Chapter 8 Appraising and Improving PerformanceA

performance appraisal

is a process conducted annually by a supervisor for asubordinate, designed to help employees to understand their roles, objectives,expectations, and performance success.

Performance management

is the process of creating a work environment where people can perform to the best of their abilities.There are two types of

performance appraisals

:Administrative (compensation, job evaluation, and ee support) and Developmental (ind.Evaluation, training, and career planning)Many

performance appraisals

usually fail because of a lack of top-managementinformation and support, unclear performance standards, the difficulty of giving negativefeedback, and the use of the appraisal program for conflicting (political) purposes.There are four main factors to consider when developing a performance appraisal program:

strategic relevance

—individual standards directly related to strategic goals

criterion deficiency—

standards that capture all of an individual’s contributions

criterion contamination

—performance capability is not reduced by external factors

reliability (consistency)

—standards are quantifiable, measurable, and stableThere are many different performance appraisal methods. For example, management, peer, subordinate, team, customer, and self-performance appraisals are all different typesof appraisals. The

360 degree performance appraisal

is the most effective method because it ensures anonymity, makes respondents accountable, prevents `gaming` of thesystem, uses statistical procedures, and identifies and quantifies biases.There are many problems that arise when conducting performance appraisals. Commonrater-related errors: error of central tendency, leniency or strictness errors, similar-to-meerrors, recency errors, and contrast and halo errors.There are three major performance appraisal methods:

trait methods, behavioural methods, and results methods.

trait methods:

graphic-rating scale method

—a trait approach to performance appraisal whereby each israted according to a scale of individual characteristics.

Mixed-standard scale method

—an approach to performance appraisals similar to other scale methods but based on comparisons (better than, equal to, or worse than) with astandard.

Forced-choice method

—requires the rater to choose from statements designed todistinguish between successful and unsuccessful performance.

Essay method

—requires an employer to compile a statement describing an employee`s behaviour.Behavioural methods: