Control Efficiency Assignment Job
Evaluation
Work Control
Control Related
Efficiency
Efficiency
Objective of Career
Administrative Performance Development
Appraisal
Assignment
Assignment
Communication
Job Job
Evaluation Evaluation
Control Efficiency Assignment Job
Evaluation
(a) Work -related objectives:
(i) Provision of control over work;
(ii) Improvement of work efficiency;
(iii) Assignment of work scientifically, as per specialisations and
expressed proclivity of personnel and planning further organisational
expansion and diversification as per internal manpower planning; and
(iv) Job evaluation for compensation administration.
(b) Career development objectives:
(i) Identifying strong and weak points of personnel and aiding remedial
measures for perceived weaknesses through need based training;
(ii) Encouraging, motivating, controlling, organisational behaviour,
identifying training and development needs, and rewarding, correcting
or punishing employees;
(iii) Determining career potential of an employee with respect to his area
of specialisation and aptitude and chart future course accordingly.
(iv) Planning performance development activities for total improved
organisational performance; and
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(c) Communication objectives:
(i) Provide timely feedback on performance, and facilitate informal
communication
(ii) Clearly establish goals in terms of what is expected of a staff member,
possible job enrichment for the future; mutual setting of goals for
better interaction through hierarchic tiers;
(iii) Provide counseling and job satisfaction, through open and free
discussion regarding performance; and
(iv) Aiding self-assessment of employees in terms of where they stand in
the organisation, by comparing expected and actual performance.
(d) Administrative objectives:
(i) Serve as a basis for promotions, rewards and penalties
(ii) Serve as a basis for incentive administration. Performance is not a
unidirectional but a two way interactional process, whereby
organisational equilibrium is secured by the management balancing
inducements and contribution on the part of employees. Offering an
economic analogy, Barnard has stated that ‘equilibrium’ as attained at
a level where negative (contributions through effort put in
organisational work) and positive balance (inducements received)
with respect to an individual employees equalises. Organisation has to
strategise effectively to ‘doctor’ such balance. To that end,
organisation has to reinforce positive behaviour on the part of
employees by way of rewards, welfare measures and employee benefit
schemes to secure sustained and willing cooperation towards
organisational purpose and restore internal equilibrium in case of any
divergence;
(iii) Serve as a basis for transfer and placement policy with regard to
suitability of each employee as discovered through the performance
appraisal; and
(iv) Serve as a basis for termination in case of imminent staff reduction
due to cost considerations.
Key elements of performance appraisal could be summarised as follows:
• Linking individual goals with organisational goals;
• Regular review of job descriptions to keep jobs in tune with changing
requirements;
• Organisational Development (OD)
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• Performance development plan;
• Continuous monitoring and review
• Establishing causal link between performance and reward;
6.1.3. Approaches of Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal has been significant activity since ancient times. Earlier,
performance appraisal was perceived primarily in the negative sense of punishing
employees and was restricted to formal remarks used for promotions. Today,
performance appraisal is viewed as a positive management development tool
intended to help employees develop to their full potential. The trend has changed
significantly so much so that almost a paradigm shift is discernable. The main
purpose of performance appraisal, as per modern understanding of the concept, is to
promote individual excellence in order that employees function better as a
collectivity and elevate the general level of organisational performance, while in the
process re-energising them and manifesting and rediscovering their latent potentials
as partners in collective endeavour. Establishment of conducive climate of mutual
trust between the two ‘opposing poles’ of organisational effort, employees and
employer, is absolutely imperative for the efficacy of the process.
There are both formal and informal aspects to the process of performance appraisal in
the sense that formal observations and mutual discussions are involved in developing
parameters through positive deployment of social capital and de-emphasis of
hierarchy. The main purpose is to develop and refine human capital with more
emphasis on intent and less on process.
6. 1.4 Need for Performance Appraisal
Need for performance appraisal arises out of sub-optimal performance evidenced,
particularly among government employees. The Supreme Court has recently upheld
the right of the government to deny two year’s extension in service to a civil judge in
Orissa on grounds of ‘poor performance’. Masses are fed up with the attitude and the
work culture of the government and “if things don’t improve the public might take
the law into its own hands or there could be a mass movement of civil disobedience”.
(Malhotra, 2000). Even the minister of state for labour, Government of India,
publicly alleged that forty to forty five per cent of central government employees are
virtual ‘non-performers’. There is imminent need for a reliable system of
performance appraisal either to weed out under performing and erring officials or
improve their work orientation, both work and trait related. (Munni Lal, 2005)
Motivating employees to involve their heart and soul in work is absolutely essential
for securing quality output. In government, though the skeleton of performance
appraisal system oriented to said end is available, actual practice remains largely
farther from the objective. There are prescribed criteria but application differs
considerably between departments and superiors. Target articulation and the process
of pursuing achievements are often left to the officials for detailing. (Ramaswamy,
2000)
