ABSTRACT
No matter how hard it is to devise a satisfactory performance appraisal scheme, there is no real alternative to turn to. Appraisal will take place in an unstructured and perhaps highly subjective form wherever and whenever people work together. They will automatically form judgments about their own abilities and performance and that of their colleagues. To try to deny this is foolish. Have you ever talked to employees who had no opinions about their bosses, their peers, their subordinates, or themselves? Organisations that try to avoid the issue by not having an appraisal scheme will simply end up having the same processes occurring without them being open to scrutiny or to control, with all the potential for bias and unfairness that this holds.
