Reasons for Criticism on Performance Appraisals

Why do employees criticize performance appraisals?

Performance appraisals are one of the most criticized management method used in organizations today.

The criticism of performance appraisals comes from the employees themselves. The issues that employees have with this management practice are numerous and two major ones are discussed in this article.

Bias in rating A major issue that employees all over the world have with this practice is that many times the managers do not rate them objectively. By this it is meant that managers often include nonperformance factors in the evaluation of an employee. For example, if the appraisers include factors like race, gender or personal liking or disliking in the appraisal of an employee then the resulting evaluation does not give an accurate representation of his or her performance. Failure of a boss in gathering accurate data regarding an employee’s performance also leads to this problem. If the boss has not kept a clear track of the employee’s performance then he or she may judge the employee on inaccurate performance data and this will lead to a wrong evaluation. Apart from these factors, the mood of the evaluator has also been observed to cause this bias in ratings. A manager who is in a bad mood is much more likely to identify even the smallest mistakes and shortcomings of an employee while in a good mood, the focus may be on the achievements of the employee. The organization must keep a check on the managers and ensure that the ratings are given objectively. The best way is to make the appraisers justify the ratings to the upper management.

Rating errors According to research, many employees feel that their managers do not give them accurate ratings based on the analysis of their overall work. It has often been observed that in order to avoid conflicts and to save time, managers tend to give average ratings to employees regardless of their performance.

This benefits the employees who have not performed up to the mark while the above average performers suffer. At times, the managers themselves are not clear of the performance standards and their lack of knowledge also results in wrong ratings. The major cause of this issue is the lack of training of the appraisers. A secondary cause is the time given to managers to make the appraisal by the organization. The appraisers should be well trained and acquainted with the specifics of the rating system and the organization must make sure that adequate time is given to make the appraisal of employees.

Reference http://www.researchomatic.com/Performance-Appraisal-23819.html