ABSTRACT
The attitudes and characteristics of professional and scientific staff are often so different from those of administrative and managerial staff that they represent a special case in appraisal – to the extent that they warrant a separate chapter. Much of what will be said here will be in the context of the public sector. This is because there is a far higher proportion of professional staff in the NHS, the teaching profession, higher education and (to a lesser extent) local government than in the majority of commercial organisations. None the less, a fair amount of what is said about the appraisal of professional groups is applicable to their employment in the private sector also. Before addressing the general and specific issues associated with the appraisal of such staff, it is relevant to make some points about public-sector appraisal and where recent developments have led.
