal fails are when the management fails to share information and extend support, ambiguous performance standards, lengthy process of form filling and documenting, wrong selection of performance criteria and employees disbelieve in the system (Bhattacharyya, 2011).

Steps to performance appraisal

  • Establishing of performance standards (Job description)
  • Communicating the standards
  • Measuring the performance
  • Comparison the performance and the standard
  • communicating or reasoning appraisal results with the employees
  • Initiating the corrective actions

 

Approaches to performance appraisal

To appraise the employees on the performance, organizations examine various approaches. Such approaches can be listed as under (Monga, 1983).

  • Intuitive approach – with this approach, managers appraise the employee’s performance based on perception and external behavior.
  • Self-appraisal approach – the employees are appraised with standard common format.
  • Group approach – this approach appraises an employee’s group performance.
  • Trait approach – This appraisal is based on an employee’s performance of multiple traits such as personality, integrity, dependability, punctuality.
  • Result-based approach – here the appraisal is done based on measurable performance, comparing the mutually agreed performance target of employees.
  • Behavioral approach – This is appraised on employee behavioral parameters demonstrated by the employees.

 

The 360-Degree appraisals

Multi source appraisal is one of the most widely used performance appraisal techniques in today’s organizations (Antonioni, 1996). With this technique, the appraisal of an employee will not rely on one source (E.g.: line Manager) but on multiple sources such as managers, peers, subordinates, and clients.

 

The most difficult issue in a performance appraisal is delivering negative feedback to an employee. Managers are not enthusiastic about giving negative feedback and employees find it very difficult to accept such feedback (Ilgen, 2000). As a result, workers may become less cooperative and work performance may suffer, preventing further work improvement and behavior changes, Therefore, these factors should be taken into consideration when giving negative feedback and the appraisal date should be used only for development purposes (Denisi, 2000).

 

 

List of references

Antonioni, D. (1996). Designing an effective 360-degree appraisal feedback process.

Bhattacharyya, D. K. (2011). Performance Management Systems and Strategies 1st Ed. India: Pearson.

Denisi, A. S. (2000). Feedback Effectiveness: Can 360-Degree Appraisals Be Improved? .

Dijk, D. V. (2015). Performance Appraisal and Evaluation.

Ilgen, D. (2000). Bearing Bad News: Reactions to Negative Performance Feedback.

Kaynak, H. (2003). The Relationship Between Total Quality Management Practices and Their Effects on Firm Performance.

Monga, M. L. (1983). Management of Performance.

Murphy, K. R., & Cleveland, J. (1991). Performance appraisal: An organizational perspective.

Williams, J. M. (1988). A model of stress and athletic injury: Prediction and prevention. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.

 

Comments

  1. Shanaz SamseerAugust 20, 2022 at 10:29 AM

    Performance appraisal has been always a growth to me when I was working in leading organizations. Same way I have worked in few other places where the performance appraisal wasn’t existed in the company which was leading me to same position for years to detestation the organization. Performance appraisal estimates an employee's skills, achievements, and growth and it helps the employee to value the input he/she gives to the company. But same way It makes me think, won’t there be so much time involves completing performance review forms? What if the results going to be biased all the time?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zainul FahadSeptember 15, 2022 at 9:51 AM

      Thank you for the comment Shanaz, I too agree on your view. Maley, (2013) suggest if the organization can be transparent and communicate to the employees at the time of recruitment and selection process on what the performance appraisal is based will make the employee less biased.

      Delete
  2. Eranga WijethungaSeptember 10, 2022 at 10:04 AM

    In addition to the 360 degree feedback appraisal, strengths-based performance appraisal helps workers in raising awareness of their own strengths by paying attention to and expressing appreciation for their unique qualities. Research has indicated that particularly feedback from others regarding ones strengths at the times when one is at his or her best is effective in raising strengths awareness. (Cable D, 2015).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zainul FahadSeptember 15, 2022 at 6:53 AM

      Thank you for the comment Eranga, Performance appraisals are unavoidable element in an organization, the organizational direct themselves by the process of appraisals(Cintron,2017).

      Delete
  3. Tharuka DolawattaSeptember 15, 2022 at 12:38 AM

    The core idea behind the use of 360-degree performance appraisal is that when many sources are used, a considerable amount of performance data about a specific individual could be acquired (Sahoo and Mishra, 2012). According to Deb (2009), the usage of numerous assessment sources ensures that an employee's performance is double-checked. Espinilla et al, (2013) argue that it limits the ability to acquire the depth of information that reviewers provide when a single type of expression domain like linguistic or numerical is used in the 360-degree performance appraisal system.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zainul FahadSeptember 15, 2022 at 8:45 AM

      The process is widely used by most of the organizations and popularity of the approach has been increasing (Waldman and Atwater, 1998). Effectiveness of 360 degree feedback procedure is a development tool is rightly proved (Tyson and Ward, 2004) and accepted by experts.However, the efficiency in evaluating performance is not totally clarified.

      Delete

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