Performance Appraisal as a Tool for Achieving Organizational and Employee Development

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Overview of RMRDC

The Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) promotes the development of industrial raw materials in the Republic of Nigeria. It also oversees the utilisation of the same minerals, while its activities are considered part of the Nigerian government on a federal level.

The organisation started in 1988 and has grown to become an essential institution that supports federal service. It serves many stakeholders who are involved in the country’s vast raw material sector. The organisation began when the country had limited foreign exchange earnings.

At the time, Nigeria relied on petroleum products. With the functioning RMRDC, the country can lower its import bill by focusing on domestic raw material production, rather than rely on imports (RMRDC, 2015).

Background of the study

This study will focus on the subject of performance appraisal. According to Armstrong (1998), researchers mainly concentrate on accuracy and fairness whenever they are conducting performance appraisal studies. This is a subject under Human Resource Management (HRM), and it refers to the use of tools and frameworks to enhance the productivity of human capital within organisations.

When organisations measure their performance, they gain insights into their operations and can, therefore, address emerging issues related to performance. This can be in the actual sense of speed of delivery or the impediments to delivery. Being able to identify these areas allows the organisation to respond appropriately to avoid trouble and build on its past and ongoing successes.

As a result, the use of performance appraisals can be a way of achieving competitive advantages. Employees can offer their viewpoints on different aspects of their jobs with the systematic evaluation and its related adjustments. They use the process to improve their performance and get a basis for earning rewards.

This reason makes the performance appraisal concept crucial as an HRM tool and highlights its ability to help realise capabilities of an organisation’s human resources. Although performance appraisal increases employee productivity, much is unknown about its effects on financial performance.

According to Pollitt and Bouckaert (2011), there is no research evidence available for the link. Nevertheless, the consensus among researchers and practitioners is that the process should be continuous and involve supervisors who regularly evaluate their approach to measuring the performance of subordinate employees. The benefits of appraisal include an increase in efficacy, productivity, and morale.

Many organisations exist as hierarchical structures. Such organisations require structured performance appraisals so that they can tell what each department in different levels is doing and why the problems that arise at any level fail to be resolved. With the information, the organisation can streamline its decision-making processes and achieve a better execution of strategic choices.

It also moves away from the chaos that can plague its administrative hierarchy (DeVries, 1983). The definition of performance appraisal follows its tie to human resources, which is regarded as a source of competitive advantage for organisations (Farndale & Kelliher, 2013). It can be a review, evaluation, or discussion about the development of employees in relation to the present standards.

After examination, result documentation of the comparison occurs and the information serves as a guideline for intervening in employee relationships concerning their jobs and the realisation of an organisation’s objectives (Farndale & Kelliher, 2013). The employment of performance appraisal leads to the identification of staff members needing training, promotion, demotion, retrenchment, firing, or recognition, among other eventualities within the mandate of human resource departments (Farndale & Kelliher, 2013).

Aim

This study aims to look at performance appraisal in the context of an organisation’s determination to achieve employee development. Therefore, the study is going to focus on the Raw Materials Research and Development Council of Nigeria.

In doing so, it will specifically concentrate on how subordinate employees within the organisation perceive the existing performance appraisal methods used by the organisation. It will also examine the outcome of the evaluation of management staffs and the subordinate staffs. Lastly, the research will consider the strengths and weaknesses of the performance appraisal program at RMRDC in seeking to find out areas that can be improved or introduced.

Objectives

To determine the perception of subordinate employees on performance appraisal program at RMRDC
To examine the strengths and weaknesses of performance appraisal program used by RMRDC
To examine the goal and outcome of performance appraisal in RMRDC on the subordinate employee level and management employee level
To identify gaps in the efficacy of the current performance appraisal program in structure and purpose regarding best practices and organisational context.

Justification of the research

The research will be useful in the Nigerian organisations’ context because of the following contributions.

It will enhance the view of performance appraisal and lead to its appreciation as a productivity tool for firms.
It will result in the proper structuring of performance appraisals after highlighting the strengths and limitations of the current structure at RMRDC.
The study will provide organisational insight that practitioners can readily apply to their respective institutions to realise the additional potential of their human resources.
It will lead to the identification of the role and relevance of different stakeholders in a government agency, such as RMRDC
It will highlight the benefits of performance appraisal from an empirical context.

Purpose of the research

The basis of this research is to understand the impact of performance appraisal program/s at RMRDC on the council’s staff. It will result in is a significant contribution of information that is integral in decision-making by stakeholders for the improvement of the program/s or process of performance appraisal.

Evaluation of the Relevant Literature

Performance management links corporate objectives, performance standards, and evaluation in one process, which is used by managers to serve the following three roles in an organisation. First, it assists in the administration, development, and communication functions of any entity (Beam, 2008).

In its administrative role, it captures staffing, compensation, promotion, and punishment or rewards for members of the organisation to ensure that the human resource functions optimally. In its development role, it identifies and builds potential for future performance. It gives an organisation a capability that it can tap on when conditions are favourable.

