THE UNVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE LEARNING (UNZA-ZOU)

SUPERVISION OF EDUCATION PERSONNEL MDEA-502

NAME: Morgan Chisha Ntinda

ID: 721000120

Assignment: One

QUESTION: Discuss the relationship between Performance Appraisal and Job

Evaluation
There are many process and procedures that are involved in ensuring that
organizations/institutions are successful, this may include attaining its set goals,
objectives, others may include having appropriate salary structures for individual job
position, basis for promotion, job dismissal mechanisms, termination of contracts, such
processes are job evaluation and performance appraisal. In definition, Job Evaluation
defined as an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal
performance of particular jobs makes on normal workers without taking into account of
the individual abilities or performance of the workers concerned, (International Labor
Office (ILO), 1992). On the other hand Performance Appraisal can be defined as the
process of identifying, evaluating and developing the work performance of employees to
help achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. At the same time, appraisals
benefit employees by providing them with recognition, feedback, career guidance and
development. To some these two are used interchangeably, it is of great importance that it
is mentioned that each of these two procedures stand on its own. This academic writing
will discuss the relationship, which is the connection between Job Evaluation and
Performance Appraisal.

In a proper and rational job-evaluation system the position of job is fixed. Every worker
knows the job description and job specifications of each job. Employees try to develop
personality qualities that will help them to execute job responsibilities that will help the
institution reach its goals in the positions they occupy as well as the higher position, they
may occupy in the future (Kuvaas, 2006).. Thus, it is clear that job-evaluation promotes
industrial relations by resolving several personnel problems through a sound, rational
process, so is in Performance Appraisal, under trait oriented performance were it focuses
on the appraisee personality qualities such as confidence, co-cooperativeness, eagerness
towards work, leadership skills, as these contribute massively to the institutions goal
attainment.

A formal performance appraisal process makes it easier for managers to reward and
recognize the organization's top performers. Rewards can be in the form of bonuses,
salary hikes, or monetary incentives. This is backed by a research conducted by….as 69%
of employees said they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better
recognized, when asked what others elements motivates them to perform excellently.
(Dressler, 2012) However, rewards can also be non-financial compensation such as
company awards, promotional opportunities, and more exciting projects. And in the long
term, you need to modernize your process to make it more effective and productive for
the organization.

Such is an element that Job Evaluation also possess as statistics collected for job
evaluation by job analysis; job grading and job classification techniques are used in other
spheres of personnel management. Merit-rating or personnel appraisal selection and
training of workers, determining working conditions, simplification of jobs and
introducing incentive wage systems are based on job evaluation data (Wayne, 2013).. Job
evaluation data may also be used in the promotion and transfer of workers.

In one of many forms, Job Evaluation is viewed as a technique by which a rational and
consistent wage structure is involved: Wage and salary structure is designed on the basis
of weight allotted to different factors in job-evaluation. Moreover, internal as well as
external consistencies are also maintained to avoid a dispute. Thus, job evaluation is the
basis for rational wage and salary administration, in the same way Performance Appraisal
by definition as determination/placement of salary to a job, employees performances are
rated, which in turn help in determine pay.

According to International Council of Nurses (2007) Job Evaluation helps in the process
of recruitment and selection, as it is based on accurate job description as it helps in
defining job responsibilities, in that even before the vacancies are made, documentation
from job evaluation would have provided information about the vacancy including the
expected salary range and person’s specifications, as such those recruited will find easier
to match potential recruits to available jobs as approved by job evaluation. So just like
wit job evaluation, Performance Appraisal also helps the human resources department
during the recruitment of employees as it provides validation of selection procedures.
Furthermore, Job Evaluation and Performance Appraisal shows how well employees are
doing their respective responsibilities in organization towards attaining its goals. In
performance appraisal, employees are encouraged to concentrate on their functions as tis
will help in achieving institutions goals as well as making them to conform to the
institution by so doing, just as much, job evaluation compares individual position, by
doing tis emphasis is placed at making employees in these position to improve in the
position.

