Performance Appraisal
Introduction:
It is a widely held view that people are the most important resource in any organisation. As a matter of fact, organisations would not exist without human resources. However, it is important to recognise that people have different abilities and hence their contributions to the success of an organisation vary. In an effort to quantify the contributions made by employees to an organisation, Human resource managers carry out what is referred to as performance appraisal. Different scholars have defined performance appraisal differently. Aswatappa, K(2007:226) defines performance appraisal as the assessment of an individual’s performance in a systematic way, the performance being measured against such factors as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output, initiative, leadership abilities, supervision, dependability, cooperation, judgement, versatility, health, and all the like. However, Dessler. G (2006:311) has defined performance appraisal as “evaluating an employee’s current and/ or past performance relative to his or her performance standards”. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Garry Dressler’s definition of performance appraisal and show why this process is necessary in the management and utilisation of workforce.
Garry Dessler’s definition of performance appraisal:
Dessler’s definition of performance appraisal suggests that when conducting performance appraisal, supervisors should consider not only employees’ current performance but rather their past performance as well. The author argues that failure to do that may render the performance appraisal ineffective and thereby defeating the sole purpose of conducting it. In other words, employees should continuously be evaluated perhaps on a daily basis for a supervisor to accurately come up with a valid assessment of their performance. Furthermore, when formulating his definition of performance appraisal, Dessler was mindful of the fact that it would be wrong to evaluate employees’
It is a widely held view that people are the most important resource in any organisation. As a matter of fact, organisations would not exist without human resources. However, it is important to recognise that people have different abilities and hence their contributions to the success of an organisation vary. In an effort to quantify the contributions made by employees to an organisation, Human resource managers carry out what is referred to as performance appraisal. Different scholars have defined performance appraisal differently. Aswatappa, K(2007:226) defines performance appraisal as the assessment of an individual’s performance in a systematic way, the performance being measured against such factors as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output, initiative, leadership abilities, supervision, dependability, cooperation, judgement, versatility, health, and all the like. However, Dessler. G (2006:311) has defined performance appraisal as “evaluating an employee’s current and/ or past performance relative to his or her performance standards”. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Garry Dressler’s definition of performance appraisal and show why this process is necessary in the management and utilisation of workforce.
Garry Dessler’s definition of performance appraisal:
Dessler’s definition of performance appraisal suggests that when conducting performance appraisal, supervisors should consider not only employees’ current performance but rather their past performance as well. The author argues that failure to do that may render the performance appraisal ineffective and thereby defeating the sole purpose of conducting it. In other words, employees should continuously be evaluated perhaps on a daily basis for a supervisor to accurately come up with a valid assessment of their performance. Furthermore, when formulating his definition of performance appraisal, Dessler was mindful of the fact that it would be wrong to evaluate employees’
Bibliography: K, Aswathappa, (2007) Human Resource and Personnel Management: New york, McGraw-Hill, sixth Edition. Chatterjee, B (2002) , Human Resource Management, A Contemporary Text (New Delhi: ING Publishers LTD, 2002), Dessler, G (2007), Human Resource Management, London: Pearson Education Ltd, Eleven Edition, Beardwell. J and Claydon. T`(2007) Human Resource Management, A contemporary approach, London: Pearson Education Ltd, fifth Edition, 2007). Boone. K and D. Kurtz (2003), A Contemporary Business, Ohio, South-West Publishers. USA.