The Role of Performance Appraisal in Human Resources Management

The Role of Performance Appraisal in Human Resources Management

Abstract of The Role of Performance Appraisal in Human Resources Management

Due to the important role played by human resources in the achievement of organizational objectives and also the insufficiency and lack of effectiveness in achieving goals, the researcher interest prompted the need to investigate into the role of performance appraisal in human resources management in the united Bank for Africa. The study covers management staff, supervisor, clerks, messenger. The researcher also made use of various authors knowledge with those whose initiative relates to the problem under study which includes textbooks and journals for the literature review.

Questionnaires were provided with various questions which covered the two hypothesis that were provided in the research work, the percentage formula was used in analyzing the data obtained.

Chapter One of The Role of Performance Appraisal in Human Resources Management

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY/OVERVIEW

In every organization effective use of human resources require a complete knowledge of employees capabilities and effective record system. To achieve this objective, it has become necessary to regularly take stock of the experience and exposure levels of employment. This could be done with the aid of performance appraisal. Performance appraisal could be defined as the process of measuring necessary level performance of organization members. It is one of the delicate issues in human resources management because an employee overall success in an organization depends largely on the outcome of performance appraisal. It is pertinent to state that some bosses take advantage of this to undermine the prospect of employees they line. Thus a proven performance appraisal system linking organization and employees goals is of paramount important because it can serve development tool to counsel and motivate employees.

Furthermore, it could as well assist employees to understand what is expected of them in a job and where they fit into an organization. The fact is that the scarcely few employees who would not like to know what exactly their manager thinks of their performance makes performance appraisal a controversial subject. In small organization with few employees, the level of interaction between the manger and the employees is close that employees generally know how their boss thinks of them.

However, in large organization such as “UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA”, the degree of interaction is remote. Many employees find it difficult to precisely know what their manager thinks of them. In contemporary atmosphere of world wide recession and especially in Nigeria, of down right economic growth characterize by massive unemployment and increasing number of employee redundancy, this organization (including united bank for Africa PLC) which are holding their own are likely to be much more interested in maximizing the effective use of existing personnel than having new staff. It follows therefore, that if performance appraisal is properly utilized. It could go a long in assisting in the management of the bank in human resource planning and development.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Most organization are quite interested in determining the quality and level of performance of their employee in assessing the potentials they demonstrate for future development, and in identifying areas of weakness that may require assistance and training. The process of appraising the performance of employees is made difficult by the fact that criteria of effective and ineffective performance and frequently difficult to define, the areas of performance for which an individual is responsible is often unclear and evaluation tends to be base not in measurement of actual performance, but on the perception and judgment of immediate boss.

Some of these vague, ambiguous and judgment characteristics of performance appraisal in an organization are unavailable because of the complexity of managerial jobs and the difficulties inherit to clearly concrete criteria of effective performance. At the same time, vagueness ambiquity. Associated with the appraisal process can be  attributed to inadequate attention being paid by organization to the design and functioning of its performance appraisal doubtful of the extent to which the employees UBA are usually satisfied after the appraisal exercise.

This is because instances abound where a staff has spent over nine (9) years or one past without promotion. One is tempted therefore to conclude that; performance appraisal is not so effective in assisting management in selecting the first people for advancement.

Further, it appears that general feeling among the UBA staff is that performance appraisal is not achieving the desired objective. This implies that all is not well with the way performance appraisal is being conducted in UBA. Beaming in mind that the instable nature of human beings and the fact that they constitute the most difficult variables for managers to predict and control, the researcher study will endeavor to examine the performance appraisal system of its pros and cons will assist the management to define effective and result oriented performance