ABSTRACT
Appraisal schemes in the modern sense of schemes centred around appraisal interviews between managers and their staff had their origins mainly in North America, and spread to Europe generally in the late 1950s. Many managers found difficulty in being completely frank when communicating appraisal to their staff, and some were reluctant to interview at all. A high proportion of recommendations for action following appraisal interviews were vague or otherwise unhelpful. The steps taken to secure their implementation were inadequate, as was feedback of information to the staff concerned. During the ten years following Rowe's survey, appraisal schemes continued to develop, and in 1970 the Institute of Personnel Management judged the time ripe to make a comprehensive survey of 360 British companies reasonably representative both by size and by industrial classification. All these companies had replied to the IPM questionnaire, and 156 of them also supplied copies of their own appraisal report forms.
