Performance Appraisal Flashcards
What is performance appraisal used for?
- Systematic evaluation of performance
- Comparing to standards
- Understand individual abilities
- Providing feedback for growth and development
- Make decision regarding training, promotion, pay, demotion, fired
- Development
- Administrative decisions
- Organisational Maintenance
- Documentation
- Strategic communication
- Relationship building
- Employee development
- Employee evaluation
What are some advantages of performance appraisal?
- Reliability, validity, standardisation, norms
- Intelligence and work
- Measurement of interests
- Numeric information
- Data base of information
- Comparison with norm scores
- Promotes equal opportunity
- Test battery
- Perceived as ‘scientific’
What are some types of tests used in performance appraisal?
- Abstract/conceptual reasoning
- Verbal reasoning
- Numerical reasoning
- Mechanical reasoning
- Spatial reasoning
- Emotional intelligence
- ‘Core skills’
What is performance management?
A continuous process of identifying, measuring and developing performance of individuals, teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organisation
List three theories relating to performance.
Goal theory - suggests there are four mechanisms to linking effort to success; attention to priorities, stimulate effort, challenge people to bare their skills and knowledge to increase chances of success, more challenging goals, the more people will live up to that
Control theory - attention to feedback as a means of shaping behaviour. Get feedback then take it to change their behaviours and improve. Therefore effective and active feedback is important.
Social cognitive theory - self-efficacy. What people believe they can and cannot do powerfully impacts on a person’s performance
What are the principles of performance managements, according to Armstrong & Baron (2004)?
- It’s about how we manage people – it’s not a system
- Performance management is what managers do, a natural process of management
- A management tool that helps managers to manage
- Driven by corporate purpose and values
- To obtain solutions that work
- Only interested in things you can do something about and get a visible improvement
- Focus on changing behaviour rather than just paperwork
- Based on an accepted principle but operates flexibly
- Focus on development not pay
- Success depends on what the organisation is and need to be in its performance culture
List the four steps of the Management Appraisal Cycle.
Plan -> Do -> Check -> Act
List some methods of appraisal.
- Rating scales
- Checklist
- Forced choice method
- Field review method
- Confidential records
- Performance tests and observations
- Essay method
- Cost accounting method
- Ranking method
- Paired comparison method
- Assessment centre
- Management by objectives
- 360-degree feedback - evaluation input from multiple sources within the organisation and from outside. Provides information about the effect of their actions on others in the workplace
List the four steps involved in performance management.
Set standards -> measure performance -> provide feedback -> reward or take corrective action
How do different organisations perform their appraisals?
Private Sector Appraisals - formalised process, usually one official meeting per year, structured, can be based on meeting profit margins and KPIs, employer-lead, very good at structured and formal appraisal and goal setting, big teams. Risks – missing the small developments, knowing staff well, all new information each year
Public Sector Appraisals - often careers in more supportive, client-based roles, worker-lead, focus on individual development, often an informal performance appraisal and performance management, more regular meetings or clinical supervision, ongoing relationships, identify training needed to do the best work, very good at supporting the individual employee development and wellbeing, but miss the structured formal appraisal that may be required from an organisation perspective
New Wave Organisations (Google) - focus on profit but also attempting to look after staff wellbeing, objectives and Key Results (OKRs), measuring performance – Google managers rate their employee’s performance on a five-point scale form ‘needs improvement’ to ‘superb’, peer feedback – employees and their managers select a group of peer reviewers – this group must also include employees who are junior to them. Peer reviewers list one thing that the employee should do more of, and one thing they should do differently to have a greater impact on Google, calibrating – manager review ratings, designed to reduce manager bias, pay discussion are separate – hope to instil other motivations to improve performance other than salary, employees perform better in the absence of incentives
Why is feedback important?
It is an important part of communication. It is an opportunity to motivate and is critical to improving and developing performance.
Specificity, timeliness and manner are important
What makes feedback effective?
Effective feedback is about the behaviour, not the person. Be supportive, clear, sensitive, considerate, owned and specific, regular and healthy timing, thoughtful, accepting, active engagement, authentic and balanced
Three V’s: verbal, visual and vocal
What are some of the barriers to effective feedback?
- Tends to elicit an emotional response
- Desire to avoid upsetting the receiver can lead to white-washing and using indirect statements
- Time constraints
What are some of the consequences of ineffective feedback?
Being nervous, self-conscious, defensive, disengaging from learning, complacency, no change, no development, feeling judged, have to guess about performance.
