Performance appraisals Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Performance appraisals - Research Paper Example Performance appraisals are aimed at the smooth accomplishment of organizational goals by monitoring employee behavior and enhancing employee productivity. This paper deals with the various aspects of performance appraisals including its use in the workplace, its subjective and objective nature, legal and ethical issues, advantages and disadvantages, and suggests possible alternatives. Performance appraisals in the workplace Performance appraisals play a pivotal role in the management of organizations. Performance appraisals serve a large variety of purposes within organizations. The management often uses performance appraisals for taking important decisions on promotions, rewards, transfers and terminations of employees, for identifying training and development needs, for validating selection and development programs, and for providing timely feedback to the employees on their performance (Robbins 228). Performance appraisals offer a unique opportunity for managers and supervisors to evaluate the performance of their employees and to improve their performance by timely feedbacks or interventions. For Chukwuba, performance appraisals play two potentially conflicting roles within an organization. The first of these roles is â€Å"to measure performance for the purpose of rewarding or otherwise making administrative decisions about employees† whereas the second is ‘development of individual potential’ within the organization (Chukwuba 3). Both these roles are essential for the overall growth and development of the organization. It is the responsibility of the supervisors to guide, direct and motivate the subordinates through appropriate performance appraisals. However, self-appraisals, peer appraisals, subordinate appraisals, customer/client appraisals, and multiple raters are also proved to be significant in various organizational settings (Jennifer 255). Performance appraisals yield employee satisfaction and enhance their performance when the ir work is appreciated or rewarded. On the other hand, it can also put an end to undesirable behavior among the employees. Objective and subjective performance appraisals Performance appraisals can be of two types-objective or subjective. While objective performance appraisals are based on facts subjective performance appraisals are based on individuals’ perceptions. As such objective measures appear to be more valid and reliable. However, it is a fact that the actual performance of an employee cannot completely be evaluated based on facts or statistical data alone. Therefore, effective management system makes use of both objective and subjective performance appraisals. Objective performance appraisals are results-oriented as the focus is on facts or statistical data whereas subjective measures are â€Å"based on individuals’ perceptions and can be used for appraisals based on traits, behaviors, and results† (Jennifer 254). While objective performance appraisals value the performance of employees in terms of their sales, business, achievements, profits or growth in income subjective evaluation takes into account such aspects as the efforts made by the employee, the attitude of the employee and his/her behavior. For instance, the