Performance Management Within the Workplace

Performance Management Within the Workplace

The basis of the mainstream of performance appraisals within the

modern workplace is one person (a manager or executive) rating one

more, an intrinsically individual process. There are distinction such

as 360 degree appraisals that include the judgment of others such as

clientele and peers/colleagues in the process but it is the action of

one person transitory judgment upon another that is subjective in

nature and the root cause of many of the problems encountered in the

research associated with performance appraisals.

Performance appraisals are of importance to the organisation, as they

often provide the only measure of an individual's contribution and as

such the means for identifying either over or under achievement. This

information identifies strengths and weaknesses among employees,

locating areas for necessary training and development and helps

employers implement appropriate reward policies designed to improve

the performance of the employees and (as a consequence) the employer

(Burns 1996, p.166). They are often also the only means of evaluating

the degree of success associated with the various aspects of the

recruitment and selection process. "The most fundamental and most

difficult problem in any selection research program is to obtain

satisfactory criterion for measures of performance on the job against

which to validate selection procedures" (Thorndike 2000, p. 119). From

the point of view of an employee, performance appraisals should

provide timely and accurate feedback on what the employer expects, how

well the employee is meeting those expectations, and what the employee

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