Maximizing Performance Appraisal System Acceptance

Employee acceptance is a critical component of an effective performance appraisal system.(1) Research in organizational behavior clearly demonstrates that employee attitudes influence behavior,(2) and participant attitudes toward performance appraisal systems are no exception.(3) The attitudes of system participants play a key role in both the short and long term success of a performance appraisal system.(4) The goal of this research is to identify the characteristics of municipal government performance appraisal systems that are associated with perceived employee acceptance as reported by a national sample of municipal government personnel officials. Performance appraisal systems are but one component of an overall system of human resources management that is designed to enhance employee effectiveness. The key is the proper design and administration of the system in order to benefit both employees and management.(5) Performance appraisal systems are employed to serve a host of administrative and developmental purposes from providing specific performance feedback to generating information for merit pay, promotion, demotion and other personnel decisions.(6)
Personnel officials were the mandated respondents as stipulated by the grant that partially funded the research. The analysis is only suggestive for the obvious reason that the direct participants in the process, raters and ratees, are not the research subjects. Nevertheless, this effort provides insight and information on both the structural characteristics of appraisal systems and the perceptions of a key actor in the appraisal process.
Literature Review
Performance Appraisal System Acceptance
One of the serious weaknesses in existing performance appraisal research is a dearth of attention to performance appraisal system acceptance. The most detailed conceptual discussion of the variables that comprise employee acceptance is by Carroll and Schneier.(7) Ratee acceptance is maximized when the performance

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