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PERSONAL APPRAISAL
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
Performance management is the process of assessing progress toward achieving
predetermined goals.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL:
Performance appraisal means evaluating an employee`s current or past
performance relative to his or her performance standards. Performance appraisal
assumes that employees understood their performance standards and that their
supervisors also provides the employee with the feedback, development and
incentives required to help the person eliminate performance deficiencies or to
continue to excel in his/her position. The main aim of appraisal is to improve
performance. Appraisal has three main components:
a) Reward review_ measures the degree to which an employee deserves
performance-related bonus.
b) Performance review_ identifies training needs and validates training
methods
c) Potential review_ as an aid to plan career development and succession.
APPRAISAL TECHNIQUES
 Overall assessment manager writes his opinions about the appraise in
narrative form
 Guided assessment assessors required to comment on specific
characteristics and performance elements
 Grading or rating scales assessors required to allocate or select a value of
the level or degree to which an individual displays a given characteristic.
Numerical values may be added to the rating to obtain rating scales
 Behavioral incident methods concentrate on employee behavior which is
measured against typical behavior in each job
 Results orientated schemes this reviews performance against specific
standards and targets agreed in advance by the manager and the subordinate.
New appraisal techniques: new techniques have been developed over the
years to aim at monitoring the appraisee`s effectiveness from various
perspectives or viewpoints. These techniques include:
 Upward appraisal
 Customer appraisal
 360` appraisal
 Self-appraisal

Appraisal interviews and Maier`s three approaches

Tell and Sell:
In this approach, the supervisor/manager takes the role of judge. The aim is
to evaluate and to persuade employees to pursue an improvement plan. It
assumes that employees wish their strengths and weaknesses pointed out to
them and that they can change their behavior is they wish. Moreover the
approach pre-supposes that the manager is qualified to evaluate the
employee. The success of the tell and sell approach depends on the
persuasion skills of the manager which in turn rests on the kind of
relationship he/she has with the employee (for example respect) and the
manager`s power to control performance incentive. However it is
particularly prone to lapsing into a cycle of defensiveness and resentment.

Tell and Listen:

In this approach the supervisor/manager also takes the role of judge, except
here employees are afforded the opportunity to respond to the evaluation.
The aim is to permit the employee to drain off any emotions evoked by the
evaluation. The supervisor/manager listens and plays back to the employee
what he/she hearing. The consequences of this is reduced employee
defensiveness but with little if any scope for anything else.

Problem solving;
This approach casts the supervisor/manager into the role of helper. The
influence of the manager is limited to stimulating the thinking of the
employee rather than offering solutions, and pre-supposes that he or she is
willing to consider all possibilities for improvement identified by the
employee. Seemingly impractical or inappropriate ideas are explored further
with questions and together the supervisor/manager and employee set
improvement goals that are mutually acceptable
OBSTACLES TO EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL
Locket identified the barriers to appraisal these barriers to effective appraisal
include:
1. The halo effect: in this case the appraiser gives a favorable rating to the
overall job performance of an employee because the employee has
performed well in a particular aspect of the job (which is considered
important aspect by appraiser) for example appraiser assumes good
performance from an employee in future because he has performed well
in the past. Hence he does not closely monitor the performance and gives
the good rating.
2. The pitchfork effect: it is exact opposite to halo effect whereby the
appraisal give unfavorable rating considering the particular aspect of the
job where the employee has not performed well. He ignores the overall
performance of employee.
3. Central tendency: some superiors may deliberately rate all employees as
average in all aspects of job performance. This may distort the appraisal
results and makes them unreliable. For promotion or salary decisions.
4. Leniency or strictness: an appraiser may rate all their subordinates high
in order to avoid any conflict or may rate low due to high unrealistic
expectations from all subordinates. As a result appraiser (lenient) does
not discuss the weak areas. Due to tight grading (strictness) no one
receives an excellent grade which may discourage the deserving
employees.
5. Personal bias: an appraise`s personal (such and age and sex) can affect
his appraisal. The appraisal may get biased and give the subjective
feedback based on his personal feelings. For instance if the reviewer
knows the other person well, he may grade him higher.
6. Recency effect: (past performance); the appraiser may place excessive
emphasis on past performance feedback and especially the recent past
period. The ignorance of performance in early period may distort the
overall grading of the appraise.
 7. Appraisal targets: targets decided in annual appraisal may become
irrelevant or out-of-date due to long time gap between two appraisals.
The feedback and objective determination should be continues process.
8. Different reviewer standards: this represents how standards may vary
from reviewer to reviewer. For instance performance one reviewer may
classify as good, another could as classify as average.
9. The contrast effect: this occurs when a reviewer compares the
performance of an employee to his peers rather than appraising him
independently (e.g. this may cause an average performer to be given a
poor appraisal if his colleague has delivered an outstanding performance.
10. The cluster effect: this represent the tendency of a reviewer to rate all
employees of a peer group the same, regardless of individual
performance.
11. The isolation effect: this reflects the tendency of some reviewers to base
the whole appraisal on a single incident. For instance, a production
manager gives a subordinate a poor appraisal solely based upon a
workplace accident that look place a month ago.
12. The job effect: this represents the tendency to automatically reward
higher appraisals for higher raking jobs. For instance, a senior managers
believes that his manager must always be given a higher grade for their
appraisals than assistant manager, as they have more responsibilities.
Other barriers
 There may be lack of clarity or understanding regarding the overall
objectives of an appraisal system.
 The appraisal as seen as confrontational or as an opportunity to tackle
past unsolved problems.
 The manager acts as a judge, jury and counsel, and therefore it seems to
become a one sided process.
 The appraisal can sometime be seen as nothing more than an informal
friendly chat or form-filling exercise to solely satisfy the employer with
no specific objective.
 The appraisal is seen as a way to resolve past year`s issues rather than as
a part of continues process of performance management.
Appraisal and monetary benefits;
Another potential problem with appraisals is the tendency to reward
employees who get positive appraisal reports. The limitations with such an
approach are:
a) Surplus funds available to reward employees rarely depend on the
performance of an individual or team; the whole company has to do well
b) Constant improvement is to be expected of employees as part of their
work and should not carry with it extra monetary rewards
c) Performance management should be forward looking with regard to
future performance, not just rewarding past behavior.
Evaluation of appraisal
 Relevance of appraisal_ answer questions such as; does the system have a
useful purpose, or is it relevant to the organization needs?
 Fairness and objectivity of appraisal
 The commitment of the organization to needs and requirements of
appraisal _ for example the standing the standing or importance of
appraisal in the organization and the degree of attention given to
appraisal results.
 The level of cooperation and collaboration in the appraisal
 The efficiency of the process-assessment of the time and costs of
appraisal with its benefits.

Benefits if effective appraisal

Organization
 Recognize and manage staff performance
 Planning and decision making
 Improve staff retention

Appraiser
 Framework for sharing feedback
 Promote career planning for staff (Chandra and frank,2004)
 Feedback on own management style and leadership skills (Parkin and
Msckimm, 2009)