In its communication role, performance management seeks to offer feedback to employees concerning how they are executing their duties. According to Brown (2008), records of performance appraisals help employees to fight against wrongful dismissal. The development of appraisal instruments so that the measurement of human effort is objective and accurate is an important research issue under performance appraisal (Cash, 2010).

At the same time, Glaveli and Karassavidou (2011) noted that research tends to focus on supervisors and employee characteristics, thereby highlighting their bias on performance appraisal ratings. Lastly, research on the subject has also concentrated on the process as it is executed within organisations (Sinclair, 2005).

Techniques of appraisal for management purposes can be observational or actual measurements. Organisations use ratings in their simple applications, and behaviour anchor scales in complex applications. This follows the theoretical assumptions of motivation. According to Watkins (2011), problems with performance appraisals relate to the lack of focus, poor training, inefficient communication, and biased criteria.

A number of motivational theories can help explain performance appraisals. They include the Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory and the Herzberg’s two-factor theory because of their elaborate description and fit in organisational contexts (Watkins 2011). According to Watkins (2011), other relevant theories in performance appraisal include the expectancy theory, goal-setting theory, and the McClelland’s needs achievement theory.

The goal setting theory helps to explain better how employees operate in the work environment. It also offers insights on how to influence employee performance. It relates to the direction of employee attention. The theory encourages effort and provides avenues for encouraging persistence.

Managers can use the theory to foster goal attainment and following of strategic action plans. The theory is relevant because every performance appraisal starts with a goal. The concept of performance appraisal management became famous in the mid-1980s, and Barry (2007) coined it. Since then, researchers have explored it further. Armstrong (2011) considers it a strategic and integrated approach.

It offers sustained success of the organisation. This happens through the improvement of performance appraisal for people and the creation of capability teams and individual contributors (Armstrong, 2011). Therefore, performance appraisal is strategic, systematic, and holistic. It concerns the broader issues facing an organisation, as much as it is detailed on specific individual performance.

Based on the research by Bach (2004), performance appraisal relates to behaviour and results. Behaviour comes from a performer. It transforms performance appraisal into action. Behaviour is an instrument for the result, and it is an outcome of mental and physical efforts. However, this is only as long as the mental and physical efforts go to a specified task. Therefore, behaviour can be judged independently or as part of a task. In the end, performance appraisal is reactive.

Theoretical framework

Scholars have examined individual employee performance for many years. Nowadays, researchers and practitioners agree that employees play an important part in a firm’s competitive advantage realisation. Rao (2011) sees that competitive advantages, in this case, arise in the presence of four conditions.

Based on the resource-based theory of the firm, the researcher notes that the conditions are addition of value to a company, rarity of skills or advantages gained, difficulty in imitating human capital investments, and the ability to structure and program jobs so that employees work as desired. These conditions were also supported by research by Waldman (2011) and Barry (2007) concerning difficulties in other firms replicating another firm’s strategy.

Based on the above citations, it is clear that the behaviour of employees in a firm affects the performance of the particular company. Therefore, performance appraisal will result in changes in organisational performance because it affects employee performance.

It can affect motivation and skills of staffs positively. The associated return on investment due to increased performance and growth should result in better financial performance. Based on the understanding, it is possible to use these effects as dependent variables.

Review of empirical studies

Studies show that individuals’ attitudes and feelings about their work affect their behaviour at work and their attitude towards work practices, such as performance appraisals that human resource departments use (Chang & Chen, 2011). According to Waldman (2011), age, tenure, and job experience predict the results of an employee’s appraisal. On the other hand, Sinclair (2005) considered age, tenure, salary, and education, and performance appraisal as having a negative relationship.

Other studies that look at the relationship between job attitudes and behavioural aspects are Downs and Swailes (2013) – a capability approach to organisational talent management, Dimba (2010) – on strategic human resource practices and how they affect employee performance, and Farndale and Kelliher (2013) with a study on the exploration of performance appraisal on the implementation of performance appraisal.

The three studies support the findings by Sinclair (1995). They record relationships between job attitudes and behavioural aspects that can lead to, interfere, promote, and arise from the individual performance evaluation. The findings can be inconclusive and mixed. Meier (2005) indicated that the direction of the relationship between organisational commitment and other variables was conditional and relied on the types of commitment.

On the other hand, a significant, positive relationship happened when there were affective commitment and performance appraisal. A negative relationship existed between continual engagement and performance appraisal, which was an illustration of the inconclusiveness of the present research and highlighted the need for additional studies on the same.

According to Esu (2009), demographic factors and job attitudes like job satisfaction and commitment to a particular organisation are important because they are associated with positive results in an organisation. They lead to increased effectiveness and efficiency in the organisation. At the same time, Waldman (2007) indicates that diversity in individual characteristics has the potential to affect decision-making for performance appraisal.