Performance appraisal and job evaluation have proven to be systematic procedures in the
advancement of institution from time to time, as both brought sanity among the
employees (Weinberg, 2004), however it should be indicated that both of showed that,
they lack impartiality in their execution, use of committees in Performance appraisal
clearly exposes that impartialities, this is the case in situations members of the
committee may not necessarily have adequate knowledge or information on certain jobs
whereby the job holders maybe the subject experts. Just as much, during job ranking in
job evaluation, job raters/job rankers may find themselves in situation were they have to
rate or rank their own positions/jobs. This in itself does not portray a good picture in
relation to impartiality, chances of false ranking may have a higher probability, as they
may rate their positions higher than it should be.

In any organization/institution a sound, systematic, consistent system of compensation

determination plays a crucial role to promote equity and satisfaction, provided that such a
system receives good understanding and acceptance from employees (Babcock &
Laschever, 2003).. Job evaluation precedes pay determination. The process of job
evaluation is very systematic but it is not an exact science; it relies on subjective
judgment. It possesses high degree of reliability, but its validity must be determined by
ascertaining the impact upon employee satisfaction. Perhaps data collection and data
analysis on employee complaints and grievances concerning pay would serve the
purpose. Similarly, morale survey also could be of great use, these weaknesses can be
seen in Performance Appraisal, that despite having a sophisticated performance appraisal
system in place, the success or failure of a performance appraisal process will largely
hinge upon the validity and reliability of the judgments made by the appraiser.

Amos, Ristow, & Pearse, (2008) asserts that in both Job Evaluation and Performance
Appraisal lies a characteristic of central tendency, where in Performance Appraisal a rater
grades every employee’s performance in a similar way, such as ‘acceptable’ or ‘meeting
objectives’ and fails to distinguish between high performers and low performers. The
tendency to rate all employees similarly can arise due to the lack of opportunity to
observe employee behavior and/or a rater’s unwillingness to explain high or low ratings
and create more work for themselves, as in Job Evaluation, there is a strong feeling
among workers that individual merit should also be acknowledged. So some of kind of
merit rating scheme as to be super-imposed upon evaluated rates. If individual abilities
are not taken into account, the top-performers will always try to adjust themselves
elsewhere. Thus, it will increase the rate of labor turnover.

Another difficulty is that there is often a conflict between employees and management
values in job evaluation (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011). Usually managements
consider the factors like skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions as having
value in rating a job. From the point of workers, important factors having value in rating
their job should also include “the type of supervision received, the congeniality of other
workers, the steadiness of the work, the amount of overtime, and the tightness of
incentive standards.”

If managers are not committed to the performance appraisal process, this can have a
significant impact on the outcomes (International Council of Nurses, 2004). Common
attitude problems include; not taking the process seriously, seeing the process as a routine
activity or merely “ticking the boxes”, reluctance to tell employees face-to-face about
underperformance and failure to see how the process will benefit on-the-ground work
activities and organizational performance.
In these modern times it is of great importance that organization’s/institutions use
progressive procedures such as Performance Appraisal and Job Evaluation to their full
strength, if they are to genuinely realize the organization’s set goals. As the foregoing
discussion as demonstrated that job evaluation and performance have linkages to each
other, for tat much it should be strongly be indicated that these procedures are different
and tat are conducted at different times, however they only done to yield desirable results
for the organizations development.
 REFERENCES

Amos, T. L., Ristow, A., & Pearse, N. J. (2008). Human resource management (3rd ed.).Cape
Town: Juta and Company Ltd.

Babcock L & Laschever S (2003). Women don’t ask: Negotiation and the gender divide.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2011). Research methods in education (6th ed.). New
York: Routledge.

Dressler, G. (2012). Human resource management. New Jersey: Pearson.

International Council of Nurses (2004). Socio-Economic Welfare of Nurses. ICN Position

Statement. Geneva.

International Council of Nurses (2007) Equal Opportunity: Poverty and Women. Guest
Editorial, International Nursing Review, December 2007.

International Labour Organization (1992). Equality of opportunity and treatment between

men and women in health and medical services, Geneva. pp. 12, 22-29-33.

Kuvaas, B. (2006). Performance appraisal satisfaction and employee outcomes; Mediating

and moderating roles of work motivation. London: Prentice Hall.

Wayne, R. M. (2013). Human resource management (13th ed.). London: Pearson.

Weinberg DH (2004). Evidence from Census 2000 about earnings by detailed occupation for
men and women. Census 2000 Special Reports. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.