HR Fundamentals: Performance Appraisal, Methods, and Evaluation

This report delves into the fundamentals of human resources, specifically focusing on performance appraisal. It begins with an overview of the appraisal process, exploring the reasons managers may dislike appraising performance and suggesting ways to improve the process, such as addressing employee strengths and communicating company goals clearly. The report then reviews different appraisal methods, including 360-degree feedback, Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS), and assessment center methods, discussing their advantages and disadvantages. The report answers key questions regarding the importance of performance appraisals, improvements to traditional systems, barriers to adopting certain methods, and the relevance of 360-degree feedback. It emphasizes the importance of fair and effective appraisal systems in motivating employees and achieving organizational objectives. The report also provides references to support its findings, offering a comprehensive analysis of performance appraisal in the context of human resources.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

2HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
Table of Contents
Discussion 7.1- Appraisals.........................................................................................................3
Improving the appraisal process and evaluate performance......................................................3
Answer to Q1.............................................................................................................................4
Answer to Q2.............................................................................................................................5
Answer to Q3.............................................................................................................................5
Answer to Q4.............................................................................................................................6
Answer to Q5.............................................................................................................................6
Answer to Q6.............................................................................................................................6
Reference....................................................................................................................................7

3HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
Discussion 7.1- Appraisals
Improving the appraisal process and evaluate performance
The performance appraisal is the evaluation of employee’s performance to determine the
level of effective performance in the job. Researching on some of the reasons that managers
give for disliking appraising performance are-
 The manager are not trained properly to conduct the performance appraisal process.
 The manager thinks that the employee may be demotivated by the meeting, when the
manager will acknowledge the lack in performance.
Ways to improve
 The manager must acknowledge weakness but must convey the employee with their
strengths.
 The manager must address the employee with positive attitude so as to keep the
employee motivated towards the organisation.
 The manager must communicate the company goals clearly and must convey the
employee how good they are in the job and what contributions they have provided to
the company (DeNisi 2017).
 The manager must understand what is lacking behind to improve in the performance
level of the employee.
 The manager must have patience to listen to the employee’s problem regarding the
job.
Reviewing the video

4HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
As a supervisor, certain performance appraisal method is important to review the
performance of the employee-
1. 360- Degree feedback- the 360 degree appraisal helps to collect feedbacks from
subordinates, co-workers and managers to rate the employee. This information may
be helpful or may not be helpful. This appraisal system helps to evaluate the
employee performance for appraisal but if the feedback system is not correctly filled
then the employee may not be appraised (Anstey 2017). This may lack in efficient
employee to do the specific job that can eventually lower the productivity.
2. Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) – this helps to rate the performance
of an employee. It is the appraisal method that focuses on qualified rating by
anchoring on a qualified scale such as good, moderate, poor performance and
investing critical incidents. Its pros is to focus on specific behaviour, it reduces the
potential for biased responses (Waheed 2018). This may have demerits in evaluating
the performance as it may be time consuming, if the manager lacks in identifying the
important dimensions of job.
3. Assessment Centre Method- the appraisal method involves social and informal
events, evaluation of assignments given to the group of the employees for competency
for better appraisal to provide higher responsibilities in the job. The disadvantage in
using assessment centre method is that an effective centre needs the job to be
completed in time, the selection methods need to be accurate as the selection must be
on highly qualified employees for the position without unfair selection method (Rusu
2016). Bias may lead to choose an inefficient candidate who is not capable of doing
that particular job.

5HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
Answer to Q1.
Yes, performance appraisals are important as its outcome helps the organisation with
operating important functions such as bench marking to evaluate the recruitment and
selection process is correctly processed or not. It checks for appropriate employee
selection through recruitment (Rosen 2017). It helps the organisation to evaluate an
employee’s incentive pay and motivate for high productivity.
Answer to Q2.
The traditional system that is being used in an organisation is the BARS. This helps to set
the performance criteria, tracks the employee’s performance, keeps records of
performance. It checks for measuring the areas for quantitative analysis, the manager
decides o convey the information to the employees. The traditional method can be
improved by improving the resources used to evaluate the performance. The manger must
ensure the appraisal method is carried out within time. As the job requirements are
changing day- by- day, there is a need to change the evaluation process. It can be
improved by focusing on employement interviews (Kim 2016). This contains
standardized questions for each interviewees that have prediction of job performance.
Answer to Q3.
The barriers of adopting BARS as the appraisal method is that the concrete behavioural
anchors which the manager considers for effective appraisal may be a disadvantage as it
is more specific and may find behavioural similarity between the rate’s performance and
benchmark scale. The same level of performance is enriched with different behavioural
process but referring to constant benchmark of rating scale may be a limit for the rater’s
perspective (Iqbal 2015). The critical incident such as an employee undermining of an

6HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
employee must be determined and provide with effectiveness of performance for each
employee.
Answer to Q4.
The limitations that are characterized for traditional system are-
 The traditional methods have both merits and demerits. With proper management the
traditional method can be effectively.
 Improper feedback system may lead to dishonesty and discrimination.
The 360- degree feedback can help the organisation to overcome the problems. As the
feedback can allow the managers and employees to realize the duties towards the
organisation (Harrington 2015). This can help to overcome the lack of efficiency in
appraisal process.
Answer to Q5.
At job, the staff evaluates supervisors with the 360 degree method-
The staff evaluates their supervisors so that the efficiency in the supervisor can be
improved. The supervisors must be rated depending on their managing style. This helps
the managers to improve their performance and manage the team more effectively. This
can effectively result in improving the coordination, communication and motivation
(Elliott 2017). This can help to remove conflicts between employees and employers.

7HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
Answer to Q6.
The 360- degree feedback have major relevance on the job. It collects the feedback from
subordinate, co-worker, manager. This 360 degree feedback can help the organisation
with strengths and weakness of employees to improve their efficiency to meet the
organisation’s objective. This method helps to coordinate with all other members to take
the feedback and provides accurate result to the organisation for performance appraisal.
Without this method, the managers may mislead in providing the feedback (Dipboye
2018). So all other subordinates, co-workers are addressed to provide correct feedback to
minimize conflicts.
Reference
Anstey, E., Fletcher, C., & Walker, J. (2017). Staff appraisal and development.
Routledge.
DeNisi, A. S., & Murphy, K. R. (2017). Performance appraisal and performance
management: 100 years of progress?. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 421.
Dipboye, R. L., & Dipboye, R. L. (2018). Criterion Development, Performance
Appraisal, and Feedback'. In The Emerald Review of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology(pp. 535-579). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Elliott, K. (2015). Teacher Performance Appraisal: More about Performance or
Development?. Australian Journal of teacher education, 40(9), n9.
Harrington, J. R., & Lee, J. H. (2015). What drives perceived fairness of performance
appraisal? Exploring the effects of psychological contract fulfillment on

8HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDAMENTALS
employees’ perceived fairness of performance appraisal in US federal
agencies. Public Personnel Management, 44(2), 214-238.
Iqbal, M. Z., Akbar, S., & Budhwar, P. (2015). Effectiveness of performance appraisal:
An integrated framework. International Journal of Management Reviews, 17(4),
510-533.
Kim, T., & Holzer, M. (2016). Public employees and performance appraisal: A study of
antecedents to employees’ perception of the process. Review of Public Personnel
Administration, 36(1), 31-56.
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.
Rusu, G., Avasilcăi, S., & Huţu, C. A. (2016). Organizational context factors influencing
employee performance appraisal: a research framework. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 221, 57-65.
Waheed, A., Abbas, Q., & Malik, O. (2018). ‘Perceptions of Performance Appraisal
Quality’and Employee Innovative Behavior: Do Psychological Empowerment and
‘Perceptions of HRM System Strength’Matter?. Behavioral Sciences, 8(12), 114.