Performance Appraisal as One of the Crucial Tools That Determines the Essay

Essays on Performance Appraisal as One of the Crucial Tools That Determines the Extent to Which the Employees Are Contributing to Their Organizations Essay The paper â€Å"Performance Appraisal as One of the Crucial Tools That Determines the Extent to Which the Employees Are Contributing to Their Organizations† is a  motivating variant of essay on management. This essay critically analyzes and evaluates a performance appraisal form by looking at the contents of an appraisal form and highlighting the importance of each component. The paper also uses theoretical knowledge concerning the purposes of performance appraisal and also the ways of improving performance appraisal. The paper is based on articles from scholarly and peer-reviewed journals and textbooks that have information about the performance appraisal.Performance appraisal is a method used to analyze, review or evaluate the performance of an employee or worker by the managers or supervisors. The performance appraisal process is considered to be part of managing and guiding the career development of employees in regard to their performance as argued by Harvard Business S chool Press (2009). It has also been described as the process of obtaining information, analyzing it and finally recording it. The information in question is usually about the relative worth of a worker within a particular organization. With performance appraisal, the recent failures and successes of an employee are analyzed. The personal strengths and weaknesses are also put under scrutiny so as to gauge the level of an employee’s strengths and weaknesses. The information that is collected from the performance appraisal process is used to gauge the suitability of a worker for promotion and further training as argued by Belak (2003). In most instances, appraisal results are utilized directly or indirectly in determining the reward outcomes. In simple terms, appraisal results are used in identifying better-performing workers who should get higher available merit pay increments, promotions, and bonuses. A performance appraisal usually evaluates the workers' performance in terms of quality, quantity, time and cost. It can as well be used as a part of directing and managing career improvement. It is important for the performance appraisal systems to fit into existing systems for it to be successful and effective.Performance appraisal judges the performance in a particular job based on certain criteria apart from productivity alone. Performance appraisal has a very brief history. This is because it mostly began in the early 20th Century. Performance appraisal began as a formal and distinct management practice not more than 60 years ago, from the time of the Second World War as argued by Karen (2008). However, the process of appraising performance is a very ancient art that began very many years ago. The process of appraisal in the workplace has been seen as universal and inevitable, especially by managers. Performance appraisal procedures began as simple methods that were used to justify the income that employees were given. This means that the appraisal pro cess was used to determine whether the salaries or wages given to employees were justified or not. This followed that if the performance of an employee was found to be less than what was expected of it, the pay of the employee would be ideally cut to suit the performance of the employee as stated by Bowen (2000). On the other hand, if the performance of an employee was found to be better than the expected standards, the employee would receive a pay rise that is in line with the level of performance. The process of appraisal gave very little consideration to the possibilities of developing the employees. If an employee performed well, there was supposed to be a rise in pay but if an employee performed poorly, a cut in pay would follow immediately. This raised questions about the dangers of performance appraisal, especially on staff motivation.