ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on five factors or groups of factors that were important in determining what the appraisal interviews achieved: the way the appraisal scheme was introduced into a department. Remaining factors are the extent of the performance feedback given in interviews, the style in which interviews were conducted, the existing day-to-day relations between interviewer and interviewee, and the type of work the appraisees did. Two features of the way the appraisal interview scheme was introduced into any particular department proved to be of considerable importance; the management level at which the interviews were started and the quality and amount of training given to the managers who would be giving the interviews. The evaluation study conducted in Department A afforded the clearest inspection of the performance feedback variable, though it should be noted that the findings on this were remarkably consistent across all the studies.