Best Definitions of performance appraisal. Performance appraisal has its history behind it. Formally it started in China. After that, it was introduced in the U.S.A. before World War I (1914-18).
It was started in use in American companies to measure employees’ performances. In India too, this was an accepted method of mapping workers’ performance.
Indian companies use this tool of mapping their worker’s performance. Performance Appraisals are used for training and development, providing feedback, and determining wages, promotions, and transfers.
Best Definitions of Performance Appraisal
by Eminent Management Thinkers, Experts, and Authors
Best Definitions of Performance Appraisal Provided by Gomez Meija, Slabbert, and Swanepoel. All HR professionals should know these names.
Performance appraisal is one of the important & critical functions of staffing in management. Human behavior is a complex phenomenon difficult to anticipate accurately.
Any individual joins an organization to satisfy his career objectives. But the organization has defined its own goals. Which needs to be incompatible with the individual goals.
Maybe the goals of the individual and organization are extremely contradictory. Then conflict will arise between them.
An individual’s personality shouldn’t be suppressed. At the same time, organizational goals should be achieved. Constant monitoring is required for the entire process of achieving goals.
After regular intervals, the consistent performance of an individual needs to be assessed. Accordingly, mapping of the desired behavior could be maintained.
This will also help the organization to satisfy their needs and aspiration.
According to Gomez-Mejia
“Performance Appraisal involves the identification, measurement, and management of human performance in the organization.”
According to Slabbert and Swanepoel
“Performance appraisal is a formal and systematic process using which the relevant strengths and weaknesses of the employees are identified, measured, recorded, and developed.”
According to Beach
“Performance appraisal evaluates the systematic performance of an individual concerning his/her performance on the job and his potential for development.”
It is an operating process to collect needful data and information in respect of different areas of the department.
Performance appraisal may also be defined as a process that involves:
(i) Setting work standard
(ii) Assessing the employees actual performance matching required standards
(iii) The purpose of providing feedback is to motivate employees.
Definitions of Performance Appraisal
To appraise means to make a formal judgment of an individual about his overall personality. So, performance measurement or appraisal is a systematic and objective way of judging the relative worth or ability of an employee in performing his/her work.
It is the process by which an employee’s contribution to the organization during a specified period is assessed. In other words, organizations evaluate the job performance of their employees.
According to Spriegel
“Performance appraisal is the process of evaluating the employee’s performance on the job in terms of requirements of the job.”
According to Edwin. B. Flippo
“Performance appraisal is the systematic, periodic, and impartial rating of an employee’s excellence. In matters about his present job and his potential for a better job.”
According to Alford and Beatty
According to Beach
“Performance appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the individual about his or her performance on the job and his potential for development.”
Thus, performance appraisal refers to the task of rating or assessing the individual’s performance and abilities at work.
Performance appraisal definition is a systematic evaluation of personnel by supervisors with their performance. Appraisals are judgments of characteristics, traits, and performance.
This is an objective way of judging the relative worth or ability of a person in performing his task. This is essential for making many administrative decisions used in company management.
Decisions such as relating to selection, training, promotion, transfer, wages, salaries, etc., may be well based on performance appraisal. Also, it helps in personnel research.
The appraisal method that follows by enabling the management to judge the relative worth or ability of their employees. The performance of his task and identify the performers and non-performers assigned tasks.
Broadly speaking, a performance appraisal aims
(1) Identifying employees for different purposes – wages, promotions, lay-off, terminations, etc.,
(2) Determining training needs for further improvement in performance,
(3) Motivating employees by indicating their performance levels, and
(4) Establishing a basis for research and reference for personnel decisions in the future.
While appraising the performance of an employee, a difficulty arises as to what aspects of performance have to be appraised.
When the job description is clearly defined, it is not difficult to identify to map the performance. In case, of a broad definition of the job, the identification of performance measures becomes difficult.
Defining Performance Appraisal:
Appraisal is the evaluation of worth and quality of merit. Appraisal should measure both performance in accomplishing goals and plans and performance as a manager.
According to Alford and Beatty
“It is the evaluation or appraisal of the relative worth to the company of a person’s services on his/her job.”
According to Dale Yoder
“Performance appraisal includes all formal procedures used to evaluate personalities and contributions and potentials of group members in a working organization.
It is a continuous process to secure information necessary for making correct and objective decisions on employees.”
According to Douglass,
“Performance appraisal is a method of acquiring and processing the information needs to improve an individual employee’s performance and accomplishments.”
According to Newstrom
“Performance appraisal is the process of evaluating the performance of employees, sharing that information with them, and searching for ways to secure information necessary for making correct and objective decisions on employees.”
According to Edwin B. Flippo
“Performance appraisal is a systematic, periodic and so far as humanly possible, an impartial rating of an employee’s excellence in matters about his present job and to his potentialities for a better job.”
According to C. Heyel
“Process of evaluating the performance and qualifications of the employees. The requirements of the job for which he/she employ.
The purposes of administration include placement, selection for promotion, providing financial rewards, and other actions.
Require differential treatment among the members of a group as distinguished from actions affecting all members equally.”
The organization sets goals and objectives and performance standards required to achieve by personnel.
The performance of the employee is evaluated against the standards set to ascertain whether the standard to achieve or not.
This is an important function of human resource management that aims at controlling the employees.
According to Dale S. Beach,
“Performance appraisal is a systematic evaluation of the individual concerning his or her performance on the job and his or her potential for development”.
Conclusion
Performance appraisal is a continuous activity. The management should plan it in a systematic and orderly manner.
The Eminent Management thinkers, experts, and authors have very categorically explained performance appraisal in their definitions.
I will be coming up with another new article on performance appraisal.
Don’t miss these definitions of eminent management gurus. Read all these definitions carefully.
