Performance appraisals in organizational management

Performance Appraisals

When choosing to evaluate employees, employers can choose between person-based and performance-based methods. Of these methods, perf0rmanced-based evaluations are far more job related. In this scenario, a manager evaluates his or her employees based on a previous set of criteria. Person-based evaluation methods, on the other hand, compare employees to one another "or against some absolute standard" (266). This system can cause so much trouble, though, that it is hardly used. Although it is certainly cheaper to the employer, and even allows management to express and consider some of their personal feelings about employees during evaluation, it comes with many inherent difficulties. Often, because management compares employees against one another, an individual worker's personality and psychological competence and situations are discussed. This begins to verge on illegal, and allows for much debate among managers as to what actually constitutes the criteria that they are attempting to evaluate. Thus, person-based evaluation can be more biased than performance-based, but it can also allow employers to compare their employees honestly and do this in a relatively inexpensive manner.

This being said, the first form, figure 11-3 seems to be more performance-based, and therefore, job related. In this form, the employee being evaluated is given a detailed description of the responsibilities for his or her job. The form is specific, allowing the evaluator to make a decision, with near objectivity, whether a person has performed satisfactorily regarding one trait based on his or her successful completion of the detailed and direct responsibilities. The form, then, is job-based, allowing an employee to view the specific responsibilities of his or her job as he or she is evaluated. On the other hand, from 11-3 is less job-based. In this form, employees are simply given characteristics of the traits that make up their job goal. An evaluator could use a person's personality, motivation, or other characteristics to make these selections. Unlike the first form, this form is rather open-ended, and allows the reviewer to make subjective decisions when evaluating the employee.

As a manager, I would much rather use the second form to evaluate employees. With a form as job-based as this, I will be allowing employees to have a direct understanding of how they are fulfilling their job requirements and what needs work. Instead of presenting my employees with abstract words that may confuse them, I would feel as if I were being a good manager by providing them with a fair evaluation that would allow them to learn from their mistakes and have a better understanding of the requirements of their positions.

As an employee, I would want to be evaluated using this job-related form as well. While some employees may find it better to be evaluated by a form that allows subjectivity because they think they will be able to convince the evaluating manager that they are doing a good job, I disagree. I would want to be evaluated through a form that would reveal whether or not I was conducting my assigned duties. Because of its specific nature, figure 11-3 would not only allow the evaluating manager to make an informed representation of my work, but also remind me of specific duties. Thus, as an employer and an employee, figure 11-3 is the superior form. It allows for the accurate and succinct evaluation of workers and the best chance of convincing those workers to continue to strive or make up for what they have lost.

Question Two