HRM SEMINAR 3 – Performance Appraisal

From your study of the lecture materials and your readings on performance appraisal, you
are required to discuss and try to answer the questions listed at the end of the case study.

CASE STUDY - Performance Appraisal at Ace Catering Services

Ace Catering provides contract catering services for hospitals, schools, colleges,
businesses and other organisations. Ace Catering Services employs the catering staff,
purchases food and other supplies, and provides a service in accordance with
specifications agreed in the contract with the customer. Each contract is managed on-site
by a customer service manager, who is responsible for day to day operations, including
the recruitment and management of catering staff. Each district manager is responsible
for a number of contracts, and deals with planning, budgeting, recruiting and supervising
customer service managers, dealing with the client organisation and contract
renegotiation.

Catherine Smith’s First Year at ACS

It is now the end of Catherine Smith’s first year as regional manager for Ace Catering
Services. As a regional manager, Catherine supervises a total of ten districts, each of
which has a district manager. Catherine was recruited after years of experience as
director of food services for a multi-campus university. In that job, she had overall
responsibility for the catering services at several campuses. She felt that the Ace
Catering position offered opportunity for her continued growth and career advancement.

In her first year, Catherine has concentrated on getting to know the district managers and
the client organisations with which they work. She has spent more than a week with each
district manager and visited each client with him or her. At this point, she feels
comfortable with her job and the knowledge she has gained of both operations and
personnel. It is now time to appraise the performance of the district managers and to
schedule appraisal interviews with them.

Catherine’s Assessment of Andrew Morris

Andrew Morris is the longest-serving district manager in Catherine’s region. He left

school at 18 and then had a succession of short-term jobs, before eventually joining Ace
as a shift supervisor. He has been working for the company for almost twelve years.
Within a few years of joining, he was promoted to customer service manager. Just over
four years ago he was promoted to district manager.

In working with Andrew, Catherine has observed his strengths, along with some
problems. Andrew has a talent for working with people, Ace employees and customers
alike. In fact, in his years with Ace, no contract he has been involved with has ever

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switched to a competitor. Many on-site supervisors recruited, trained and supervised by
Andrew have gone on to become managers of other districts.

On the other hand, Andrew’s unhealthy eating habits – despite doctor’s warnings – have
contributed to some medical problems. During the past year, Andrew was out of work
three months with gallbladder and cardiac problems, attributable in part to obesity.

Also, Andrew’s behaviour to others can be overbearing. Catherine recalls that during the
past year she has received more telephone calls or messages from Andrew than from all
her other nine district managers put together. Andrew’s calls are usually to promote, or
advertise, his own efforts. Although Andrew can be charming, he has started to be loud
and rude with regional personnel, whom he says are overly-bureaucratic and rule-oriented
in their dealings with him. After all, as he sees it, he pays their wages through his efforts
and those of his staff. All in all, Andrew’s style and appearance have become entirely
different from what Catherine is accustomed to in colleagues and employees.

Furthermore, it has just been announced that Catherine’s region is to be expanded and
that a new position of assistant regional manager will be created. Andrew has made it
clear that as Ace’s longest-serving district manager in the region, with an excellent record
of achievement, he feels entitled to his promotion. However, Catherine does not feel she
could work with Andrew as her assistant regional manager. She feels that their
management styles are too different and that Andrew’s behaviour might irritate regional
and corporate personnel.

The appraisal system for managers at Ace involves the appraiser assessing the
individual’s performance against a number of behavioural scales and completing a
narrative assessment and an overall summary rating. When Catherine looked over Ace’s
performance appraisal form, she realised that her honest assessment of Andrew’s
performance in his current job is generally excellent. She glanced at the last page of the
appraisal form, which shows the overall rating scale she will have to use. Ace’s overall
appraisal rating is on a 5-point scale, from ‘outstanding’, to ‘excellent’, ‘satisfactory’,
‘below average’, and ‘unacceptable’. Catherine is uncertain as to what overall rating to
assign. If she gives Andrew too high a rating, he will expect to be promoted. If the
rating is too low, Andrew will doubtless be angry, and feel that an injustice has been
done.

Andrew Morris’s Self Appraisal

Andrew sees himself as being different from the other district managers. An outgoing,
gregarious type, he loves to visit his customer locations and work with his company’s
personnel. His idea of a successful day is one spent teaching a customer service manager
a new operating procedure or management technique. In fact, Andrew is known to roll
up his sleeves and teach Ace employees a new recipe or how to improve an existing dish.

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Andrew has worked for several district managers and has always liked to keep them
informed about his activities, sometimes calling once or twice each day. From
discussions with Catherine, he is aware that she thinks many of these calls are not
necessary, but he wants her to know how things are going with his employees and
customers. As he sees it, feedback from front-line staff and customers is vital for the
company’s continued success. He is aware of Catherine’s views regarding his ignoring
medical advice.

Andrew is proud of his career and of what he has achieved so far, in spite of his not being
a university graduate. He feels he is qualified to become a regional manager, and he
looks forward to the possibility of promotion to the new assistant regional manager
position. Who knows? He may go even further with Ace. He feels that his detailed
knowledge of the business and its customers will stand him in good stead – something
which in his view many of the corporate and regional managers lack.

Andrew’s Assessment Rating

In reviewing the situation, Catherine decides to give Andrew an overall rating of

‘satisfactory’. She feels that this is justified, given that Andrew did miss months of work
as a result of neglecting his health. She realises that Andrew will expect a higher overall
rating, but she is prepared to stand by her evaluation. Catherine then goes back to
consider the separate ratings she will assign on each of the scales on the appraisal form.
She then thinks about what she is going to say to Andrew in the appraisal interview next
week.

 Performance appraisals are an annual process that involves evaluating employee’s

performance and productivity against the pre-determined set of objectives for that
year

Questions:

1. How would you describe Catherine Smith’s approach to the appraisal of

Andrew’s performance?

- It is a modern approach to evaluate employee’s performance

- Catherine approach is centralised at the ability and skills that regional
manager more or less should have
- Approach to the appraisal of Andrew’s performance can be described as a
highly valid report due to the fact that Catherine has to considered really
carefull about the whole time performance not only that latest moment (when
he starts to change)
- Lack in the content of management due to the different management approach
- The view of measurement can be broader
- She faces a central tendency errors and the horn error

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2. Are Catherine’s concerns with Andrew’s performance legitimate? Will Andrew
have justifiable reasons for feeling dissatisfied with the appraisal results?
- The work amount he missed from his sick leave is legitimated to concerns
- Interlink between the performance management and the performance appraisal
- The appraisal result is fair
3. How could Ace Catering’s performance appraisal system be improved so as to
provide a sound basis for performance-related pay? Provide a detailed rationale
for your suggestions.
- Can use the 360- degree appraisal
- Engage employees and his subordinate to evaluate his performance
- The company need to evaluate the appraisal form again because the company
standard appraisal is not included and assessed.

Seminar 4: Presentation
Performance appraisal systems often fail to deliver for organisational
effectiveness and employees.
(1) Explain why that happens;
(2) What do HR practitioners need to take into account when designing an
effective performance appraisal system?