PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL

1. Performance Appraisal – refers to the process of evaluating an employee’s current and/or past
performance relative to his or her performance standards
2. Primary purpose of Performance Appraisal – to remove any performance deficiencies
3. EFFECTIVE GOALS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL (SMART goals)
a. Specific
b. Measurable
c. Attainable
d. Relevant
e. Timely
4. Employee’s direct supervisor – primarily responsible for appraising an employee’s performance
5. Supervisors – they are the one who conduct an actual appraisal; they are the heart of most
appraisals
6. HR Department – monitors the performance appraisal system but not involved in rating
employees
7. STEPS IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
a. Setting work standards
b. Assessing the employee’s actual performance relative to those standards
c. Providing feedback to the employee
8. Defining the Job – making sure that you and your subordinate agree on his/her duties and job
standards and on the appraisal method you will use
9. Peer appraisals – have been shown to improve social loafing, group viability, cohesion, task
motivation, and satisfaction
10. Rating committee – usually consists of employee’s immediate supervisor and 4 or 5 supervisors
11. Employees rating themselves = rates higher than they are rated by supervisors/peer (in Asia;
employees tend to rate themselves lower than they are rated by their supervisors/peer)
12. Upward Feedback – the process of allowing subordinates to rate their supervisor’s performance
anonymously; the typical result is the managers improve their performance
13. 360-degree Feedback – refers to a performance appraisal based on surveys from peers,
supervisors, subordinates, and customers; the ratings are collected ‘all around’ an employee
14. Graphic rating scale – simplest and most popular technique for appraising employee
performance; lists traits = quality and reliability, or teamwork; also range of performance values
15. Paired Comparison Method – involves making comparisons of employees with their co-workers
16. Alternation ranking method – involves ranking employees from best to worst on a particular
trait, choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked; most popular method for ranking
employees
17. Forced Distribution – an appraisal tool is being used when a supervisor places predetermined
percentages of appraisees into various performance categories; similar to grading on a curve
18. Critical incident method – require a supervisor to maintain a log of positive and negative
examples of subordinate’s work-related behavior
19. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) – an appraisal method that aims at combining the
benefits of narrative critical incidents and quantified scales by assigning scale points with specific
examples of good or poor performance; combination of narrative critical incidents and
quantified performance scales
20. Mix standard scales – the aim is to reduce rating errors such as leniency, by making it less
obvious, to the supervisor
21. Management by objective (MBO) – setting specific measurable goals with each employee and
then periodically reviewing the progress made
22. STEPS IN DEVELOPING BARS (BEHAVIORAL ANCHORED RATING SCALE)
a. Write critical incidents
b. Develop performance dimensions
c. Reallocate incidents
d. Scale the incidents
e. Develop a final instrument
23. GRAPHIC RATING SCALES’ COMMON PROBLEMS
a. Unclear standards – refers to an appraisal that is too open to interpretation
b. Halo effect – occurs when a supervisor’s rating of a subordinate on one trait biases the
rating of that person on other traits; “influence of a rater’s general impression on ratings of
specific ratee qualities”
c. Central tendency – refers to rating all employees an average
d. Leniency – supervisors giving all of their subordinates consistently high ratings
e. Strictness – supervisors giving all of their subordinates consistently low ratings
f. Bias – the tendency to allow individual differences to affect the appraisal ratings that
employees receive
24. Recency effect – focusing on the most recent behavior of an employee rather than his/her
performance over a year
25. To reduce central tendency error = rank employees
26. To reduce leniency/strictness error = enforcing a performance distribution; also ranking
employees
27. Appraisal Interview – making plans to correct employee weaknesses
28. Performance Management – continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the
performance of individuals and teams
29. Direction sharing – communicating the company’s higher-level goals throughout the company
30. Goal alignment – a process in place that allows any manager to see the link between employee’s
goals and those of the department and organization
31. Ongoing feedback – includes face-to-face and computer-based feedback regarding progress
toward goals
32. Coaching and developmental support – an integral part of feedback process
33. Rewards, recognition, and compensation – provide the consequences necessary to keep
employee performance on target