Efffect of Performance Appraisal on Organizational Productivity

Establishing performance standards: For managers to be effective and help employees develop skills and capabilities, it’s essential to begin the performance management process on the employee's first day. Create a file for each employee and record the accomplishments, areas for improvement and regular feedback throughout the year.

Communicating standards by providing regular feedback: “The performance management process starts with employee planning and ends with an evaluation of employee progress. Managers and employees should meet to discuss planning and goals throughout the year. If possible, formally sitting down with your supervisor or manager on a quarterly basis is optimal. Always document any feedback you provide to employees, even if it’s just to say, “great job.”

Measuring performance: Throughout the year, an employee may engage in behaviors that warrant disciplinary action. The organization's procedure for addressing discipline should include a requirement to document every disciplinary action taken. All disciplinary issues and improvements are considered during the annual performance appraisal meeting.

Comparing actual with the standards: this is to avoid overrating or low rating of the evaluation process and to avoid mistakes of favoritism and bias.

Discussing the appraisal by conducting a meeting: As the time nears for scheduling the appraisal meeting, begin preparing the performance appraisal document. Performance is rated in areas such as job proficiency, interpersonal relationships, communication skills, and aptitude. Some employers consider employee self-evaluations. In these cases, the employee should prepare her comments about her performance during the past year. Both the manager and the employee should feel comfortable during the appraisal meeting. Tension will just make the meeting agenda much more difficult and uncomfortable than it needs to be.

Taking the correct action: After the performance appraisal meeting, there will likely be follow up matters such as discussing areas for improvement, establishing goals for the next year and confirming the employee's salary or wage increase. In addition, the manager and employee may schedule another time to discuss unresolvable issues that arise during the performance appraisal meeting.

Management by Objectives: or MBOs, is another step in the performance appraisal process used for some employees who have defined goals and steps to achieve each goal. These MBOs really should be reviewed quarterly to track progress or redefine the goal if neither of you sees enough progress. MBOs are also particularly helpful to employees who are on a professional career track within an organization.

Definition of Terms

Productivity: can be defined as “quality or volume of the major product or services that an organization provides”. In short, productivity is what comes out of production. Managers in every organization are charged with the responsibility to motivate their employees to achieve organizational goals.

Performance: According to Brumbach (1988, cited in Armstrong, 2000) Performance can be actions as well as their consequences. BehavioursBehaviors originate from a performer and convert performance from a concept to an act. Not just the instruments for results, behaviors are also outcomes in their own right - the product of mental and physical effort applied to tasks and can be judged apart from results.

Performance Management: Boland and Fowler, 2000). Boland stressed that “performance management is aimed at establishment of set of activities that ensures that organizational aims and objectives, visions, management pattern, management incentives and rewards, performance framework, team goals, and employee needs are efficiently and effectively achieved, and the fact that performance management is a managerial activity which has existed for over several decades, which involves regular employee’s performance appraisal.