ABSTRACT
Staff appraisal is concerned with the conceptualization, measurement, and analysis of how well people do their jobs and how satisfied they are in their work setting. More generally, staff appraisal is the process of gaining information about what individual workers do and feel. As noted by Randell, Packard, Shaw, and Slater (1974), this information is collected so organizations can make improved decisions regarding
1. Evaluation: to enable the organization to share the money, promotions, and perquisites “fairly”
2. Auditing: to discover the work potential, both present and future, of individuals and departments
3. Constructing succession plans: for manpower, departmental, and corporate planning
4. Discovering training needs: by exposing inadequacies and deficiencies that could be remedied by training
5. Motivating staff: to reach organizational standards and objectives
6. Developing individuals: by advice, information, and attempts at shaping their behavior by praise or punishment
7. Checking: the effectiveness of personnel procedures and practices
We can see that just as job and organizational analyses are useful for multiple purposes, so is staff appraisal. Staff appraisal issues must be considered before hiring the staff; organizations must decide on what bases and how they will assess staff before meaningful programs for selection, training, or motivation can be developed. Without knowing the standards against which people will be evaluated, procedures for getting people who will meet those standards are only guesswork. It is for this reason that staff appraisal should be based on the results of the job analysis. That is, what the organization does and values is formally articulated through the staff appraisal process. To the extent staff are evaluated on factors unrelated to what the organization values, the appraisal process will not accomplish organizational objectives.
