Employee Performance: Appraisal Instruments and Best Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee performance appraisal. It begins by outlining three specific types of appraisal instruments: behavioral checklists, 360-degree appraisals, and management by objectives (MBO), discussing their advantages and disadvantages. The report then details the three key components of a performance appraisal form: basic employee information, accountabilities, objectives and standards, and developmental achievements. Furthermore, it explores how these components can be modified to suit the needs of modern global economies, such as incorporating cultural backgrounds in basic employee information, customer ratings in accountabilities, and enhanced decision-making capabilities in developmental achievements. The report also examines employees' diverse perceptions of appraisals and concludes by highlighting best practices for conducting appraisals, including focusing on productivity, quality of work, and adherence to company values. The report is well-supported by academic references.

Running head: PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES
Performance of Employees
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Part 1:
The three specific types of performance appraisal instruments are as follows:
Behavioural checklists:
The behavioural checklist system of performance appraisal consists of employers
considering the performance of the individual employees individually. For example, they take
into account the specific job which the employee performed in this instrument. The
employees are judged solely on the basis of their performances and are not compared to any
other employee. The advantage of this behavioural checklist instruments is that the employer
can judge the performance of employees individually and appraise him accordingly. This
system of appraisal is as a result very transparent. The disadvantage of this process is that
since the appraiser does not compare the performance of employee with each, their actual
managerial competence cannot be judged and results in faulty promotions (Aguinis, 2009).
360 degree appraisal:
The second instrument for employee appraisal is 360 degree appraisal which involves
feedback from managers, supervisors, team members and even from direct subordinates. The
advantage of this instrument of appraisal is that the top manager promoting the middle level
managers can get in depth knowledge about the competencies of the latter like leadership
qualities and team management capabilities. Thus, this system leads to accurate appraisal and
promotions. However, the feedbacks about managers are often subjected to favouritism of the
staff rating them (Cravens et al, 2015). This often results in faulty promotions of
inappropriate candidates which ultimately harms the company in the long run.

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Management by objective (MBO):
The employer and the employees under this process decide upon specific sets of
performance parameters which they would consider while judging performances. For
example, employers today decide to judge their employees on grounds like target
achievement, leadership qualities and extra initiatives taken. The employers then appraise
their employees on the basis of their performances based on these predetermined parameters.
The system creates greater coordination between employer and employee but impedes overall
judgement of the employee performances (Rosen et al., 2017).
Part 2:
The three components of a performance appraisal form are as follows:
Basic employee information:
The basic employee information contains the preliminary information about the
employees to be appraised. For example, the names, job titles, their experiences and pay
grades.
Accountabilities, Objectives and standards:
The section contains the accountabilities and job responsibilities which the employees
handle on day to day basis. For example, their targets and scores based on those job
responsibilities.
Developmental achievements:
This section draws strength from the previous section and shows the improvements
which the employees have achieved based on the accountabilities and objectives. For
example, the employers take into account the trainings and workshops which the employees

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has attended. Then they measure the performance development the employees have achieved
after attending the training session (Taft, 2015).
Part 3:
The three components namely, basic employee information, developmental
achievements and accountabilities can be modified in the following ways to suit the needs
of the workforces of the modern global economies:
Basic employee information:
The employers should incorporate more detailed information about the employees to
suit the need of the global economy. For example, the basic information about the employees
should speak about their culture, countries of origin, religions and other background related
information. As a result the managers judging these employees would be able to understand
their perceptions and cultural sentiments and would avoid arousing conflict with them. This
would allow managers to manage subordinates from diverse cultural backgrounds. This is
why multinational companies manage diversity to manage and appraise employees from
diverse cultural backgrounds and align them with business objectives (Xavier, 2015).
Accountabilities:
The employers must not only judge accountabilities of employees only on the basis of
their targets but also incorporate new features to appraise them. For example, organisations
can include customer ratings as a parameter of appraising their employees, especially the
sales employees who interact directly with the customers. This would necessitate the
employees to become more responsible while dealing with customers. Ensuring customer
satisfaction would earn them positive ratings and ultimately contribute towards their
appraisals. Ill-treatment of employees or slackness while serving customers would result in
their poor rating. Thus, incorporating customer ratings while appraising employees would

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make these them more responsible to customers. This would allow companies to gain
customer support by promoting employees whom customers prefer (Arora & Kaur, 2015).
Developmental achievements:
The companies while deciding developmental achievements should incorporate new
parameters to appraise the employees more appropriately. For example, they can add clauses
like increase in decision making capabilities of the employees after attending seminars. These
new developmental parameters would in fact help the companies empower their employees to
take decisions and align them with their global business requirements (Kobarg et al., 2017).
Part 4:
The employees have diverse perceptions, attitudes and behavioural response to
appraisals. Some employees have positive attitude towards appraisals and view them as a
ways to achieve career growth. Some employees are insecure and try to resist appraisals and
present false performance reports to gain undeserved proposals (Arora & Kaur, 2015).
Part 5:
The following are the examples of approaches which companies can adopt can best
practices while conducting appraisals:
Productivity:
The managers should judge the productivity of the employees as an approach to
appraise them. They should rate them on the basis of their actual productivity which would
enable them to design developmental trainings for these employees to boost their
performances (Aspvik & Aspvik , 2017).

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Quality of work:
The employers should take into consideration the quality of work employee deliver
while appraising them. For example, some employee give achieve target while high quality
performance, some employee achieve but lack performance while other lack both quality and
quantity. Thus, the quality of the work done by employees should be considered while
appraising employees. This would enable the employers to recognise employees who deliver
low quality of work and take steps to enhance their qualities (Arora & Kaur, 2015).
Dependability and adherence to the company values:
The employers while appraising employees should consider the adherence employees
show towards company policies. They should not appraise employees who are unethical even
if they perform well. This would encourage ethical performance within the organisation in the
long run (Xavier, 2015)

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References:
Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice
Hall.
Arora, A., & Kaur, S. (2015). Performance assessment model for management educators
based on KRA/KPI. In International conference on technology and business
management March (Vol. 23, p. 25).
Aspvik, E., & Aspvik, E. (2017). Cultural Diversity Management: A Study of a Swedish
Multinational Company.
Cravens, K. S., Oliver, E. G., Oishi, S., & Stewart, J. S. (2015). Workplace culture mediates
performance appraisal effectiveness and employee outcomes: A study in a retail
setting. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 27(2), 1-34.
Kobarg, S., Wollersheim, J., Welpe, I. M., & Spörrle, M. (2017). Individual ambidexterity
and performance in the public sector: a multilevel analysis. International Public
Management Journal, 20(2), 226-260.
Rosen, C. C., Kacmar, K. M., Harris, K. J., Gavin, M. B., & Hochwarter, W. A. (2017).
Workplace politics and performance appraisal: A two-study, multilevel field
investigation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(1), 20-38.
Taft, R. (2015). Perceived fairness and justice in the employee appraisal process within the
Department of Homeland Security(Doctoral dissertation, Colorado Technical
University).
Xavier, J. V. (2015). A Study on the Effectiveness of Performance Appraisal System and its
Influence with the Socio-Demographic Factors of the Employees of a Manufacturing

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Industry in Tamil Nadu. International Journal of Research in Management &
Business Studies, 2.
.