The performance appraisal process allows an organization to measure and evaluate

an individual employees behavior and accomplishment over a specific period of

time. A properly administered performance appraisal system may be an asset to an
organization. Many have suggested that there is no need for performance appraisal
in the organization of the future. Finally, due to the differing needs of stakeholders
the process itself is often a source of unmet expectations for all concerned.
Early History
The evaluation of individual performance is an important issue. The
early 1800s marked the beginning of performance appraisal in industry with Robert
Owens use of Silent Monitors in the cotton mills of Scotland.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, performance appraisal
were used primarily by military and government organizations, due to their large
size hierarchical structure, geographic dispersal, and the necessity to promote the
top performance to higher organizational levels. At this time, most private
organizations used informal measures to evaluate individual performance and make
subsequent administrative decisions.
Supervisors who did not take performance appraisals seriously the unions of this era
advocate seniority based decisions over performance based decisions. Thus a loose
correlation between appraisal results and administrative decisions was permitted
which gave individual supervisors discretionary power in relation to human resource
outcomes (e.g. promotions, salary increases).
Tools used for performance appraisal
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Global ratings and global essays

Man-to-man ranking
Graphic or trait rating scale
Forced choice method
Critical incident method
Management by Objectives
Behaviorally based rating
Today performance appraisals are expected to serve a number of purposes
simultaneously. Unfortunately the tools presently available are incapable of
serving the myriad different purposes of organization stakeholders.