Page 159 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

142 performance appraisal
But perhaps a company wants to change its job demands and put more emphasis on
qualities which were not decisive in the past but are now important because of changes
in the market situation. For example, “initiative” was not demanded from employees in
a company in the past but now it is necessary to have employees who show initiative.
So this quality is encouraged and considered in the appraisal system. With this method,
appraisal dimensions are based on strategic company goals and consideration should be
given to those qualities that the employees must have to realize the corporate strategy
and goals. For example, “customer orientation” or “flexibility” are characteristics that
can be important if a company is to achieve its goals in the present situation. In the
past an employee could perhaps progress without these qualities, but the company now
demands these qualities of all employees. The experience shows that often the corporate
strategy is not carefully fixed. The corporate goals are not defined in detail and so the
demands on the employees cannot be derived accordingly.
A method of achieving employees’ acceptance of the appraisal system can be the
implementation of workshops. Such workshops are useful at the stage of determining
the criteria. The employees can define specific behaviours for the dimensions. They can
tell what “flexibility” means in their job. Permitting the employees to participate in the
developmental process will depend on the size of the company. If it is a large company,
representatives for each area should be chosen as there will be more identification if the
employees are included in the process.
The appraisal system has to be adapted to the organizational demands. That is also an
important success factor: for example, if the span of control is large, the appraisal should
be as easy to handle as possible. Or, if a sales manager works mainly at headquarters
while the sales representatives work in the field, then this has to be taken into account.

THE CORPORATE CULTURE

When introducing a performance appraisal system, it is important to consider the orga-
nization’s corporate culture. For example, issues to be addressed include questions such
as ‘How frank is the culture?’ and ‘Are the employees used to feedback?’ An appraisal
system will probably not be successful if the corporate culture does not support it be-
cause of a lack of feedback culture and frankness. If a superior has never talked with
his or her employees about performance or has never provided feedback because this is
not common within the organization, then it will be difficult to implement feedback dia-
logues which are based on open questions (“What are the strengths of the employee?”).
In this case the appraisal system has to be more structured and rating scales with a de-
tailed description of the dimensions are recommended. In addition to the structure of the
system there has to be more training and coaching for the superiors. If the employees
of a company are used to feedback then the appraisal system can be less structured and
open questions can be used.
Thus, the structure of the appraisal system has to take the corporate culture into
account. It is important to realize that you cannot create a corporate culture with an
appraisal system. If the culture is not prepared for an appraisal system then it is useful
to start, for example, just with employee dialogues and to train dialogue culture and
feedback. People should get used to talking to each other and expressing their opinions.
An appraisal system can then be the next step.