Research Philosophy

Research philosophy relates to the development of research background, research knowledge, and nature, with research philosophy being a broad framework that comprises of perception, beliefs, understanding of theories, and research practices.

Therefore, research philosophy acts as a precise process encompassing the steps that the researcher will undertake to create a relationship between the objectives and questions that the research seeks to answer (Galliers, 1991).

Philosophical and Methodological Considerations

This research will use a mixed method approach, where there will be primary and secondary sources of data. In the main research part, data collection will take place using questionnaires as the instruments. The questionnaires will be delivered to RMRDC staffs chosen to participate in the research.

Therefore, RMRDC will be the case study organisation. The study is going to include two interviews with two directors of the Council. The study timeline will cover the questionnaire survey first, before proceeding to the interviews with the directors. The expectation is that out of 30 questionnaires, at least 20 will be filled accurately and completely to aid in the analysis part of the study.

The figure below elaborates the study process.

*Figure 1: Research onion showing the process of study (Saunders, 2009).*

The following section provides definitions and elaborations of the different concepts that inform the methodology of the proposed research.

Data Collection

Data collection relates to the act of getting information about a particular research question to inform decisions and analysis that seek to answer a research question. This study will use surveys and interviews among the available data collection methods. The survey uses questionnaires as an instrument for collecting data.

With questionnaires, respondents get forms that have specified questions that they have to answer. Questions will be both structured and unstructured. Structured questions require a particular response, while the other questions provide freedom for the individual to answer.

The research will try to interpret the responses based on the study criteria. Interviews differ from questionnaires in the way they are conducted. Interviews could embrace structured answers or unstructured questions, depending on the needs of the study. In this case, both will suffice. Usually the researcher and the interviewee meet physically or virtually.

Cross-sectional Study

Cross-sectional studies are specially constructed explorations into a research question. The study collects data for a defined population. Cross-sectional studies happen once or for a short time. The aim of a cross-sectional study is to estimate the existence of a hypothesis in a given population. The researcher surveys information from a set of literature as a way of doing it as a secondary research.

The literature sample will be selected using keywords, the focus of the studies consulted, and the time of research or any other relevant criteria. In this case, the keywords will be performance appraisal and human resource management. The focus will be on the keywords and public organisations, while the time will be the last decade. The findings will then be summarised to give a description of the secondary data.

Case Study

A case study is an in-depth investigation into an event or organisation. Data is gathered from different sources. A case study relies on several methods of research. Therefore, a case study is a research that includes all or any other research methods, such as surveys.

It can be a cross-sectional study too, given that this research will be based on RMRDC. A case study allows the researcher to investigate a topic in a detailed way that would be impossible when there are so many participants and too many variables. In this regard, a case study is only an approach, but it is not a research method. It uses typical research methods highlighted above (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

Multi Methods

As the name suggests, multi-method research relates to the inclusion of two or more methods of research in one study. It mixes qualitative and quantitative data, methods and methodologies, or paradigms to arrive at a comprehensive finding that would be impossible or shoddily done with only one method or research tool. It can be simply the inclusion of different standpoints, and may use many methods and standpoints (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

Inductive Research

The inductive research follows the inductive reasoning, where the intention is to provide significant evidence for a conclusion. Thus, the study provides evidence to support a conclusion, which makes the conclusion probable pending further research that can confirm or deny it. The evidence presented in the study will support a conclusion about performance appraisal and its application at RMRDC (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

Positivist Learning

Positivist learning concerns the collection of information that is observable and classifiable. It leaves out internal meanings, motives, and feelings or emotions of individuals, and only concentrates on the explainable and observable facts. Therefore, positivist learning relies on statistical data to facilitate learning. In positivist learning, correlations of different variables matter (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

Ethical Considerations

This study will explain its importance to the organisation in question as a way of gaining acceptance. The researcher will seek permission from the relevant authorities before proceeding with the research. Respondents will volunteer information and the only information collected in relation to identity will be demographic collected used for specified exploration tenacities only.

Here, staffs at RMRDC will receive requests for research and have seven days to respond. There will be no incentives used to obtain information. The expectation of the research is that all participants will provide accurate information without coercion.

The participants will only access their responses and will not find any opportunity to know what other participants will answer. This option seeks to safeguard the job interest of participants and prevent any victimisation by colleagues, supervisors, or directors at RMRDC.

Contingency Plan

I have earmarked two directors for the interview and two chief scientific officers as alternatives in case the directors are not available for the research. The intention here is to use 20 questionnaires. Nevertheless, the researcher will commence an inquiry with 30 questionnaires presented to the Council.

Conclusion

It is important to understand the performance appraisal from a particular organisation’s context so that other practitioners can have a credible example to relate. Using a positivist learning approach, this research will contribute significantly to the existing literature on factors affecting the realisation of performance appraisal objectives in public organisations.

Other than the meeting of research objectives, the shortfalls of this research could arise because of a small sample size and failure of participants to provide accurate information. However, the study will rely on professional conduct of the research process to increase its validity.

References

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